24 qualifiers for PTC Grand Finals

zack01

Below is the list of the 24 to go through to the televised event in March. Note that John Higgins and Ding Junhui were not eligible as they did not meet the criteria of playing in at least three PTC and three EPTC events. The finals will be held in the Helix in Dublin next March.

Shaun Murphy

Mark Selby

Barry Pinches

Marcus Campbell

Judd Trump

Mark Williams

Dominic Dale

Stephen Lee

Tom Ford

Stephen Maguire

Michael Holt

Liang Wenbo

Martin Gould

Marco Fu

Ricky Walden

Anthony Hamilton

Stuart Bingham

Jack Lisowski

Jamie Jones

Andrew Higginson

Mark Davis

Matthew Stevens

Gerard Greene

Joe Jogia

Glenman

No Higgins, Doherty, Hendry, Ding Junhui, O'Sullivan, Steve Davis or Swail coming to Dublin for this event. That is a pity but I think I might book tickets for the semis or the finals. I've never been to a professional snooker match.
Does anyone know what dates this event will run? How would you buy tickets for this?
Thanks

Setun

Good to see Dominic Dale back on the list of names again - it seems like it's been a long time indeed since I've seen him in a tournament.

brianoak

Glenman wrote: »

No Higgins, Doherty, Hendry, Ding Junhui, O'Sullivan, Steve Davis or Swail coming to Dublin for this event. That is a pity but I think I might book tickets for the semis or the finals. I've never been to a professional snooker match.
Does anyone know what dates this event will run? How would you buy tickets for this?
Thanks

Tickets for this event should be on sale at The Helix box office around the 6th of December. They should be available online around the same date at www.thehelix.ie

brianoak

Tickets on sale and draw announced early next week.

http://www.sportsnewsireland.com/2010/12/09/tickets-go-on-sale-for-helix-snooker-from-march-16th-to-20th/

Duffmiester

Hi
this started yesterday and it seems to be a very good event.

The crowds were small for the very opening qualifiers, as expected. But filled more for the evening sessions.

There's enough faces from the telly. That'll do me.
With players like Williams and Selby, Hamilton, Walden and Murphy who cares.

I bought tickets for the full week, at only 85, twas a bargain.
Sure thats even cheaper than buying tickets for Saturday and Sunday only.

Tis very quiet, could here a fly bat its eyelids.
But as crowds get bigger, it will get easier to whisper in comfort.
Saturday and Sunday are practical sell outs.

Players are sound, posing for photos and autographs (bar Stevens). Cant figure out why people bother with autographs in that day of camera phones. I mean, which would you be bothered to ever look at again.

Though Stevens was potting red & blacks for fun in one frame. After about 40 points, he was asking if there was a prize for a 147. Emergency. Fair point.
But just as he opted to for the win rather than the 147, i would have been in stiches if Mikaela got a phone call saying "Actually there is 50k for it!"
The Welsh mans pokerface would have been fuming.

Anyway today I'll unfortunately miss some games (incl. Murphys v's Walden - which i'd love to see...and under dog Rickiiii winning) to bring the family to the Parade in Skerries.

Roll on Selby and Williams tonight.

giant_midget

I was there myself last night with the girlfriend, Lovely venue. You are right...not too big of a crowd there. Seen the Stevens V Dale and Williams V Hamilton.

We'd a great night, Good selection of food there and the bar has very keen prices too.

Will be heading up after work today - no better way to spend an evening in my opinion!!

On another note for today, need to stop betting money on horses... i never win :pac:

Glenman

I have tickets reserved for the four matches tomorrow so looking forward to it. The first match tomorrow is 10am. I suppose you would you need to be there at 9:30 to give you a chance to park, collect tickets at the reception etc? I'd imagine they would not let you in if you were late?

oneillMan999

Glenman wrote: »

I have tickets reserved for the four matches tomorrow so looking forward to it. The first match tomorrow is 10am. I suppose you would you need to be there at 9:30 to give you a chance to park, collect tickets at the reception etc? I'd imagine they would not let you in if you were late?

You can get in any time between frames as far as i know.

Mickolution

Anyone know what time the Williams/Selby game is at tomorrow? Considering heading out to it, but can only go if it's the evening session.

zack01

So four players left in the PTC, Matt Stevens plays Shaun Murphy at 12pm and Mark Selby plays Martin Gould at 3pm, the final will take place at 7.30pm.

All four players have played well this week, personally I'd live to see a Stevens v Gould final, they bring a lot to the game and are well liked.

It's Goulds first ranking semi and this could be his breakthrough to becoming a regular winner, he has certainly got over his collapse against Roberston in last years World C'ships and only last week qualified for the Cruicble again.

Stevens has enjoyed a great return to form and seems to be enjoying his snooker again, he also qualified for the crucible last week and could re enter the top 16 again.

But I'm sure Murphy and Selby will have a lot to say about the outcome this weekend!

Whoever wins it's been great to see a ranking event back in Dublin, the venue is fantastic, the crowds have improved daily and the final is a near sell out, the players have enjoyed themselves and hopefully this event will become a permanent fixture on the calendar.

zack01

Shaun Murphy wins the PTC Grand Final and you have to admit he was probably the deserved winner this week.

Delighted for Martin Gould reaching his first final, playing the final so soon after winning his semi final 4-3 was asking a bit much but hopefully he can push on and win a ranking event soon.

Nice words from Murphy today after his semi final saying how well the event was run, and that a ranking event in Ireland is long overdue.

So next stop on the tour is the China Open starting next week, I posted in the China Open thread that I was travelling to it with Ken Doherty so hopefully he can beat Greame Dott in his first match and have a good run.
I'll make a few posts from there to keep everyone up to date, in the meantime the all important draw for the first round of the world championship will be made tomorrow, I'll post that as soon as I get it.

Glenman

I was disappointed at the coverage this event got in the Irish media. Normally, during every snooker tournament the scores are given on the 2fm & Today FM sports bulletins but not for this event, it wasn't even mentioned this morning, I wonder why this was?

I attended the event on Saturday, it was a long day of snooker from 10am until approximately 11:30pm. It was nice to see 8 of the best players in the world in action. I was disappointed with Mathew Stevens who left the arena immediately after his 4-0 win over Campbell as all the other winners stayed for photos and autographs.
The best match of the day was Murphy v Lee. It was very high quality. There was a great crowd for the big match, Williams v Selby but it was very scrappy. Neither player really got going on the pink or black. There was an incident in the first frame where play was interrupted for around 5 min, I think this affected the players concentration, the players and Jan Verhaas who was support referee couldn't stop laughing for the rest of the frame!

Some guy who was drunk I presume fell over with a loud crash and then began to get sick. He was escorted out of the arena and the people in that area were moved to anywhere they could find a free seat. In a funny incident Mark Williams threw his towel to the guy who seemed to be in charge of the event as he walked toward the man to investigate!
Was anyone watching this incident on Eurosport?

Overall, it was a very enjoyable day and hopefully the event will return to Dublin next year.

_feedback_

I really enjoyed the final last night. It was a great atmosphere. Pity Martin didn't manage to win a frame. I would certainly attend more events like this.

Ken is great with the crowd. He was reading over his lines and waiting to go on TV,when someone in the crowd said "hard luck in the world championships Ken" he gave a jokey dirty look and said "I wish I were a pidgeon, and you a statue". Somebody else replied "you'd probably miss Ken".

Enjoy the trip Zack, please do keep us posted!

vincenzolorenzo

+1 on the atmosphere. There was a great buzz in the arena coming up to the final and ken is a great man for bantering with the crowd. The final was a little disappointing as a game of snooker. Martin Gould couldn't seem to get going at all. The semi between him and selby was fantastic though! Really hope this becomes an annual thing, was my first time watching a competitive snooker match and it was deadly

allOtherPlaces

Great fun altogether. I was there on the friday and sunday. Didn't make it on saturday, so I missed that bloke getting sick all over himself.

Who was in charge of the music? It was pretty surreal sitting waiting for the Gould/Selby match with Syd Barrett playing away in the background...

And fair play to the bloke who refused to give up his seat to the cantankerous aisle hogging oul' fella.

celticfc

elviscostello wrote: »

Ken is great with the crowd. He was reading over his lines and waiting to go on TV,when someone in the crowd said "hard luck in the world championships Ken" he gave a jokey dirty look and said "I wish I were a pidgeon, and you a statue". Somebody else replied "you'd probably miss Ken".

Hah, brilliant.

Columbia

I went along all day Saturday and all day Sunday, and had a really enoyable time. My only disappointment is that I had to miss the final frame decider between Selby (my favourite player) and Williams (who I'm also a big fan of), as the Murphy-Lee game ran on long and I had to get transport home.

For the final I went to the balcony and sat halfway along the table, the view was absolutely perfect from up there, and I wish it had been open for the full weekend, although I can understand why, with smaller crowds, they wanted people at ground level for the cameras.

Ken was great as usual. He did tell the same jokes every time he did an introduction, but they ended up being funnier by the end than they were at the beginning

I managed to get a tournament flyer signed by a good few people too. Mark Selby and Martin Gould were two main ones, but they were eclipsed by getting Jan Verhaas's signature Jan could often be seen hanging around outside over the weekend, and Martin Gould deserves extra plaudits for hanging around for ages signing stuff after his semi-final, despite the fact he had to be back for the final in 90 minutes. In contrast Mark Selby looked quite put out when I asked, didn't even tell a joke...