Selby makes solid start to snooker’s Premier league
August 29, 2008
Masters Champion Mark Selby has been hard in preperation for the premier league snooker event. Mark has been trying to get his shot time down as there is a 25 second time limit in the premier league which is much faster than Mark is used to.
Mark will have to play the game much faster than has during the Northern Ireland Trophy, where he played very slowly to beat Andrew Higginson. Selby has been preparing hard for all the snooker tournament this year, and is looking to try and push for the number one spots. Mark will also be trying to maintain good performances in the premier league event.
Snooker looks for new young fans
August 29, 2008
Snooker’s World body has announced that it is looking to raise the appeal of snooker to the younger generation. This will be achieved by promoting the younger snooker players as role models for young snooker fans.
World Snooker will be on the PR offensive over a wide variety of media such as the internet, television and magazines. Initiatives being discussed include placing players profiles in the media and developing an image for younger players away from the snooker table.
The campaigns focus is on creating snooker heroes for the younger generation, and encouraging more snooker players to take up the game. The World Snooker Body has commited itself to the future of snooker saying that and will target 16-45 year olds, mainly in national newspapers.
Pettman out of Northern Ireland Trophy
August 29, 2008
Stuart Pettman has been knocked out of the Nortern Ireland Trophy, desipte his brave comeback. The Preston snooker ace narrowly lost 5-4 to Ryan Day in an exciting match. Pettman made a fantastic comeback and missed a red in the middle pocket in the deciding frame to end up losing the match.
Pettman who worked very hard in the final frame felt that the balls were just not going his way. He missed the deciding red by a whisker, just touching the knuckle of the middle pocket. His opponent Ryan then made a fantastic clearance from there to win the final frame and the match.
Pettman did perform better at this tournament than in previous tournaments, but knows he will have to play a lot better to compete with the top end players of the game. He also needs to learn to have confidence in his game, and not to rush when he gets his chance on the table.
Belgium Snooker Open to be showed Live on TV
August 28, 2008
The Belgium Snooker Open is to be broadcast on Cuesport TV in September
The event will only be available on page per view at a cost of only £8.00.
The Belgium Snooker Open is a great chance to catch all your favourite snooker stars in action, players such as Mark Selby, Graeme Dott, Mark Williams and Stephen Maguire will all be in action
The event takes place between the 19-21st September and will be available from 9am from the 1st September 2008, be sure not to miss it
Stephen Hendry says snooker can overcome its issues
August 27, 2008
Stephen Hendry had a big problem leading into the new snooker season, he actually has no snooker club! Hendry has been at the same snooker club the the last 23 years, but the club closed down just before the start of the Northern Ireland Trophy
Hendry had to build himself a practice room at home so that he could be prepared for the tournament as there is no club close to his house to practice at.
Hendry admitted that the sport is facing troubles due to the loss of major sponsors. There are however brighter times ahead including the new ranking event in Bahrain. The Malta cup has also been rumoured to have been invited to become a ranking event.
Hendry believes this is good news for snooker, and there are plenty of other countries with a good appetite for snooker that haven’t got a ranking event such as Germany
Stuart Bingham gets off to a bad start
August 26, 2008
Stuart Bingham has got off to a bad start to the new snooker season losing to new player Rory McLeod in the first round of the Northern Ireland Trophy in Belfast.
Basildon born Bingham started the new season at 21st in the world rankings knowing that some good performances in the coming season could push him into the world top 16.
Bingham however never really got started against McLeod and looked a beaten man when he was trailing 4-2. Bingham did actually managed to pull the match back to 4-4 but lost the deciding frame and took an early exist from the season’s curtain opener in Belfast. McLeod will now face Ali Carter in another tough match.
Bingham joins a list of top players that have already fallen at the first hurdle in the tournament including Steve Davis and crowd favourite Jimmy White. Bingham’s next match will be the qualifiers for the Shanghai Masters, where he will be looking to put this bad performance behind
Stevens out of Northern Ireland Trophy
August 25, 2008
Welsh snooker star Matthew Stevens has been knocked out of the Northern Ireland trophy in the first round. Off par Stevens who has been slipping down the rankings was easily beaten by Alan Mcmanus
Fellow Welshman Mark Williams also found the first round hard going, Mark needed to fight back from 3-1 down to beat Marus Campbell. Williams will face world number 3 Shaun Murphy in a tough draw for the 2nd round.
Stephen Lee started the tournament well beasting Judd Trump 5-3 in the first round. Snooker legend Steve Davis was also beaten in the first round by Chin’s Liang Wenbo
Top snooker players to miss Bahrain Tournament
August 23, 2008
Many top snooker players will be missing from the new bahrain snooker tournament due to a clash of dates.
The new bahrain snooker tournament will be held between November the 9th till November the 15, but to the distress of the organisers two snooker premier league matches will be taking place at the same time.
The clash of matches means that top players including Mark Selby, Steve Davis and John Higgins would be in legal trouble if they flew out to the Bahrain tournament.
Tournament organisers are very dissapointed that World Snooker did not discuss the dates with them, before planning the Bahrain tournament. The lack of organisation means that the Bahrain tournament will be losing 4 of snookers best players, which wont help the viewing figures.
John Higgins has already committed to the Snooker Premier league as he has been told that if he attends the Bahrain tournament he will lose some of his hard earned ranking points
Laser eye surgery helps Northern Ireland snooker star
August 21, 2008
Local northern island snooker star Sean O’Neil has undergone revolutionary laser eye surgery so that he does not have to wear glasses to play the game he loves. Sean’s improved eye sight has helped him to retain his Northern Ireland under 21 title.
Sean has admitted that the fantastic results from the eye surgery has greatly helped him to improve his game, and helps him see far more clearly. O’Neil breezed through the under 21 tournaments after the eye surgery, even beating the under 18 pool champion on the way.
After such a successful tournament Sean will be aiming to be the best under 21 snooker player in the World when he competes in the world under 21 tournament in August. He was runner up in the same competition in Scotland last year, and feels with the extra confidence he can go one further and become world under 21 champion this year.
A confident Sean after his eye surgery stated after the tournament that ‘he entered the tournament knowing that if he played well that I would win,”
Sean and his new improved eye sight have a busy next few months ahead of them, including many new tournaments to participate in. I hope Sean keeps his career on track and breaks into the professional ranks soon.
Behrain to host Snooker event
August 19, 2008
Behrain in the middle east is set to hold the first ever snooker world ranking event in the middle east this year. Preperations are in motion for Behrain to hold the event this November.
The new snooker event will be palyed at the Behrian Internation Exhibition Centre in their capital city of Manama. The event will welcome the best 16 snooker players in the world, as well as 6 local wild cards from the local area. The wild card players have a fantastic opportunity to play against some of the best snooker players in the world.
Peter Ebdon lives in Dubai, and beilieves this is fantastic news for snooker, and will further increase the popularity of the game in the Middle East. It will give fans in that part of the world a chance to se their heroes playing live.
The chairman of World Snooker highlighted the tournament as a great mile stone for making snooker a global sport. They already know that snooker is well followed in the Middle East, and are looking at further expanding tournaments in that area in the future.
