2019 World Seniors Championship

Frank O. Pinion

Might not be huge interest in this...but it is on TV. The last World Seniors Championship was held nearly 18 months ago, the 2019 event was delayed from Spring to Summer, as they looked to find a suitable long term venue. Well, they found the best Snooker venue with the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. The event starts this Thursday, 15th August, final next Sunday, 18th August. All the action is live on FreeSports. FreeSat-252, SKY-429, Virgin-553.

Winner gets £25,000 (and presumably a spot in next year's qualifying for the main World Championship), runner-up gets £10,000.

Round 1:

Willie Thorne v Darren Morgan
Tony Drago v Dene O'Kane
James Wattana v Wael Talaat
Tony Knowles v Chen Gang

Round 2 (last 16):

Aaron Canavan (defending champion) v Au Chi-wai
Leo Fernandez v Joris Maas
John Parrott v Willie Thorne/Darren Morgan
Stephen Hendry v Tony Drago/Dene O'Kane
Joe Johnson v James Wattana/Wael Talaat
Cliff Thorburn v Tony Knowles/Chen Gang
Dennis Taylor v Stuart Watson
Jimmy White v Rhydian Richards

Frank O. Pinion

Quarter-Finals:

Aaron Canavan v Leo Fernandez
Darren Morgan v Stephen Hendry
James Wattana v Chen Gang
Stuart Watson v Jimmy White

Possible Hendry/White Crucible final...

Gaoth Laidir

Jesus, Denis Taylor was absolutely brutal yesterday. I honestly believe that I (+27) would have beaten him in that form. Couldn't hit anything from more than half a table length away, even with those glasses. He interrupted his family holiday to play. It looked like he was still on that holiday.

Jimmy was better and got through. Still, the standard is so much different to the regular Tour.

GeneralC

Gaoth Laidir wrote: »

Jesus, Denis Taylor was absolutely brutal yesterday. I honestly believe that I (+27) would have beaten him in that form. Couldn't hit anything from more than half a table length away, even with those glasses. He interrupted his family holiday to play. It looked like he was still on that holiday.

Jimmy was better and got through. Still, the standard is so much different to the regular Tour.

It's a shocking event. The whole set up screams amateur from the table set up to the standard of play. I think they should ditch this next year.

Gaoth Laidir

GeneralC wrote: »

It's a shocking event. The whole set up screams amateur from the table set up to the standard of play. I think they should ditch this next year.

Even the camera work is terrible. Looks like it's being shot on Rokit phones themselves. Still, nice to have the opportunity to watch the oldies live, for free.

Reanne Evans has just won the women's final now.

Frank O. Pinion

GeneralC wrote: »

It's a shocking event. The whole set up screams amateur from the table set up to the standard of play.

Apart from Jimmy White, (who's been allowed to stay on the main tour), these are amateur players, now. This is only the third season of the seniors tour, these events were never going to have big bucks and a major production right away. But in time, the standard of play and the events themselves should improve.

GeneralC wrote: »

I think they should ditch this next year.

Ditch what? The World Seniors Championship? Seniors Tour? It being on TV?

Gaoth Laidir wrote:

Reanne Evans has just won the women's final now.

Yup, the "Women's Tour Championship", which was vastly different to the men's event of the same name. Just a Top 4 women tournament, with the semis being a best-of-3, and the final cut back to just one frame so it didn't run into the seniors time, which is just ridiculous. Especially if they want the women's game to be taken seriously. Also I didn't hear if they said what the prize money was for that women's tournament.

Today, there's a "Disability Snooker Showcase" at 10am, then at 2pm the Semi-Finals (best-of-5):

Leo Fernandez v Darren Morgan
James Wattana v Jimmy White

Final at 7pm, which is a best-of-9.

zuutroy

Caught a bit of Hendry yesterday and it was painful to see him so bad. Have the final now. Surely Jimmy as an active player should walk away with it.

Frank O. Pinion

And Jimmy White finally wins a World title at the Crucible after 38 years.

Frank O. Pinion

Because of winning this event, Jimmy White could possibly qualify for ITV's Champion of Champions event, in November.

http://www.worldsnooker.com/seniors-champ-white-could-earn-ricoh-spot/

zuutroy

I'm sure if Morgan won it they would have treated him the same

Frank O. Pinion

zuutroy wrote: »

I'm sure if Morgan won it they would have treated him the same

I'm sceptical about the announcements of both of the Women's World Champion and Seniors Champion entries into the Champion of Champions, after their corresponding tournaments. Seems very convenient that it was Reanne and Jimmy.

Joe_ Public

Frank O. Pinion wrote: »

I'm sceptical about the announcements of both of the Women's World Champion and Seniors Champion entries into the Champion of Champions, after their corresponding tournaments. Seems very convenient that it was Reanne and Jimmy.

Havent looked at it closely, so no idea what their chances are of making the final cut. Personally, i'm ok with giving the womens champion a berth. The standard is not good and it smacks of tokenism, but if it does give the womens game a boost - however small - then i can be on board with it. I was slightly suspicious of the announcement of the seniors place today, just after Jimmy won the title and given the rather dubious decision to give him a tour card.

At the end of the day though, the COC event is hearns own event, a matchroom promotion, so i figure he can mess around with it whatever way he likes. Bit of a misnomer the title, you'd have to say. It's really only when he messes with the regular World Snooker events that he boils my blood.

Frank O. Pinion

Joe_ Public wrote:

Havent looked at it closely, so no idea what their chances are of making the final cut.

Basically, if there's two repeat winners from Ronnie O'Sullivan, Judd Trump, Mark Allen, Kyren Wilson, Neil Robertson, Matthew Selt, Martin Gould, Stuart Bingham, John Higgins, Stephen Maguire, Yan Bingtao, or Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, for the next five events, (Six-Red World Championship, Shanghai Masters, China Championship, English Open, World Open), Reanne will get her spot. If there's three repeat winners, Jimmy will get in, too. Unless they change their mind before November, this weekend's Paul Hunter Classic winner will not get a spot, even though that tournament's winner was used in the past, when it was a ranking event.

Joe_ Public wrote:

Personally, i'm ok with giving the womens champion a berth. The standard is not good and it smacks of tokenism, but if it does give the womens game a boost - however small - then i can be on board with it.

I have no problem giving the Women's World Champion a spot, either, but I don't like how they only announced it after Reanne Evans won this year's tournament. I believe they did say the women's spot is a permanent reserve place going forward, so we'll see if someone like Ng On Yee or Nutcharut Wongharuthai gets to play live on ITV someday.

Joe_ Public wrote:

At the end of the day though, the COC event is hearns own event, a matchroom promotion, so i figure he can mess around with it whatever way he likes. Bit of a misnomer the title, you'd have to say. It's really only when he messes with the regular World Snooker events that he boils my blood.

Yup, they can definitely just invite who they like, and in fairness Hearn did give Steve Davis a spot at the 2014 event for being the current Seniors champ at the time, (he lost 4-1 to Selby in the 1st round), but I think it's the inconsistency of what titles count towards qualification each year, that annoys people. Like if Jimmy's getting a spot this year for being Seniors champ, why didn't Aaron Canavan get a spot last year for being Seniors champ, instead of Luca Brecel? Luca hadn't won anything the previous 12 months, he was used to fill one of four open spots because of too many repeat winners.

Anyways, while the Champion of Champions has no effect on rankings, it has had some great matches and finals since 2013, and I much prefer it being filled with 16 actual champions, instead of the highest-ranked players that haven't won anything in over a year.

Gaoth Laidir

On a slightly different note, why isn't the snooker tour mixed, with women competing too if they're good enough? Should also be the same with darts. Physical ability doesn't come into these sports like it does in others so it seems illogical that there would be separate tours. At a club level tournaments are mixed week in week out.

zuutroy

Gaoth Laidir wrote: »

On a slightly different note, why isn't the snooker tour mixed, with women competing too if they're good enough? Should also be the same with darts. Physical ability doesn't come into these sports like it does in others so it seems illogical that there would be separate tours. At a club level tournaments are mixed week in week out.

It is. The main tour is open to all. They're just not good enough.

Frank O. Pinion

Reanne Evans had a tour-card as a wildcard for the 2010/11 season. She suffered 18 consecutive defeats. Her and Ng On Yee have tried to qualify for the World Championship, without success. Females try every year to join the professional tour through Q-School, which none have accomplished. The entry fee for that is £1,000, so the ones that do enter must think they have a decent chance, or have very nice sponsors.

Barry Hearn, World Snooker Chairman wrote:

Snooker is open to anyone and provides opportunities for all. This is a sport which breaks down gender barriers and welcomes players from all around the world. We have been running Q-School since 2011 and it has provided the opportunity for countless players to pursue their dreams. Here is your opportunity to be a part of the professional circuit.

Joe_ Public

Yeah, as regards the Champion of Champions, it's definitely a lot better to me to have actual champions in it, otherwise its just a complete misnomer and a bit of a con. If i recall correctly i think Joe Perry made the cut one of the years because he was next highest ranked and he was somewhere like 13 or 14 at the time. Not the only one too i'd say.

Snooker is definitely a sport where logically there seems no reason why women couldn't compete favourably with men, but that will only happen if you get enough young girls taking the sport up and given there are fewer males taking it up these days, it's hard to see much progress being made for many years. That Thai player Evans beat in the final made a 147 (in practice) earlier this year and is still only 19 so maybe she can take the standard up a bit in time. I remember Alison Fisher and Stacey Hilliard in the 80s, good players, but the momentum broke up. Think one or both of them headed off to the states to play pool and make a few bob.

ArmaniJeanss

Most sportspeople have a kind of 'sport-billy' gene, and are reasonably good at a variety of sports.
If a girl/woman is reasonably competent at say snooker, golf, cricket, football, running and tennis, then it would be pretty damn stupid of her to concentrate on snooker. The other sports offer some sort of potential of a sex-segregated career, veering from very lucrative (tennis/golf) down to at least making a living (cricket, rugby). Snooker doesn't offer anything like that at all.

elgriff

Anyone listen to the Dave Hendon podcast? Some of the above discussed.

I find it pretty good

https://player.fm/series/snooker-scene-podcast

zuutroy

Yea its very good. Always found him to the best 'play-by-play' commentator. Has a good take on most topics.