14.7.10

THE JOY OF SIX

Mark Williams, Mark Selby, Jamie Cope, Ken Doherty, Peter Ebdon and former winners Ricky Walden and Jimmy White are among the players taking part in the Sangsom Six Reds World Championship in Bangkok, Thailand next week.

Hang on, I hear you holler. Wasn’t there a World Championship in Killarney just before Christmas?

Yes, there was, but this is a different event. It was called the World Grand Prix last year but is now being billed as a World Championship.

There is no governing body for six reds snooker so they can call it what they want but it seems to be unnecessarily confusing.

Thailand was once a hotbed of snooker. Its popularity declined along with the career of its best ever player, one time world no.3 James Wattana.

Any event featuring top players should be welcomed and the Six Reds tournament will be covered on national TV.

The truth is, though, that six reds snooker has not taken off in any meaningful way. It doesn’t feature at all in Barry Hearn’s future plans and has no profile outside of these two World Championships (I understand the Irish one is returning later this year).

My view of it remains unchanged: it’s fine as a sideshow but will never overtake the established form of the game. Then again, it was never meant to. It’s just a variant of snooker.

Events such as this give the players more opportunities and I’m all for that as well as the coverage the game will get in Asia.

Having two world champions is a little daft, though.

There's more information on the Thai event on the tournament website here.

18 comments:

Eric said...

And don't forget the IBSF will also stage a "6-red world championship" later this year in India... (Though that one is open to amateurs only.)

Anonymous said...

i think 6 red needs better focus and by calling everything that has 6 red in it title a World Championship diminish as little credibility as it has.

get one WORLD Championship and concentrate that as the World championship.

CHRISK5 said...

So,6 reds has TWO World Championships.

15 ball legit Snooker has a World Championship,World Open & Welsh Open.

Seems ideas are a bit short on new tournament names.

Still,as long as the sponsors,
venues,livery colours are always different for each event - you can
just about get away with these
repeating title-name brands.

kildare cueman said...

The 6 red tourn in Thailand is, as you mentioned, on national television, and last year at least, was on Eurosport.

Again, last years event was played in front of enthusiastic crowds for decent prizemoney, and as such, is worthy of "world championship" status.

It may also help with the promotion of the game in Asia, unlike the Irish event, which went generally unnoticed in Ireland.

What Ireland needs are some proper events.

The Irish Masters and Northern Irish Trophy have not been replaced, and there is an opening there for several events, like an Irish professional championship, a premier league appearence and a Ptc event.

Of course a decent masters type event and/or ranking event would ultimately be the goal, but its a shame that a land mass only 100 miles from the UK has no pro snooker at all.

CHRISK5 said...

Kildare Cueman - In an ideal world,there would be professional proper snooker events in England,
Rep Of Ireland,Northern Ireland,
Scotland,Wales,Germany,Holland,
Malta,China,Thailand,Australia,
Singapore,Canada & Brazil !!

It will take time & many years of development.

Having said that - considering what Ireland has contributed to
Snooker in the past - It should be high on the list to host any decent-status event in my view.

Betty Logan said...

The Irish Masters had a long and distinguished history (perhaps the second most important invitational after the Wembley Masters), it was well received by the public and well supported by the players. Thanks to the whining from the journeymen players it was turned into a ranker, ran for a couple of seasons and then dumped. The Northern Ireland Trophy didn't fair much better. Ireland clearly can't fund a full ranker and these small Masters events can be run at half the price so I'd love to have the Irish Masters back - the Irish would much prefer a proper event featuring the top players as opposed to this mickey mouse 6 red format!

Anonymous said...

Any update on John Higgins?

What happened to "weeks rather than months" that Barry H promised so vociferously at the WC's?

I hope he acts soon in the harshest possible terms.

Dave H said...

As I have already reported, the Higgins case is in the hands of an independent body, Sports Resolutions, whyo are considering the WPBSA's report.

How long it takes is up to them.

CHRISK5 said...

Note to name event organisers
(they need the help after all)

Insert country/continent or
event sponsor before adding.....

World Championships,Grand Prix,
International,Classic,Trophy,
Open,Challenge,Masters,Cup,
Championship,Shield,Matchplay,
Tournament.

Yes - 13 examples.

Simple - for some of us !

Anonymous said...

Worldsnooker.com have told us who various players think will win a golf tournament but haven't updated either the rankings or the PTC order of merit. What a complete joke.

Betty Logan said...

Maybe World Snooker finally cottoned onto the fact they botched the provisional rankings.

CHRISK5 said...

Dave & Clive have already contacted Barry about taking off the first 3 events from 2008/2009
off the current totals.

So,Pro Snooker's table would then be correct - or would have been.

However,Matt has already added
starter pts for the World Open &
Shanghai Masters to his list.

What if a player pullsout or is absent from SM & WO ? - that list
wouldn't be totally 100% correct until he took off the presumptious
starter points that don't yet count

As long as is it gets confirmed soon - that's all that matters,
then individual fans can follow it for themselves.

CHRISK5 said...

Matt from Pro Snooker has already given everybody an extra 1700 points or so - which doesn't count or exist yet !

When World Snooker/Global take off the 3 events from autumn 2008 AND
Pro Snooker removes SM/WO starter pts - then that list would be
correct.

A job for Snooker Scene then !!

Anonymous said...

Hi Dave,

Do you or anybody else remember a tournament - around March 07 - which was in Ireland, no world ranking points attatched - but had a really good turn out from the top 16.

O'Sullivan made a 147 and got a car. But, am not sure it was classified as the pockets were too big.

This wasn't an exhibition tournament. Anyone remember it, and why it didn't come back, as venue, spectators and players all agreed it was a fantastic event?

Thanks, Joe

Dave H said...

Indeed I do, Joe. In fact I was there. It was the Kilkenny Masters.

Ronnie didn't actually get the car. It was the advertised prize for a maximum but had been withdrawn. However, nobody had told the players and it was still parked outside the venue!

In fairness to Ronnie he took it on the chin.

Dave H said...

My main memory of the tournament was an Elvis impersonator turning up with a CD of Elton John's 'Rocket Man' which he had re-written to be about Ronnie, but that's a whole other story!

Anonymous said...

Chrisk5 you were wrong all along about the rankings despite having it explained to you dozens of times. Finally you admit it.
The points Matt has in for the Shanghai masters are the minimum points players are guaranteed for those events. Also why do you push the return key in the middle of a sentence? the computer will go onto the next line itself. are you intellectually challenged or something?

Anonymous said...

Thanks Dave!

It was only a short tournament - bit like these PTC events - but really good! Was it a one off?

Hopefully they can bring these back and build up to getting the Irish Masters and NI Trophy back?

Would also like to see the British Open and International back at some stage. I believe the British is back in some way or was eh?

Thanks, Joe

PS The Elvis story needs to be one of your tales off of the baize