THINK PINK

The seventh Players Tour Championship event of the season is underway in Gloucester with the top players coming in on Friday.

There have so far been six different winners of the first six PTCs. There were of course 12 winners from 12 events last season.

Of the six who have so far triumphed, four have been players associated with winning major titles: Ronnie O’Sullivan, Judd Trump, Mark Selby and Neil Robertson.

The South West Snooker Academy is a better venue than the academy facility at Sheffield, not least because there is room for spectators.

But PTC7 is unique for a very special reason: it is raising awareness for breast cancer.

The players will wear pink polo shirts and the trophy has been named in honour of Kay Suzanne, the sister of SWSA Paul Mount owner who sadly died from breast cancer.

By chance, the final falls on the fifth anniversary of the death of Paul Hunter, who fought gamely against cancer for 18 months before passing away at the age of 27.

Other players have suffered from this appalling condition, including Jimmy White, Alex Higgins and Doug Mountjoy. Jack Lisowski was diagnosed with cancer at the age of just 16 and has thankfully beaten it.

Several popular figures backstage have also been lost to us because of cancer, including Malcolm Thorne, such an important figure in the development of young careers, earlier this year.

Many if not most of you reading this now will have family members or friends who have had to go through the ordeal of chemotherapy, sometimes without success.

So snooker can be proud of its players and as a sport that it is using this event in a positive way for a positive cause.

It is worth remembering that there are more important things in life than potting balls.

Read more about the pink PTC here.