PREVIEW: Paul Hunter Women’s Classic

Now for the World Women’s Snooker Tour 2017/2018 to get underway! It’s been a while since I released an article on women’s snooker and there will be more to come.

The first of seven tournaments in the women’s calendar, the ladies fly off to Germany to kick-start their seasons. For some, it is the first overseas event they have ever played in. There are some big names in here from a range of places such as Germany, Romania, India, and Brazil with six players under the age of 18. This includes two-time defending UK Women’s Under-21 champion Katherine Daughtery, 15-year-old Aimee Benn and 14-year-old Lily Dobson, who is No. 32 in the rankings. Clearly, the female snooker tour has been progressing rapidly and the fact that there is a large pool of young talent already, things are looking bright! This is also the second Paul Hunter Classic in its history, so this should be a very competitive one indeed in Fürth.

Last season, it was Hong Kong hotshot Ng On Yee who took the Paul Hunter Classic trophy, beating Reanne Evans 4-1 after defeating Maria Catalano 4-0. It was a dominant performance between the pair as they mustered nine +50 breaks between them, with Ng achieving the highest break with the only century of the event of 108. With the top two seeds 11-time world champion Evans and current World Champion Ng receiving a bye to the next round, it leaves the rest of the players to scrap it out for the next stages.

So how does this work then? According to the World Ladies and Billards Snooker page, “the remaining 25 players have been drawn into seven round robin groups, from which the top two finishers will qualify for the last 16 stage.” Of course, the top seeds are separated from each other to head each group. This includes No. 3 seed Maria Catalano, home favourite Diana Schuler, 2016 World Ladies Pairs Snooker Champion and Ng’s teammate Ka Kai Wan and World Championship semi-finalist and Connie Gough Memorial Trophy finalist Rebecca Kenna (dear lord that was a mouthful, thank goodness I’m writing this!)

The group matches will play three frame matches and the knockout stages will feature best-of-7s. The tourney is between the 24th-27th August. Here is the draw: http://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/a5cf63_c23ae8f0d9e14921a59a1cdbe184460e.pdf

Group A

So Man Yan – Hong Kong (14)

Steffi Henze – Germany (84)

Anita Seidel – Germany (n/a)

Inese Lukasevska – Latvia (80)

Group B

Rebecca Kenna – England (6)

Emma Parker – England (39)

Manon Melief – Netherlands (62)

Ronda Sheldreck – Ireland (23)

Group C

Aimee Benn – England (20)

Lilly Dobson – England (32)

Tanja Enders – Germany (63)

Fong Mei Mei – Hong Kong (40)

Group D

Maria Catalano – England (3)

Ramona Kirchner – Germany (81)

Claire Edginton – England (22)

Sangeeta Hemchand – India (n/a)

Group E

Diana Schuler – Germany (11)

Corina Maracine – Romania (69)

Christina Schneider – Germany (61)

Group F

Ka Kai Wan – Hong Kong (5)

Linda Erben – Germany (n/a)

Laura Alves – Brazil (50)

Group G

Stephanie Daughtery – England (17)

Dorothee Rapp – Germany (48)

Diana Stateczny – Germany (27)

Please note that I take no ownership of these photographs.