30.8.06

WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING

The season has made something of a false start. Now that the Northern Ireland Trophy is over, we have to wait until October 21 for the next event, the Grand Prix.

However, here is a rundown of what's been happening of late:

- Michael Holt has won the German Open, an enthusiatically attended pro-am in Furth. Holty beat Barry Hawkins in the final and Matthew Stevens, Ken Doherty and Joe Swail in the earlier rounds

- Royal London Watches will sponsor the Grand Prix in a three-year deal worth more than £1m

- World Snooker have confirmed that the Grand Prix will be played using a round robin format. At the qualifiers, there will be 224 matches in five days featuring eight groups of eight, with the top two from each advancing to the venue. In Aberdeen, there will be eight groups of six - 120 matches over four days - with the top two going through to the last 16

- More than £30,000 was raised at a testimonial evening for Chris Small, who retired last year because of the degenerative spinal disease ankylosing spondilytis

- World Snooker unveiled a new logo. It's red

- Ronnie O'Sullivan has elected not to play in this Saturday's Pot Black. He has instead entered the latest IPT pool event in Reno

- Judd Trump demonstrated his talent for golf as well as snooker by winning a junior stableford event in Bristol

- The England team of David Lilley, David Craggs and Michael Rhodes won the inaugural IBSF World Team Cup in San Jose, California

- 888.com, sponsors of the World Championship, launched a new stable of players who will wear their logo: John Higgins, Ding Jun Hui and Graeme Dott - the winners of the BBC televised tournaments last season

2 comments:

Dave H said...

Hello Simon

I'm sure Ronnie will play in all the other events. Maybe he feels it isn't worth giving up a big money pool event for what could only be one frame.

Dave H said...

He hasn't actually said what - I'm not entirely sure he knows himself.

My reading of it is that he is in an impatient mood at the moment - possibly because he's seen how quick American pool is - and can't be bothered with long, slow tactical matches.

Last season, he said he enjoyed struggles such as these but, as ever with Ronnie, you can't tell what he's going to be thinking from one tournament to the next.