It does not feel like too much time at all since Mark Selby completed the season by winning his second world title and since then of course 12 players have earned two year professional tour cards during Qualifying School, but we're now all set to go again as qualifying for the first three events of next season gets underway.
There is plenty to talk about ahead of this new term. A couple of announcements came out today from the WPBSA about Leo Fernandez and Matt Selt. A lot of exciting players have earned their tour cards for the first time and we have a whole host of new events to look forward to.
Leo Fernandez and Matt Selt
Today we heard two major pieces of news from the tour regarding a couple of it's members. First I will deal with the news regarding Matt Selt. Selt was suspended from participating in the Riga Masters and the Paul Hunter Classic for bringing the game into disrepute after some his choice language on Twitter appears to be the thing that has gotten him into trouble.
Selt has been given the right to appeal.
Then there was the news about Leo Fernandez. Fernandez earned a two year tour card for 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 via the Asian order of merit, but he was able to play in many events last season as a Q School Top up. In World Championship Qualifying he took on Gary Wilson and lost out 10-4. The match was reported to the WPBSA for suspicious betting patterns on the match and it has been decided that Fernandez has a case to answer in relation to a breach of the betting rules. The case will now go to hearing and Fernandez has been suspended until the conclusion of the hearing (date to be confirmed) and the conclusion of the case.
Indian Open, World Open and Riga Masters Qualifying
With that slightly sadder note out of the way, this weekend we have the start of the first three qualifying events of the new season and of course in this early season we have players that will have chosen their events wisely so certain top players will be missing.
Missing from the Indian Open: A lot of players decided not to enter the Indian Open when it was last played in March 2015, so Michael White will finally defend his title. However the likes of Mark Selby, Judd Trump, Neil Robertson, John Higgins, Mark Allen, Ding Junhui, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Joe Perry and Liang Wenbo are the most notable absentees.
Missing from the World Open: Straight after that is the World Open qualifying, last won by Shaun Murphy in March 2014, so just the two and a bit years to wait to defend his title. As the event will be in China I understand that the matches of the top two Chinese players, defending champion and world champion will be held over to the main venue as is becoming the norm. There are many less absentees from this one but nonetheless Mark Allen and Ronnie O'Sullivan will not be in qualifying for this one.
Missing from the Riga Masters: The Riga Masters for 2016 is conducted on a random draw which is the main change to note, after the European Tour disbanded at the end of last season. Opting out of this one are Shaun Murphy, Ricky Walden, Ding Junhui, Barry Hawkins, Liang Wenbo, Michael White and yet again Ronnie O'Sullivan.
New events and changes for 2016/2017
We have plenty of new events for this season to keep us all excited with the tours development and to make sure we are all on our toes. The home series is the exciting one and my pick of the changes as in addition to the Welsh Open (which retains its usual place in the calendar) we will have the English Open (October), the Irish Open (November) and the Scottish Open (December).
The European Open has also been added to the calendar and this is all set to take place in Romania in October 2016.
The World Grand Prix has been moved to February but will still be for the top 32 on a one year money list up to the German Masters (the week before the Grand Prix). The Players Championship will then take place in March for the top 16 on the one year money list, so that after the Grand Prix there is the Welsh Open and Gibraltar Open to create ranking movement in between these events, along with the Snooker Shoot-Out which has been made into a ranking event for the first time. As I understand it the reason for this is as I mentioned, to create ranking movement in between the Grand Prix and Players Championship. In coming years I can see these sort of events building snookers own end of season series, prior to the World Championship.
For an example of what I mean, take 5 minutes out of your day to read up on the "Fed Ex Cup" in Golf which is hugely successful and adds a lot more excitement to the end of the season than in the years prior to its introduction to the PGA Tour.
Players to watch
As always we have plenty of new players to the tour and a lot of young players now on the tour. I'm going to go ahead and try to pick out players to watch or players that I believe have the most potential to light up the tour in the next year or two.
Yan Bingtao
After having his tour card deferred for a year World Cup winner Yan Bingtao is now on the tour an has at least two years to make his impression and get inside the world's top 64. Based on the rise of his world cup partner Zhou Yuelong it honestly should not be a problem for him, especially given the potential he has already shown. I witnessed live at the venue Yan's win against Shaun Murphy in the Champion of Champions and the feeling you got from watching him was that he could be something special. Later on against Neil Robertson he played well again over the longer format of best-of-11 (as opposed to the best-of-7 earlier in the day). I look forward to seeing this young man's progress.
Zhao Xintong
What is there to say about Zhao Xintong? Well he's proven himself in matches against professionals a number of times already. A year ago he just missed out on qualification for the tour through Q School and earned the "IBSF nomination" for this year after losing in the IBSF amateur final to Pankaj Advani who turned down the tour card that goes with that. In World Championship qualifying no less Zhao overcame Rod Lawler before narrowly losing out to Kurt Maflin. He also beat Stuart Carrington 6-0 in International Qualifying in 2015. In the 2014 Shanghai Masters he beat Matt Selt and then Marco Fu and he is renowned for his heavy scoring which could win him a lot of matches in the next couple of years.
Sam Craigie
Sam Craigie earned his tour card for the next two years during the EBSA play-offs. I like Craigie a lot as a player after watching his held over match in the International Championship against Ding Junhui on the TV. He handled himself well and could easily have gotten over the line there in that match. At a European Tour event earlier in the year he whitewashed Peter Lines before losing 4-2 to Shaun Murphy having taken the early lead. As well as all of this he won the SnookerBacker classic earlier in the year, just prior to competing in those EBSA play-offs, against some of the best amateurs in the country and his heavy scoring helped him out there. The first three qualifying matches coming up this week could really be big, particularly if he can get wins in a couple of them to boost his confidence early on in the season, and set up some good things to come.
I'm looking forward to seeing how plenty of other players go on in addition to this including rookie of the year last year Darryl Hill and my choice in that category Rhys Clark. Also there are another couple of new Chinese players like Wang Yuchen and Fang Xiongman who have earned their tour cards. Young Thai Boonyarit Keattikun could also be worth looking out for, earning his place after winning the World Under 21 title beating Zhao Xintong 6-2 on the way and Wang Yuchen 7-0, in addition to only dropping one frame in six best-of-7 frame matches in the group stages.
That's all for now and I have to say that if some of the new players live up to their billing and these new events capture the imagination then this could be one incredible season of snooker.
Friday 27 May 2016
Sunday 22 May 2016
New Tour Players Confirmed
Qualifying School for the new tour professionals has come to a close today and we now have the 12 players that have come through.
Christopher Keogan and Chinese players Chen Zhe, Fang Xiongman and Cao Yupeng who fell off of the tour at the end of the 2015/2016 were able to earn two year tour cards from event one.
As for event two this saw another four players come through in the shape of Michael Georgiou, John Astley, David John and Alex Borg.
On top of that four players earned tour cards by a Q School order of merit which combined both event one and event two in terms of frames won. Jamie Barrett, Ian Preece and Adam Duffy earned theirs by getting to the penultimate round of both events before losing out. The final player to come through was Craig Steadman after he lost in the final round of event two to Michael Georgiou.
Some of these players that have come through have been on tour before while others have competed in professional competition before as a top-up or a wildcard, so here are a few thoughts and facts on each.
Chen Zhe - Zhe was on the tour in the 2012/2013 and 2013/2014 seasons after coming through Q School in 2012. His most notable result was making the semi-finals of the first Asian Tour event of his first season in June 2012 beating Tom Ford and Ben Woollaston along the way. He ended that first season ranked 78 but his second season did not live up to the same standards and he finished well outside of the top 64. Since then he has been unlucky, losing in the final round of Q School in 2015.
Cao Yupeng - Cao Yupeng was a regular on the tour and only dropped off at the end of the season so it is pleasing to see him come back on at the first attempt. It was only one poor season last season that saw him fall just outside of the top 64, having two seasons earlier made the Wuxi Classic quarter-finals as well as a quarter-final on the Asian Tour. It is always worth remembering that Yupeng has also competed at the Crucible where he beat Mark Allen in 2012 to make the Last 16.
Fang Xiongman - The final Chinese player to come through in Fang Xiongman is a 23 year old who is on the tour for the first time. Xiongman has had some victories against professionals previously, beating Jamie Jones as a wildcard in the 2015 Shanghai Masters. Other than that he has mostly completed on the Asian Tour with the odd victory against Chinese professionals like Zhang Anda and Tian Pengfei.
Christopher Keogan - Christopher Keogan has made it on to the tour for the first time having regularly competed in professional events over the last couple of seasons. Impressively he beat recently relegated pro's Joel Walker and Lu Chenwei on the way to earning his tour card in Q School event one. He has competed on TV before playing Shaun Murphy in one of the European Tour events at the back end of 2015, where he lost 4-1. In 2014 World Championship qualifying he beat professional of the time Michael Leslie 10-6 which is one of his rare victories in against a tour player in pro competition.
Adam Duffy - Adam Duffy is one of the more impressive players to have qualified. He has put behind him the disappointment of losing a final frame decider in the final round of the EBSA play-offs in April which saw Sam Craigie earn a tour card. Duffy earned a spot on the professional tour in 2011 and after a good season, was able to climb into the top 64 and stay on for the following season. Despite a poorer season in 2012/2013 he made it up to 60 in the world but dropped off of the tour after another poor year in 2014. He was impressive in the 2014/2015 season playing as an amateur where he reached the final round of World Championship qualifying before losing out 10-8 to Jamie Jones. Then having another go at Q School in 2015 he lost out in a final round decider to Eden Sharav.
Jamie Barrett - Barrett has competed a number of times in Q School and in European Tour events but easily the most impressive thing about his achievement in getting on the tour this year so soon after the death of his wife, which shows a great amount of mental strength and perseverance. Here's hoping that as a tour rookie he does everyone proud.
Ian Preece - Ian lost out in the penultimate round of both Q School events to former tour players in Chen Zhe and John Astley that went on to earn their tour cards back also. He has had stints on tour quite a while ago and is the IBSF Amateur Champion from 1999. His best result in his time on tour came in the 2009 Welsh Open where he qualified for the Last 32.
Craig Steadman - Craig Steadman fell off of the tour at the end of 2015/2016 by a small margin which will have disappointed him after he qualified for the World Championships at the Crucible in 2015. Making the penultimate round of event one and the final round of event two was enough for Steadman to get a place back on tour at the first attempt via the Q School order of merit. A good season in 2014/2015 also saw him make it into the quarter-finals of the Lisbon Open.
John Astley - John Astley made it back on to the tour after beating Peter Lines and Lu Chenwei amongst others in event two, both of whom had only just dropped off of the tour. Astley chose to take some time off after dropping off of the tour at the end of the 2014/2015 season. He even appeared in Comedy Drama 'The Nap' which was staged at the Crucible showing he had more than one string to his bow. Other than the odd good result Astley has not really reached the heights that he would hope to on tour and that could soon change over the next couple of years.
Michael Georgiou - Georgiou is back on the tour at the first attempt after dropping off at the end of last season. He will have been disappointed to fall off as results were very few and fair between after he won three qualifying rounds to make the Last 32 of the Australian Open at the start of the 2015/2016 season. He also made the Last 16 of the Welsh Open in 2015 and on both of these occasions he lost out to eventual champion John Higgins.
David John - On the way to victory in event two, John overcame two players in Tony Drago and Zak Surety who had just dropped off of the tour. The Welshman also had a go at Q School last season and off of the back of that entered Australian Open qualifying as a top-up player and got a 5-1 win against Alfie Burden.
Alex Borg - Malta's Alex Borg is back on tour having most recently fallen away at the end of the 2014/2015 season. He was very over the course of those last couple of seasons he had on tour and he did not come particularly close to staying on after his two years. He will certainly be hoping for a lot more in the next couple of years.
Those are the twelve from Q School then but there are plenty of other new and returning players to the tour who have come from all sorts of avenues and I will mention some of these in a piece I am hoping to do in the coming week previewing the new season, looking at some more of these newbies, players to watch, the new events on the calendar and who will need good runs in tournaments through the seasons to save their tour places.
Christopher Keogan and Chinese players Chen Zhe, Fang Xiongman and Cao Yupeng who fell off of the tour at the end of the 2015/2016 were able to earn two year tour cards from event one.
As for event two this saw another four players come through in the shape of Michael Georgiou, John Astley, David John and Alex Borg.
On top of that four players earned tour cards by a Q School order of merit which combined both event one and event two in terms of frames won. Jamie Barrett, Ian Preece and Adam Duffy earned theirs by getting to the penultimate round of both events before losing out. The final player to come through was Craig Steadman after he lost in the final round of event two to Michael Georgiou.
Some of these players that have come through have been on tour before while others have competed in professional competition before as a top-up or a wildcard, so here are a few thoughts and facts on each.
Chen Zhe - Zhe was on the tour in the 2012/2013 and 2013/2014 seasons after coming through Q School in 2012. His most notable result was making the semi-finals of the first Asian Tour event of his first season in June 2012 beating Tom Ford and Ben Woollaston along the way. He ended that first season ranked 78 but his second season did not live up to the same standards and he finished well outside of the top 64. Since then he has been unlucky, losing in the final round of Q School in 2015.
Cao Yupeng - Cao Yupeng was a regular on the tour and only dropped off at the end of the season so it is pleasing to see him come back on at the first attempt. It was only one poor season last season that saw him fall just outside of the top 64, having two seasons earlier made the Wuxi Classic quarter-finals as well as a quarter-final on the Asian Tour. It is always worth remembering that Yupeng has also competed at the Crucible where he beat Mark Allen in 2012 to make the Last 16.
Fang Xiongman - The final Chinese player to come through in Fang Xiongman is a 23 year old who is on the tour for the first time. Xiongman has had some victories against professionals previously, beating Jamie Jones as a wildcard in the 2015 Shanghai Masters. Other than that he has mostly completed on the Asian Tour with the odd victory against Chinese professionals like Zhang Anda and Tian Pengfei.
Christopher Keogan - Christopher Keogan has made it on to the tour for the first time having regularly competed in professional events over the last couple of seasons. Impressively he beat recently relegated pro's Joel Walker and Lu Chenwei on the way to earning his tour card in Q School event one. He has competed on TV before playing Shaun Murphy in one of the European Tour events at the back end of 2015, where he lost 4-1. In 2014 World Championship qualifying he beat professional of the time Michael Leslie 10-6 which is one of his rare victories in against a tour player in pro competition.
Adam Duffy - Adam Duffy is one of the more impressive players to have qualified. He has put behind him the disappointment of losing a final frame decider in the final round of the EBSA play-offs in April which saw Sam Craigie earn a tour card. Duffy earned a spot on the professional tour in 2011 and after a good season, was able to climb into the top 64 and stay on for the following season. Despite a poorer season in 2012/2013 he made it up to 60 in the world but dropped off of the tour after another poor year in 2014. He was impressive in the 2014/2015 season playing as an amateur where he reached the final round of World Championship qualifying before losing out 10-8 to Jamie Jones. Then having another go at Q School in 2015 he lost out in a final round decider to Eden Sharav.
Jamie Barrett - Barrett has competed a number of times in Q School and in European Tour events but easily the most impressive thing about his achievement in getting on the tour this year so soon after the death of his wife, which shows a great amount of mental strength and perseverance. Here's hoping that as a tour rookie he does everyone proud.
Ian Preece - Ian lost out in the penultimate round of both Q School events to former tour players in Chen Zhe and John Astley that went on to earn their tour cards back also. He has had stints on tour quite a while ago and is the IBSF Amateur Champion from 1999. His best result in his time on tour came in the 2009 Welsh Open where he qualified for the Last 32.
Craig Steadman - Craig Steadman fell off of the tour at the end of 2015/2016 by a small margin which will have disappointed him after he qualified for the World Championships at the Crucible in 2015. Making the penultimate round of event one and the final round of event two was enough for Steadman to get a place back on tour at the first attempt via the Q School order of merit. A good season in 2014/2015 also saw him make it into the quarter-finals of the Lisbon Open.
John Astley - John Astley made it back on to the tour after beating Peter Lines and Lu Chenwei amongst others in event two, both of whom had only just dropped off of the tour. Astley chose to take some time off after dropping off of the tour at the end of the 2014/2015 season. He even appeared in Comedy Drama 'The Nap' which was staged at the Crucible showing he had more than one string to his bow. Other than the odd good result Astley has not really reached the heights that he would hope to on tour and that could soon change over the next couple of years.
Michael Georgiou - Georgiou is back on the tour at the first attempt after dropping off at the end of last season. He will have been disappointed to fall off as results were very few and fair between after he won three qualifying rounds to make the Last 32 of the Australian Open at the start of the 2015/2016 season. He also made the Last 16 of the Welsh Open in 2015 and on both of these occasions he lost out to eventual champion John Higgins.
David John - On the way to victory in event two, John overcame two players in Tony Drago and Zak Surety who had just dropped off of the tour. The Welshman also had a go at Q School last season and off of the back of that entered Australian Open qualifying as a top-up player and got a 5-1 win against Alfie Burden.
Alex Borg - Malta's Alex Borg is back on tour having most recently fallen away at the end of the 2014/2015 season. He was very over the course of those last couple of seasons he had on tour and he did not come particularly close to staying on after his two years. He will certainly be hoping for a lot more in the next couple of years.
Those are the twelve from Q School then but there are plenty of other new and returning players to the tour who have come from all sorts of avenues and I will mention some of these in a piece I am hoping to do in the coming week previewing the new season, looking at some more of these newbies, players to watch, the new events on the calendar and who will need good runs in tournaments through the seasons to save their tour places.
Thursday 5 May 2016
Fantasy Snooker: FINAL RESULTS
After a fantastic 2016 World Snooker Championships the Cue Action Blog Fantasy Snooker League for the 2015/2016 has drawn to a close. Two of the nineteen players involved managed to pick Mark Selby and Ding Junhui who were the two finalists, but of course only one could win the competition.
Here are the final results:
Congratulations then to Michael Coudray who walks off with the crown (though there was no actual prize for 2015/2016 Fantasy Snooker).
According to the provisional 2016/2017 calendar the first full tournament of next season should begin on June 22nd with the Riga Masters so that is when I will be back with more Fantasy League action.
Don't forget to tweet or message me @CueActionBlog on Twitter if you wish to be a part of next years Fantasy League and also feel free to get in touch if you want to donate a prize (The Fantasy Snooker League is not a bad way to sponsor my blog...)
Here are the final results:
1st: Michael Coudray: 893 Ding (118) and Selby
(114)
2nd: Gorkem Kurt: 878 13 million Ding (118) and
Selby (114)
3rd: Igor: 773 O’Sullivan (30) and Higgins (52)
4th: SnookerFollower: 671
Trump (18) and O’Sullivan (30)
5th: Gary: 658
10.6 million Robertson (8) and Higgins (52)
6th: TungstenDarts: 625 16.6
million Robertson (8) and O’Sullivan (30)
7th: Guillermo: 618
11 million Trump (18) and O’Sullivan (30)
8th: Chris Watts: 607
O’Sullivan (30) and Trump (18)
9th: Anthony Ward: 598
8.5 million Trump (18) and Baird (22)
10th: Kjetil: 576
Robertson (8) and O’Sullivan (30)
11th: Josh Cooper: 481
13.1 million Murphy (8) and Robertson (8)
12th: Ezgi Ulutas: 454 17.1
million O’Sullivan (30) and Trump (18)
13th: Kai: 446
Trump (18) and O’Sullivan (30)
14th: LTD: 442
O’Sullivan (30) and Robertson (8)
15th: Andrew Brooker: 436
O’Sullivan (30) and Robertson (8)
16th: John McBride: 433
23.7 million O’Sullivan (30) and Murphy (8)
17th: Spanish Snooker
Blog: 431 Murphy (8) and Robertson (8)
18th: Kellie Barker: 387
Robertson (8) and Trump (18)
19th: Phil Mudd: 363
12.1 million Robertson (8) and Trump (18)
Congratulations then to Michael Coudray who walks off with the crown (though there was no actual prize for 2015/2016 Fantasy Snooker).
According to the provisional 2016/2017 calendar the first full tournament of next season should begin on June 22nd with the Riga Masters so that is when I will be back with more Fantasy League action.
Don't forget to tweet or message me @CueActionBlog on Twitter if you wish to be a part of next years Fantasy League and also feel free to get in touch if you want to donate a prize (The Fantasy Snooker League is not a bad way to sponsor my blog...)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)