So, the first Players Tour Championship event of the new season begins today with the start of the amateur qualifying rounds in Sheffield.
There has been a record entry for the first PTC with 206 players chancing their arms, including 93 professionals.
The first year of the PTC series was by no means perfect but it remains a welcome addition to the calendar. £10,000 is a good first prize for a few days of snooker and it gets the players active and thus sharper than they would be having to wait for weeks in between playing opportunities.
Last season there were 12 different winners of the 12 PTC titles. It really is a chance for anyone, wherever they are in the rankings, to shine.
John Higgins, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Mark Selby, Shaun Murphy, Mark Williams and Stephen Hendry are among the stars rubbing shoulders with complete unknowns.
Some players are only just back from the close season break and it will be interesting to see where their games are at so early in the campaign.
At present it is impossible to watch the PTCs (outside of live scoring), but that could well change very soon.
In the meantime, spare a thought in particular for Mike Ganley and Martin Clark, World Snooker’s hard working tournament directors, who have to ensure the whole thing runs smoothly.
These are long, long days. It’s like a snooker factory and it’s become an important part of the campaign as a whole.
Williams won the very first PTC event staged last year and ended the season as world no.1.
Good luck to one and all cueing off for the new campaign in Shefield over the next few days.
Tragic that these matches are not being broadcast, even on a webcast, a technology that is mature, easy to set up and inexpensive to maintain.
ReplyDeleteITV4 would be great for a tournament.
ReplyDeleteagreed 141
ReplyDeletecheap as chips
When even the Canadian snooker championships are streamed live( although extremely basically), surely PTC's should be online.
ReplyDeleteIf the championship league is shown through betting websites why cant these events be shown. bet365 show everything else.
ReplyDeleteI didn't even know that Canada still had snooker championships! So, why don't their winners ever get offered a place on the tour?
ReplyDeleteWorld Snooker probably don't think there is enough strength in depth to warrant awarding an automatic place, although looking at the performance of some of the British nominations, where it seems to be the same 3 or 4 names fighting for the tour card every year, you begin to wonder why they couldn't give out a North American card for at least one trial season.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering if it might be worth cutting the number of UK places, and having the UK winners in a play-off for 2 or 3 spots, with the free spaces going to players like the African and North American champions, with maybe an extra spot for mainland Europe?
It seems silly to try and promote snooker globally when the champion of an entire continent (Africa) has no route to the pro ranks, yet the champion of Northern Ireland does!
What hasn't been mentioned here is that the winner was Alex "The Lion" Pagulayan, former World 9-ball pool champion.
ReplyDeleteI watched some of the final and boy can he play and boy is he great to watch! If he was given a wildcard I could see him in the top 16 within 2 seasons, no joking. And more than that, he would be adored by the fans over here with his Alex Higginsesque panache and unconventional shot selection.
So it's more a case of snooker missing a trick by not doing all it can to get him to leave pool behind and go for the snooker career rather than the Canadian Champion not having what it takes to cut the mustard on the main tour.
Im playing in a club in the us at the moment and the guys here rave about alex the lion. The problem is that without the depth of talent he would not be sharp enough. It may be that the uk players would tie him up in knots and lets face it, any of the main tour pros can clear the table for fun, the main difference being the tactical game and being able to score when you know one miss and youre out. Also there is great expense involved and he wouldhave to move to uk to give it a shot. Would be good for the game overall tho he would need a sponsor.
ReplyDeleteAlex the lion wouldnt make the top 48 at snooker. youre deluded!
ReplyDeleteI notice Brian Cox has entered the PTC. He's sure getting around these days.
ReplyDeleteDave
ReplyDeleteSorry to be off topic, but am hearing rumours that one of the spare ranking events is to be played in Germany. Any truth?
OK maybe top 16 in 2 seasons is an exaggeration but he is a special talent, that's not in doubt. Apparently he started off playing snooker before switching to pool, and also he apparently has a fantastic safety game to go with his scoring power so it's as much speculation that he would be tied up in knots by the UK snooker players as it is to suggest he would rise to the top echelons in the sport.
ReplyDeleteI take it Canada aren't in the Snooker World Cup? It would be really good to see The Lion take on some of our own household top 16 names
It would be great to see the PTC's broadcasted. They have been a great addition to the snooker calendar.
ReplyDeletei think it is in doubt
ReplyDeletei dont think hed be the top 16 in england, ever, never mind including the rest of uk players...and then the world.
youve obviously got a biased soft spot for him sonny.
he may be good, but hes not ever going to be top 48 in the WHOLE WORLD. EVER!
I'll extend my personal best wishes of good luck to Stephen Hendry. He has a new bag of tricks to dazzle us with this season and I predict great things for him.
ReplyDeleteEvery tournament I get my hopes up and then have to deal with the sadness but why change a good thing? Seriously, he has to grab another trophy and this season is where his bad luck will finally turn around.
Hendry should go and talk to Doug Mountjoy. No-one ever turned around decline as successfully as Doug, who was all washed up in his mid 40s and then won back-to-back rankers. Whatever he did it worked. I think Hendry would settle for another couple of rankers to end his career on.
ReplyDeleteto Betty Logan
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing entering the PTC is all part of the preparations for his new series, "Wonders of the Green Baize"
No show for Stephen Hendry?!
ReplyDeleteHas anyone got any suggestions as to why Liang Wenbo has declined so much in the last twelve months?
ReplyDeleteHe is barely winning a match. I thought he looked a player who would make big strides as he seemed to possess the sustained scoring power to be a top eight player.
My main suggestion would be that he is not a rounded player and his one dimensional strategy is not functioning, and he has not developed a plan B.
I can only guess Liang's general pot success has gone down. His all-attack style means that if he misses a ball it could be frame over. When his potting is great it makes for fine entertainment. He must have some problems.
ReplyDeleteI wish they'd get rid of that bouncing ball thing off the world snooker site. I'm trying to read and it's bouncing all over the text. I don't mind banners and adverts, but this is driving me mad.
ReplyDeleteAgree with you Betty that f****ng bouncing ball drives me crazy.
ReplyDeletei hate this ball too ;)
ReplyDelete@ 1:12pm - yeah maybe I have a biased soft spot and until yesterday I didn't realise he was 33, I thought he was mid 20s because he looks so young! But you don't get to be World 9-Ball Pool champion if you're not a seriously good cueist and Alex demolished his opponent in the Canadian snooker final 6-0 and I think he had 2 centuries and a 90 odd in that final. So what makes you so sure he wouldn't get into the top 48 in England let alone the world?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, here's hoping he has a renewed interest in snooker and seriously thinks about entering some of these PTCs.
im so sure cos out of the millions who play the game, a good cueist at 9ball (whos entire career ive followed) wont make it at close to mid thirties in the real world of top pro snooker. IMHO. a humble opinion im entitled to, as are you.
ReplyDeleteif he was thought to be potential for snookers elite wed hear journos and other pros bumpin their gums by now.
hes a great 9baller, great personality and id say he must be good at snooker to win that event, but hes not top class and you biased post needed put in place/perpective. with no offence intended.
Haha none taken. I get carried away from time to time, fair enough. Snooker used to be big in Canada though, I thought a good PR move would to be get The Lion over here based on his win and stoke up the interest in Canada once again. The Lion would turn heads and generate interest over here for those that have heard of him through 9-ball. Like I said, it's no different to inviting Jimmy to play in the Premier League based on his Seniors title.
ReplyDeleteA guy in his mid 30s isn't going to make a successful leap to snooker from pool. Sure, he might be good enough to retain his tour place but he'll be a mid ranker at best. It would take him 3/4 years to climb the ranks, which would put him at 36/37 years old and most players are on their way down by then. If World Snooker were looking to move back into Canada they would probably do it, but I don't see what is in it for him. This guy is better sticking to pool, being a big fish in a small pond.
ReplyDeletelol sonny, i disagree with jw getting any invites these days, unless its to play poker.
ReplyDeleteglad we got that sorted that i wasnt slagging alex.
there are many 9 ball players who are great at other cuesport games, including snooker, but if any of them who are over 30 havent done so, then imho they never will.
a top snooker player will always be very good at 9 ball, but wont reach the top unless they learn the pattern play and learn to adopt a different approach to potting and positional play.
The PTC quarter-final line-up looks pretty interesting. None of them are regular title winners, so it will be a good win for whoever wins it.
ReplyDelete@1:11pm - agreed and I can see where you're coming from. The snooker players who say pool is easy are the ones who don't show it enough respect and who would get beaten up by the top pool players. For those that treat it with respect and embrace it like Steve Davis and Tony Drago, they can do well and have some sort of career but so far there's not been a snooker player to really switch across and dominate pool or a player who has made his name in pool try his hand at snooker and succeed. I've heard stories of Efren Reyes and how good he was at snooker the first time he ever played it, some say he's even more talented than Ronnie O'Sullivan. And Ronnie for how good he is didn't go over and set the pool world alight when he tried it a couple of years ago either.
ReplyDeleteThis is part of why I loved the concept of Power Snooker so much because that was the perfect hybrid to invite the top pool and snooker players to face off against each other on pretty much level terms. Cuesports could do with some pool/snooker integration, a lot of great cueists in the world never face off against each other and that's a real shame.
I always liked the concept of the inter-disciplinary Lindrum Masters from a few years ago, although I didn't get to watch any of it. I'd rather they bring that back than Power Snooker.
ReplyDeleteagree sonny except power snooker was shit. a number of english 8ball players are now doing well at 9ball, but they were good at snooker, compared to top pros, but they have played pattern pool and studied more on that play instead of mechanics and robot induced snooker clearances from very very similar situations around the table.
ReplyDeleteI can remember two 'multi-cue' events. Steve Davis won one 20 odd years ago and the Lindrum Masters, as mentioned above, was won by Quinten Hann.
ReplyDeleteI'd be intrigued to see another if it included various cue sports: snooker, English billiards, carom billiards, 8-ball pool, 9-ball pool. It's the sort of thing I could see Davis winning again.
Jim Rempe, back in the eighties, was a nine ball player, who not only qualified for the tour, but held his own. He also won the world English 8 ball event around that time, beating "Maltese"Joe Barbara, a prolific winner, in the final.
ReplyDeleteBarry Hearn, also arranged something, with Steve and Terry, and two American pool players. He was trying to break into America with snooker at the time, to no avail.
Personally, as someone who plays both games, I feel that trying to merge both games is a bit like trying to merge tennis with table tennis or badminton. The straight cue action needed for snooker is useful for difficult pots in pool, but after that theres no comparison. English pool is about tactics, slow rolling and touch position. Snooker is about consistent potting and the stun shot is used a lot more.
Also I think a pool player will benefit a lot more from snooker than vice versa.
There was something with Steve Mizerak in France as well, which I think mixed snooker and pool. We're talking late 80s here.
ReplyDeletewas rempe not seen at the end of cliffs 147?
ReplyDeletedavis wouldnt win that mix now dave, though id have touted his name 10 years ago to.
Reyes would be my bet if it was carom snooker 8b and 9b.
thought dave would know if it was rempe i thought i noticed.......
ReplyDeleteWhere was he?
ReplyDeleteas cliff is walking out of the arena and he lifts both hands in the air, rempe is next to the stairs at the photographers area
ReplyDeleteNow you mention it, I think I have heard that before. I shall ask Clive.
ReplyDeletei had a look there and could see it on youtube, though i am no expert.
ReplyDeletei seem to remember Rempe in a yellow jumper??
meant couldnt*
ReplyDeleteany word dave?
ReplyDeleteI asked Clive. He said he couldn't remember.
ReplyDeletethanks for asking
ReplyDeleteclive, thanks for nothing :p
only kidding
i am going nuts trying to find a clip that shows cliff walking out punching the air and the guy in the said yeloow top.....
I have a feeling this could have been David Harrison, who worked for the WPBSA at the time and looked like Rempe. Although why he would have been wearing a yellow jumper I don't know.
ReplyDeleteit could have been dave.
ReplyDeletei havent spoken with rempe for over a decade and dont have a contact to get in touch to ask, but its bugging me a huge amount now.