Riga Masters Preview

One of the survivors from the scrapping of the European Tour, the Riga Masters (formerly the Riga Open) in Latvia starting on Wednesday will see the first full event of the 2016/2017 snooker season. The early events in the season take on some importance as there is still decent money on offer with £37,500 for the winner of these three day event which concludes on Friday evening, though it is tough to get any early season momentum with just two more events (the Indian Open and World Open) coming before the end of August when the snooker starts to pile up a lot more.

Qualifying rounds for the Riga Masters were held some two and a half weeks ago and that shortened the field down from 128 to the round of 64 that is played throughout Wednesday. There were plenty of non-entries for this event amongst the top players which will see the likes of Shaun Murphy, Mark Allen, Ding Junhui, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Ricky Walden and last years Riga winner Barry Hawkins all staying at home. Meanwhile, Stephen Maguire failed to qualify after he lost out to Fang Xiongman, someone he had beaten comfortably days earlier in World Open qualifying, while fellow Scot Alan McManus lost out to Jamie Cope and Ben Woollaston was well beaten by Polish Adam Stefanow who competes as an amateur.

On a scheduling point, the Last 64 (and two heldover Last 128 matches) will be played on Wednesday with the Last 32 and Last 16 making up Thursday's play before the final three rounds take place throughout Friday.

Without further ado, here is how the draw looks for the opening act in the story of this new season.

Quarter 1

Last 64 Draw: (Picks in Bold)

Luca Brecel Vs Sean O'Sullivan
David Gilbert Vs Sam Baird
Jamie Jones Vs Gary Wilson
Xiao Guodong Vs Gareth Allen
Ryan Day Vs Jack Lisowski
Ken Doherty Vs Noppon Saengkham
James Cahill Vs Zhao Xintong
Adam Stefanow Vs Bradley Jones or Darren Morgan

This quarter is certainly one in the draw that stands out as an opportunity for someone to really make their mark on the new season. Without a top 16 player in sight, but guys like Ryan Day, David Gilbert and Luca Brecel that are all just outside of there and well capable of a run. With a bit of reflection time after the World Championships I am sure that the Belgian Brecel would view last season as one that got away with decent that did not really convert in to what he was capable of achieving. That will surely inspire him to work harder and carry on his climb up the rankings starting here in Latvia.

The Chinese players could have a huge influence on this event with nine of them qualifying (not including Zhang Anda who has withdrawn) and the two in this quarter could have a big say. Xiao Guodong had a horrid season last season, when it would have been easy to forget that he was a ranking finalist in 2013. The early qualifiers he played show signs of a turn in fortunes that he certainly needs, or else his tour spot itself could be in danger. I can certainly see him having a strong week this week as I could equally with young Zhao Xintong who I and many others have been touting for years as something special. He is one of my three players to watch from the start of the season, though it is surely too early to be talking him up as a winner of this event.

Quarter Winner: Luca Brecel

Quarter 2

Last 64 Draw: (Picks in Bold)

Matthew Stevens Vs Hossein Vafei Ayouri
Tian Pengfei Vs Allan Taylor
Joe Swail Vs Stuart Carrington
Neil Robertson Vs Michael Georgiou
Zhou Yuelong Vs Christopher Keogan
Judd Trump Vs Chris Wakelin
Graeme Dott Vs Marco Fu or Tatiana Vasiljeva
John Higgins Vs Mark King

In contrast to quarter one, quarter two features four members of the world's top 16 who will be looking for stylish starts to the new campaign. Neil Robertson is one players who has started seasons well in previous years as a back to back winner of the Wuxi Classic (played as the first ranking event of the season on both occasions) and a serial runner-up of the Australian Open in the event that followed. Both men that have beaten Robertson in an Australian Open final are also in this quarter in Marco Fu and Judd Trump, while John Higgins has also had success at the start of the season in recent times. Going back to 2013 he defeated Robertson to win one of the early season European Tour events before losing to the same man in the Wuxi final. Last year meanwhile, he was a runner-up in the World Cup final with Stephen Maguire the week before winning the Australian Open.

Marco Fu has to play a held over Last 128 match, and assuming he has no trouble against a little known opponent that could be an advantage for him in settling into the tournament and getting used to conditions before playing a tough player like Graeme Dott as early as the Last 64. Of the four top 16er's in this section it is probably Trump who I fancy least to progress simply because I see him as a player who often has to warm into a season a lot more, being a form and rhythm player that he is.

The best of the rest could well be Matthew Stevens. He impressed in the early season qualifiers after a poor time in the last few months on the table. If he still has the hunger and the correct attitude then it is tough to keep a naturally gifted player like him down for long.

Quarter Winner: John Higgins

Quarter 3

Last 64 Draw: (Picks in Bold)

Li Hang Vs Chen Zhe
Ali Carter Vs Zhang Yong
Jamie Cope Vs Jak Jones
Mark Williams Vs Mark Davis
Jimmy Robertson Vs Dechawat Poomjaeng
Martin O'Donnell Vs Sam Craigie
Fang Xiongman Vs Andy Hicks
Joe Perry Vs John Astley

Quarter number three still has plenty of quality with the likes of Ali Carter who was a winner on the European Tour last year, former Players champion Joe Perry and the man he overcame in that final, Mark Williams. As well as that we have one of my players to watch in Sam Craigie who could do some damage in his section of the draw.

It is a close call in this section but again I have tried to look at players who have played well early on in recent seasons, since the snooker seasons have begun starting much sooner. Carter was a winner last August in Furth which could show good signs and his form last season was good in patches last season, which many of us fans have welcomed. Perry lost out in many events at the beginning of the season to the overall champion including the Australian Open and Shanghai Masters while it is two years since he started the season with that narrow Wuxi Classic final loss. I often think the Gentleman's ability to get to the latter stages of competitions is underestimated and I think he can have a strong start to the season again here. 

Quarter Winner: Joe Perry

Quarter 4

Last 64 Draw: (Picks in Bold)

Rory McLeod W/O Zhang Anda
Anthony McGill Vs Andrew Higginson
Martin Gould Vs Tom Ford
Fraser Patrick Vs Yan Bingtao
Stuart Bingham Vs Lee Walker
Fergal O'Brien Vs Adam Duffy
Mark Selby Vs Michael Holt
Kyren Wilson Vs Ian Burns

The bottom quarter of the draw contains the world champions of the last three years among some very strong names. Defending world champion after winning his first in 2014, Mark Selby also won the last ever event on the old European Tour, which was fitting in a way as he was the most successful player throughout the history of the tour events in Europe. One of his other ET victories came at this event in 2014 in his first full event as world champion. Even though by name this is now a fully fledged ranking event, I am sure Selby will come here with the same game plan that has proved successful in these events through the years and will once again be a strong contender.

At the start of last season Kyren Wilson was in the 50's in the rankings, but following victory in September's Shanghai Masters he ended it inside the world's top 16 and was suddenly a major contender for every time he stepped up to play. His skill and temperament combined, in my opinion, will soon see him become the type of player that wins at least one tournament a season and if the tournament odds are good, he is certainly a player to persist with on the betting front.

The man that I am picking out this week though is the 2015 world champion Stuart Bingham. With the pressures of being the reigning champion gone he can now reflect on a season that still saw him make a major ranking event final and lose some unfortunate matches. Prior to last season he was a player that was becoming a regular winner, particularly on the Asian Tour. With the change to make this an event played down from 64 to a winner over three days rather than the full 128 that sees it become closer to the more staggered format of those Asian Tour events and a hard worker like 'Ballrun' will take confidence from starting the season well in the qualifiers played at Preston a couple of weeks ago. In fact, after some of the criticism he received in the 2015/2016 campaign it would almost be ironic if he came out of the blocks quickly this year with a victory.

Quarter Winner: Stuart Bingham

Tournament Runner-Up: John Higgins

Tournament Winner: Stuart Bingham


Those are my thoughts on the first event of the season, but at this stage it is very hard to tell who is going to get that fast start and who may have a poor run through the summer. Following these three days in Latvia is the Indian Open (another tournament with mostly best-of-7 matches) which begins on July 4th.

Qualifiers confirmed for Indian Open, World Open and Riga

The qualifiers have now been confirmed for the opening three events of the season after a week of snooker at the Preston Guildhall. Various players chose to pick and choose which events they would play in at the seasons very start here, with some of the world's top players choosing not to enter any of them.

However, it is also a very important week in setting the tone for the year for some of the lower ranked players who will be battling for survival and places in the top 64 at the seasons climax. Below I will be taking a look at some of the selected players and how they progressed or why we did not see them over the course of the last few weeks.

Qualified for all three events:

- Mark Williams
- Kyren Wilson
- Ryan Day
- Graeme Dott
- Luca Brecel
- Matthew Stevens
- Gary Wilson (Much needed ranking money already for Wilson who finished 75th on the one year money list for 2015/2016 season).
- Zhou Yuelong
- Xiao Guodong (A good start for Guodong who was 70th on the money list for 2015/2016)
- Stuart Carrington
- Allan Taylor (Money earned from these three matches nearly doubles Taylor's entire earnings last season of £3,500)
- Andrew Higginson
- Anthony McGill
- Mark King
- Mark Davis
- Stuart Bingham
- Zhang Yong (This has nearly match the money Zhang earned in the entire of last season)

Qualified for Two events:

World and Indian Opens:
- Alfie Burden
- Barry Hawkins (Did not enter the Riga Masters)
- Daniel Wells
- David Grace
- Duane Jones (For this Jones is already guaranteed £6,000 having earned only £775 from the 2015/2016 season)
- James Wattana
- Jamie Burnett
- Marco Fu (Match in the Riga Masters held over to the venue)
- Matt Selt (Was suspended for the Riga Masters)
- Mike Dunn
- Ricky Walden (Did not enter Riga)
- Robin Hull
- Stephen Maguire
- Oliver Lines
- Peter Ebdon
- Robbie Williams

World Open and Riga Masters:
- David Gilbert
- James Cahill
- John Higgins (Did not enter India)
- Neil Robertson (Did not enter India)
- Tom Ford
- Ali Carter
- Fergal O'Brien
- Ian Burns
- Joe Perry
- Jimmy Robertson (Match in the Indian Open against Aditya Mehta is held over to the venue)
- Lee Walker
- Michael Holt
- Zhang Anda
- Jamie Cope
- Judd Trump
- Sam Craigie (Pleasing stuff for one of my players to watch in the 2016/2017 season)

Indian Open and Riga Masters
- Jack Lisowski
- Jamie Jones
- Joe Swail
- Michael Georgiou (Match in the World Open against Ding Junhui is held over to the venue)
- Rory McLeod
- Sam Baird
- Zhao Xintong (Nice to see for Xintong who is one of my players to watch for this season)
- Fang Xiongman (Lost to Maguire in the World Open qualifiers before beating him in Riga Masters qualifying)
- Fraser Patrick
- Martin O'Donnell
- Martin Gould
- John Astley
- Dechawat Poomjaeng

Qualified for only one event:

World Open:
- Ben Woollaston
- Cao Yupeng
- Hammad Miah
- Kurt Maflin
- Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
- Thor Chuan Leong
- Michael White (Has had his match for the Indian Open held over as the defending champion)
- Rod Lawler
- Wang Yuchen
- Yu De Lu
- Alan McManus

Indian Open:
- Eden Sharav
- Elliot Slessor
- Hamza Akbar
- Jimmy White (Match in the World Open against Mark Selby is held over to the venue)
- Liam Highfield
- Mitchell Mann
- Robert Milkins
- Shaun Murphy (Did not enter the Riga Masters and has had his first round match of the World Open held over as the defending champion)
- Mark Joyce
- Akani Songsermsawad
- Dominic Dale
- Nigel Bond

Riga Masters:
- Chris Wakelin (Match in the World Open against Liang Wenbo is held over to the venue)
- Christopher Keogan
- Gareth Allen
- Hossein Vafei Ayouri
- Jak Jones
- Ken Doherty
- Noppon Saengkham
- Sean O'Sullivan
- Tian Pengfei
- Chen Zhe
- Yan Bingtao
- Mark Selby (Match held over in the World Open as World Champion and did not enter the Indian Open)
- Adam Duffy
- Li Hang

Failed to Qualify for any of the events:

- David John (Withdrew from the Riga Masters)
- Hatem Yassin
- Itaro Santos
- Paul Davison
- Alex Borg
- Boonyarit Kaettikun
- Ian Preece
- Jamie Barrett
- Josh Boileau
- Anthony Hamilton (Match in the Indian Open against Michael White is held over)
- Craig Steadman
- Darryl Hill
- Jason Weston
- Kurt Dunham
- Michael Wild
- Rhys Clark
- Sanderson Lam (Match in the World Open against Shaun Murphy is held over to the venue)
- Sydney Wilson


Special Notes:

- Ronnie O'Sullivan (Did not enter any of the events)

- Mark Allen (Did not enter the World or Indian Opens, but did originally enter the Riga Masters until withdrawing)

- Ding Junhui (Did not enter India or Riga but has entered the World Open and has had his match held over to the venue as one of the top two Chinese players)

- Liang Wenbo (Did not enter India or Riga but has entered the World Open and has had his match held over to the venue as one of the top two Chinese players)

- Aditya Mehta (Only entered the Indian Open and has had his first round match held over to the venue)

- Rouzi Maimaiti and Mei Xiwen (These two Chinese players were only given tour cards after the final qualifying draw for the three events had been fully finalised)



An interesting start to the season then for some and a poor one for others when exactly what they needed was a good one to boost their tour survival hopes early on.

Next up on the bill is the final stages of the Riga Masters from June 22nd - June 24th, followed by the Indian Open final stages from Tuesday July 5th - Saturday July 9th and then the World Open final stages from Monday July 25th - Sunday July 31st. Following that is roughly a months break in the calendar until the Paul Hunter Classic in August. I'm looking forward to covering all of that here and all the twists and turns of this new snooker season.

2016/2017 Snooker Season Preview

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.

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.

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:

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...)

McManus rolls back the years to make Crucible Semi's

A stunning display from Alan McManus has seen him get back into the semi-finals of the World Championships at the age of 45, as he came back from 11-9 down with four consecutive frames to beat fellow Scot and good friend John Higgins 13-11. Let's not forget that Angles came through has already beaten another Scot and friend Stephen Maguire in the Last 32 and came back from 9-7 to beat Ali Carter 13-11 in the Last 16. In qualifying he overcame Jimmy Robertson (who I heavily fancied to qualify) 10-2, David Morris 10-6 and Michael Wasley 10-5 so it has been an incredible run and the thing that is most impressive is the scoring. A certain publication that shall remain nameless talked about McManus before his quarter-final match with Higgins saying that he was "Back laying a sneaky snooker or two and cobbling together the odd unconvincing 30 break". I hope the writer of that one was watching his final session against Higgins lets just say that much.

He will now play another qualifier in Ding Junhui who came through his match with Mark Williams without anything close to a test, winning with a session to spare. Many people have tweeted me saying "Ding is not really a qualifier". I recognise that as a man who until this year had been in the top 16 or a long period of time and was world number one not too long ago, it is hard to see him as a qualifier. At the same time these people should recognise that Ding has had to come through three qualifying rounds the same as Alan McManus has done and the same as the other 14 players who qualified at Ponds Forge for their trip to the Crucible. It takes some doing, and it takes a lot of mental strength to deal with such a fall from grace. The wisdom of Terry Griffiths will certainly have helped but the Chinese player has really shown all of the determination that it requires to become a world champion.

In the other semi-final we have Mark Selby and Marco Fu. Firstly, Selby overcame another qualifier in Kyren Wilson 13-8, after leading 6-0 at one stage and in the end it could have been a lot closer in my opinion had Wilson capitalised more on a poor second session from the current world number one.

As for Marco Fu he played out one of the all-time Crucible classics against Barry Hawkins. Hawkins was not at the races after his victory against Ronnie O'Sullivan in round two and soon found himself in a seemingly hopeless position, 9-1 down to the man from Hong Kong. Hawkins came back to just trail 10-6 going into the final session and that deficit was soon reduced further to 10-9. Fu took a very important frame twenty before the final mid-session break to lead 11-9 and then went one away at 12-9. He missed opportunities in the next to seal a 13-9 victory and soon found himself just 12-11 up and almost certain to go to a decider at 60-0 down with just 75 points remaining. A remarkable clearance though saw him avoid any nervous final frames and book his place at the one table set-up in Sheffield for the first time since 2006.

Quarter-Final Results:

Alan McManus 13-11 John Higgins
Ding Junhui 13-3 Mark Williams
Marco Fu 13-11 Barry Hawkins
Mark Selby 13-8 Kyren Wilson

Semi-Final Draw:

Ding Junhui Vs Alan McManus - Prediction: 17-12 victory for Ding Junhui
Mark Selby Vs Marco Fu - Prediction: 17-14 to Mark Selby

I cannot quite get over the brilliant line-up that we have this year. Starting with the first semi-final many people thought that going through qualifying was the kick that Ding Junhui needed to really sort himself out and finally have a run at winning the World Championship. He will not have it all his own way against Alan McManus as we have already seen in this tournament. McManus has plenty of belief in himself and all the experience to undo Ding on the one-table situation at the Crucible. However, I also think there is a bit to be said for the day off that Ding has had compared to Alan's late night battle and whether that will have a bearing on the first session or two in this contest.

As for Selby and Fu that really is a tough one to call. Selby showed more signs of his best against Kyren Wilson and is getting better as each round goes along, as you need to do at the Crucible if you're going to win the coveted prize. Fu though has played well himself. Against Ebdon he was on fire and the final session against McGill in round two he found that same touch after a bit of a slow burner. After Hawkins started slowly Fu was able to put himself a long way ahead and kept his cool brilliantly with a couple of crucial clearances to go 11-9 ahead and then win the match at 13-11. Fu has not been to the one table set-up as often as he should have been for a man of his quality, and for the amount of time that he has been in the game on top of that. He certainly will not be a pushover for Selby. The one up that the 'Jester from Leicester' has on the rest of the field is that he has been world champion. He knows how to handle the 17 days in Sheffield and come out on top. His best asset of grinding out results in sessions and matches when he has not fired on all cylinders has been in full force during this tournament but now is certainly the time for him to step up.


It's going to be a really exciting conclusion to this years World Championship, and with all the twists and turns I would not like to pick the player out of these four who will lift the trophy on Monday evening. Enjoy everyone.

Hawkins defeats O'Sullivan in Crucible second round

Ronnie O'Sullivan is out of the 2016 World Snooker Championships after losing a thrilling deciding frame to Barry Hawkins.

 

Hawkins had led 5-3 after the opening session and 9-7 after the second session before then leading 12-9 in the final session prior to the Rocket's comeback with three on the spin.

 

Kyren Wilson, Ding Junhui and Alan McManus are the three qualifiers in the quarter-finals. McManus overturned a 9-7 deficit winning the first four of the session against Ali Carter and sharing the rest to come through 13-11.

 

Wilson had what he described as the strangest match of his career against Mark Allen. Wilson led 7-0 and was dominating the Northern Irishman until 5 in a row clawed him back. Two unfortunate frames at the end of the second session left him 11-5 behind. Allen made a game of it by taking the first four of the final session to trail only 11-9. Wilson held on to win the next two and win 13-9.

Ding Junhui was not quite on top form but it was enough to see him beat Judd Trump. A year ago Trump had thrashed Ding in a best-of-25 quarter-final but a year on and a round earlier it was the Chinese who took his revenge holding off a Trump fight back from 12-7 to 12-10 to fall over the line 13-10.

 

Mark Selby will now be one of the hot favourites despite having to cling on against Sam Baird. Selby lost four in a row from 11-7 to 11-11 before winning the last two to win 13-11 in classic 'Master of brinkmanship fashion'.

 

John Higgins is another of the hot favourites after his 13-8 victory over China Open and Players Championship finalist Ricky Walden. Walden missed chances in the final session to put a lot more heat on the Scot in what you felt could easily have been closer if Walden was on top form.

 

 

He will now take on Mark Williams who overcame his good friend Michael Holt to end a good season for the Hitman. Holt had beaten Neil Robertson in round one and was off to a good start when he took an early 4-1 lead. It did not last as Williams ended the opening session level at 4-4 and then took a 6-4 lead before winning another four in a row from 6-6 to lead 10-6 at the end of session two. Holt missed a golden chance to go into the final mid-session break only 11-9 behind but at 12-8 it was game over as it proved in the frame after the break.

 

The first man through was Marco Fu who beat rising star Anthony McGill quite comfortably in the end. Neither player was at his best after good wins that they both had in round one, and the man from Hong Kong will certainly need to raise his game to beat Hawkins.

 

Last 16 Results:

 

Alan McManus 13-11 Ali Carter

John Higgins 13-8 Ricky Walden

Ding Junhui 13-10 Judd Trump

Mark Williams 13-8 Michael Holt

Marco Fu 13-8 Anthony McGill

Barry Hawkins 13-12 Ronnie O'Sullivan

Kyren Wilson 13-9 Mark Allen

Mark Selby 13-11 Sam Baird

 

Quarter-Final Draw:

John Higgins Vs Alan McManus - Prediction: 13-7 to Higgins

Mark Williams Vs Ding Junhui - Prediction: 13-9 to Ding Junhui

Barry Hawkins Vs Marco Fu - Prediction: Hawkins to win but not easily 13-9 or 13-10.

Mark Selby Vs Kyren Wilson - Prediction: Wilson to keep shining with a 13-12 win.

 

Those are my thoughts then on the next four matches we have to look forward to over the best-of-25 frames. The form that Higgins has shown makes me think that he will beat McManus easily enough, particularly as Carter's poor temperament cost him dearly and Higgins has one of the best temperaments in the game.

 

Ding and Williams should be close, but after Ding's two tight victories so far I think that he is battle hardened and Williams has had two slightly more comfortable games so far despite not playing for me at his complete best. There may be another gear in the Welshman for this contest.

 

Fu's best chance against Hawkins could be in the opening session to take an early lead if Barry shows any signs of a hangover after his win against O'Sullivan. The second session of this match could prove the key as this is the match where the second and third sessions are played almost consecutively in the 2.30pm and 7pm time slots on Wednesday.

 

Finally, Selby has had to grind his way through so far and Wilson has almost ended up doing a similar thing. Kyren very much reminds me of Selby in terms of his great temperament and battling qualities and his long potting so far has been superb in this tournament and that was the key to his commanding early lead against Mark Allen. As for Selby, he felt he was not match sharp early on in Sheffield after missing the tournaments in Manchester and Beijing coming into the World's. Having played himself in now he could be very dangerous but this match has the feel of a very close finish on Wednesday morning.

 

 

There you have it then. That is the line-up for the last 8 fully analysed and scrutinised by myself, though I have hardly been in top form in this tournament so far so let's hope that can change. Much more Crucible drama is coming your way so sit back and enjoy the final week of this years World Championships.