To sum this article up, this is simply the case of what happens now? Where does Women’s snooker go from here? What have the WLBS got up their sleeve? Will Evans and Ng dominate for many years to come or do the youngsters learning their craft already knock them off their perch to dominate the game?
With Ng On-yee becoming the new No.1 on the women’s circuit, the future can be very bright, as women’s snooker isn’t about chasing Reanne Evans anymore. There is a new player in town, which means it is no longer a one-man sport now. The fact that she won the 2018 WSF Female Championships without even dropping a frame is quite incredible and highlights how well she has come to be at the top of the game. What is great is that, as she keeps saying, it is only the beginning for her. With three players from Hong Kong in the Top 15, there is clearly a Chinese invasion in the women’s game too. [1] Ng believes that the gender gap will narrow in the future and there is a lot of evidence to say that it can happen. Even in the local level, there are developments in Hong Kong:
“In recent years, Hong Kong has shown itself to be a nurturing ground for ground-breaking female athletes. Two years ago, fellow Hong Konger Chan Yuen-ting became the world’s first female coach leading a men’s professional football team to a top-tier league title.” [1]
So what will happen? What do I hope will happen?
Events
We have been given a glimpse into the future while watching the first WSF Mixed Championship in the past few weeks. Five women were allowed to compete via the Female Championships: Reanne Evans, Waratthanun Sukritthanes, Nutcharat Wongharuthai, Rebecca Kenna and Nicolly Christo. While I thought it was rather hilarious to see a 13 year-old Brazilian girl (Christo) play against a 51 year-old former professional (Darren Morgan), the women achieved somewhat moderate success. Together, they have chalked up four wins between them, with Reanne Evans the sole survivor advancing to the knockout stages. She was beaten 4-2 in the first round by Welsh amateur Kishan Hirani. Many see this as a positive that women could match men in the amateur game and it will be interesting to see women progress to see if they can advance further in the next 5 years since it seems the Mixed Championships are here to stay![2] It’s a good start!
The fact that this is the second World Championships played abroad in a row (2018 being in Malta and 2017 played in Singapore) shows the ambition of WLBS to boast that the women’s circuit is turning in a global sport rather than stuck in England, where it hosted the World Championships between 1998-2016. This is a massive turnaround considering the facilities in New Delhi between 1994-1995 was so bad that it put Kelly Fisher off snooker in favour of pool for the rest of her career! [3] The circuit has increased to six events this season, with two of them abroad, where snooker players went to Germany for the Paul Hunter Women’s Classic as well as Malta for the World Championships. There is fantastic coverage of this, following the tournament as a whole or even looking at local players, like this article about Rebecca Kenna: http://www.keighleynews.co.uk/sport/16107955.Marathon_woman_Rebecca_reaches_world_semi_finals_again/
What would I like to see? More tournaments would be ideal and especially an additional international one, though it is easier said than done. I would like to see the Gibraltar Open as part of the circuit. Since the three-year contract in the Men’s game will expire at the end of this season, this could be a perfect opportunity for them, as well as liaising with the amateur circuit once the Challenge Tour gets underway.
On a global scale, the next World Championship should either be in Germany and Thailand. Both countries have representatives in the women’s tour such as No. 9 Diana Schuler and No. 19 Nutcharat Wongharuthai respectively as the top players. There are 10 German players and 3 Thai players on the circuit. Wongharuthai hopes that Thailand will host one day so that many Thai players close to her level will be given the opportunity to compete with them across the world. [4] However, it would be good to have a World Championship in Europe, to save the monotony of three events in Asia in a row. However, there’s still a standard gap between the men’s and women’s circuits and this gap needs to be broken down so the women’s game can attract more sponsors and increase the profile of the women’s game to afford all of this.
Future Players
The grassroots, despite all of the barriers, are working well as there are a number of youngsters coming through to provide a future for the sport. To plug this quote in again, according to fellow professional Suzie Opacic:
“Seeing Reanne and On Yee increasing the profile of the women’s game is a real boost and it gets more girls playing – we need more of this to raise the publicity of women’s snooker and encourage girls to take up the game. Women’s snooker, and any sport, needs that rivalry to increase standards and push players to strive to be the best. Everyone wants to be challenged and it was clear in Singapore there are some real contenders pushing forward in the women’s game, which is great to see.” [5]
So who will take up the mantle if and when Reanne and Ng retire? We will never know when they will retire and may be around for another 10 years for all we know. Opacic said that she has seen Chloe White improving at a rapid rate and being a contender at many junior competitions [5]. But of course, there are many more! This includes No. 11 Aimee Benn, two-time defending UK Women’s Under-21 champion and current No. 13 Stephanie Daughtery, and 2017 Connie Gough Trophy Under-21 champion Lily Dobson, who is No. 33 in the rankings (all above in the photo).
Grassroots
This is a personal one for me. I mentioned there is less sexism when it comes to allowing women to play snooker in clubs .Though as I mentioned a number of recent examples of it happening, many situations like this go unreported. So when I mentioned my article, a professional snooker player, Rebecca Kenna, waded into the debate:
I play in my local league and despite being one of the top players in the town, I am unable to play in 2 ‘men only’ clubs. The clubs or league will not bend the rules to allow me to play.
— Rebecca Kenna (@RebeccaKenna89) March 21, 2018
Followed by this individual, who is just the Chairman of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association:
Name and shame them Bex, it has to change!! I’m happy to help https://t.co/wvL7nXdg1d
— jason ferguson (@jasonferguson5) March 21, 2018
I wonder what has happened to this case? If so, has it been done and will this be a precedent for future clubs? Only time will tell but as mentioned before: less intimidating areas mean better conditions to improve grassroots for women in snooker.
Ending
The future should be very bright, as they have progressed in the past couple of years. Will they be as big as the Men’s circuit anytime soon? No, that will take decades. However, what the women’s circuit proved is that it is competitive, global and able to compete with men. They are leagues away so far and we will see how far Ng has come against men when she competes in the World Championship Qualifying in April after she had lost 10-1 to Nigel Bond and Peter Lines in previous attempts. Reanne Evans came close against Ken Doherty and just last year beat Robin Hull before losing to Lee Walker, proving this can be done.
I don’t know what WLBS’s ambitions are, whether there will be a woman qualifying for the Crucible or if the circuit will be as large as the men. Given that Reanne Evans is seen as the pinnacle of women’s snooker and Ng On-yee is listed on the Forbes 30 under 30 Asia 2018, shows huge recognition. Here is the link: https://www.forbes.com/30-under-30-asia/2018/entertainment-sports/#7df953f551dc. But all I can say is that they are on the right track and I would love to know what their ambitions are other than their statement:
“Both the WLBS and the WPBSA firmly believe that there should be no boundaries to participate in sport. The WLBS is looking to work with National Federations to provide a fuller calendar of events and give opportunity for a fair rankings system for female players across the globe.” [6]
You can argue that they are currently achieving that, but to what extent they will go is the more interesting question! What are you lot think?
[1] Shao, Z., “Ng On-yee: Snooker’s new world number one.” BBC Chinese. (26th February 2018). Accessed on: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-43197484
[2] Esnooker., “World Snooker Federation Championship Mixed – Malta 2018.” (No date). Accessed on: http://esnooker.pl/turnieje/2018/wsf/en2/wsfm_2018.php
[3] Buckley, W., “Allison Fisher beat the men at snooker, now she earns more than them playing pool.” The Guardian. (8th November 2009). Accessed on: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2009/nov/08/allison-fisher-pool-interview
[4] Huart, M., “Nutcharut Wongharuthai Q&A.” WLBS. (No date). Accessed on: https://www.womenssnooker.com/nutcharut-wongharuthai-qa/
[5] WPSBA., “Opacic Plans Flying Start at UK Women’s Championship.” (27th September 2017). Accessed on: thttp://www.wpbsa.com/opacic-plans-flying-start-uk-championship/
[6] WLBS., “About.” (No date)> Accessed on: https://www.womenssnooker.com/about/
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This is the fifth and final article in the “Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves” series. The published articles so far are:
THE REFEREES: https://clusterofredssnookerblog.wordpress.com/2018/01/25/sisters-are-doin-it-for-themselves-the-referees/
THE PLAYERS: https://clusterofredssnookerblog.wordpress.com/2018/02/12/sisters-are-doin-it-for-themselves-top-female-players/
THE CALENDAR: https://clusterofredssnookerblog.wordpress.com/2018/03/08/sisters-are-doin-it-for-themselves-expanding-the-womens-circuit/
SEXISM IN SNOOKER: https://clusterofredssnookerblog.wordpress.com/2018/03/21/sisters-are-doin-it-for-themselves-sexism-in-snooker/
