Here we go again. Should it be a ranking event? Shouldn’t it be in the calendar at all? Why, if you stay in bed longer, do you feel more tired? Especially the first two questions.
Barry Hearn’s move to make the Snooker Shoot-Out a ranking event a year or two ago caused uproar among many professional players, purists and many bloggers and fans, including myself and its status divided opinion across the board. It is one of the most controversial decisions he has made. I still like the event – just don’t think it should be a ranking event and is massively watered down compared to the other ‘proper’ ranking events, considering the lengths Ryan Day and Luca Brecel had to go through this season to win their first ranking title compared to someone who won a ranking title by winning just seven frames. Without sounding too repetitive and because there are more important stuff to talk about, here is a link of my previous rant: FEATURED: Should Snooker Shoot-Out ever be a ranking event?
So here we are, the second year where the Snooker Shoot-Out is a ranking event! While last year brought a lot of merriment and players feeling different kinds of pressure since the matches actually count towards their ranking this time (except Dechawat Poomjaeng, who was just dicking about in a very Dechawat Poomjaeng-like fashion), this tourney spark a lot of controversy. The hashtag #JusticeForGilbert spread like wildfire when the referee failed to penalise Xiao Guodong for a time penalty, costing opponent David Gilbert the match. Hopefully, we can see rules tightened up like a ranking event should be so that mistakes like that don’t happen again.
The other major thing that’s happening in the background is qualification to the next ranking tournament, the World Grand Prix. To qualify, you need to be in the Top 32 players in the one-year ranking list. A lot of the Top 16 have already qualified, so perhaps it is unsurprising to see the top five players in the world (Selby, O’Sullivan, Trump, Ding, Higgins) missing out. In fact, a total of 15 professionals opted out, meaning they are replaced by the best-performing amateurs. Amateur Andy Hicks got to the semi-finals last year, so don’t cross them out! Also, since Fu and Liang will miss out on the World Grand Prix, thus losing any chance of qualifying, this opens the field slightly more (well, the Snooker Shoot-Out couldn’t get more open – it’s a random draw!) The incentives are just too good to turn down even for the likes of Joe Perry and Peter Ebdon, who previously refused to play last year due to being opposed to it’s newly ranking status.
I said the same but it can potentially help you get into far more serious events!🤔
— Joe Perry (@joegentlemanjoe) January 5, 2018
This means the places of Stuart Bingham, Michael White and Ben Woollaston are under threat and could be replaced by the likes of Tom Ford, Kurt Maflin, Hossein Vafaei and even Thai Sunny Akani, who gave Ronnie a good run for his money in the UK Championship. So not only is there a ranking title up for grabs, but also qualifying for the World Grand Prix, the Players Championship, as well to keep their tour card for at least another year. All of the above players are competing in the event, with Ford vs. Mark Allen and Akani vs. former Shoot-Out champion Robin Hull the top ties for me. All of the details are on this link: http://www.worldsnooker.com/race-preston-home-straight/
There is also extra drama to see former Shoot-Out finalist Stuart Bingham under the cameras of a ranking event for the first time and it will be very interesting to see how the crowd will react to seeing the former World Champion returning from a ban over betting on snooker matches involving himself and over players, especially in front of a much more rowdy crowd than usual, while a drunk darts fan dressed in a Mario costume holding a “180” card among them will still wonder how the heck he ended up there. Bingham will play amateur James Silverwood in the first round. The atmosphere will be brilliant and here, consistency is key.
It is a massive lottery, so there is very little point in doing a preview, as after the first round, the draw will be randomly allocated, regardless of the seed. This is evident when Michael Holt will play Ryan Day, Barry Hawkins will face Shaun Murphy (what a cracking match that will be) and Mark Davis will face defending champion Anthony McGill, who like many players admitted that the Shoot-Out would be a ranking event while holding the trophy (that I thought was very, very funny indeed). Here is the draw and the schedule: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Snooker_Shoot-Out
Some of you will be wondering if there are any Shoot-Out specialists at all. Well, below are the players who have the best win record since the Shoot Out started since 2011. Rather coincidentally, quite a number of these players will play each other in the first round, with ties such as Hawkins/Murphy as previously mentioned, M White/Higginson and Milkins/Burden waiting in the wings!
I’ll give this a watch, though the first round matches will drag on for a good while. Once you forget its ranking status, it’s a good fun tournament, but I’ll still admit it shouldn’t be a ranking tournament. I will end this article with a a seriously good video on the Shoot-Out by Tequila and in my opinion, one of his best. Give it a watch: lots of cheers, lots of dramas and a great variety of shots. It’s a snippet of how this event should be and I hope it will be this year!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwX9BKXlDws&t=142s
