The Matchroom Championship League is over. It’s been a gruelling eleven days where sixty-four players battled it out on the baize in Milton Keynes. In the end, Luca Brecel won the tournament in dramatic fashion! He won the final frame in the final match of the final group to draw against Ben Woollaston that was enough for him to top the group! He has beaten a group of Ben, Stuart Bingham and Ryan Day.
Many professionals and snooker fans were worried when World Snooker announced the Championship League. Especially during the pandemic, I thought it would be too soon to hold any sporting event at all. Politically, lot of people were frothing at the mouth with anger and confusion. You do wonder whether that would affect the snooker event itself As the date for the first Championship League match drew near, I was even more nervous.
But the Championship League has been a resounding success. Nearly everyone is unanimous in praising the organisation and safety of the event. Snooker players earn money, get some television experience and an opportunity to practice for the World Snooker Championship. Most importantly, all 116 COVID-19 tests returned negative results. But let’s hope that they are still healthy and well one week or two afterwards despite being tested. Then I can relax a little bit more.
But I mentioned most of that in my previous article. Let’s talk about something else.
Commentators & Pundits
Of course, there are a number of ITV4 favourites in the mix. Experienced David Hendon and Ken Doherty have done a fantastic job as always. Phil Yates’s gusto and enthusiasm is always fantastic but there are times when I wished he didn’t have to talk as much. His ying matches Dominic Dale’s yang because I sometimes felt Dale reigns Yates in a little.
What is really nice is the number of current professionals having a go. Some are hit and miss, which is always expected. I haven’t heard Peter Lines commentate before but I thought he was very informative. I always enjoy listening to Joe Perry but Stuart Bingham as a commentator just doesn’t sit right with me. Everyone has different tastes!
Jill Douglas, Stephen Hendry, Alan McManus and Neal Fould took their seats at home as ITV4 pundits. Nothing much to write home about since they can only give so many views on a match so short.
The obvious highlight was Foulds not being best pleased of the match between Martin O’Donnell and Nigel Bond. I watched some of it and in particular, the final frame was painful, slow and uneventful. The quality was far below what these two players can produce. The slowness was overstated a touch as there is nothing wrong with a slow player but I’m glad no-one made a meal of the outburst afterwards. It was justifiable!
Talent Waiting In The Wings
The quality wasn’t going to be at its zenith but the level of play was decent. There were 53 centuries in total and Judd Trump didn’t make a single one of them! Remarkably, Ben Woollaston made three centuries in one match!
Under the normal rules of the Championship League, the top players usually have the opportunity to play. Not only that, but the only way you can watch them was via some random betting sites. It’s fantastic to see some players who I never watched before make a mark for themselves. Sam Craigie has been the most impressive and I am beginning to understand why everyone was saying that he is Top 16 quality.
Other players like Harvey Chandler, Ashley Carty and Joe O’Connor have shone. It gives us an impression that the snooker world doesn’t revolve around Trump and Ronnie O’Sullivan. There are so many good players out there. But it is a tough school. Chandler and Carty need a good run in the World Championship Qualifiers just to stay on tour!
If you want to know more about Harvey Chandler, here’s an interview I did earlier by clicking here!
Is This Format A Turn-Off To Viewers?
It would be for the purists!
The main problem with the present format is that it is far too short. Over the years, we are used to seeing an increasing number of BO7 matches. But a BO4 match is too short for a competitive and televised tournament. Draws are not an exciting prospect in any sport, let alone in a sport where there has to be one winner. The round-robin groups are good but the quality is never consistent throughout the tournament.
It is also strange to see Luca Brecel reach the final group with two wins and four draws to his name. Yet O’Sullivan won five matches and lost one and was knocked out of the semis! It’s a strange system. Maybe if one is a snooker boffin, watching every single player is worth watching. If others are disappointed to see Neil Robertson eliminated early after three short matches, it’s not something that would attract future viewers.
Can Snooker Cope Without A Crowd?
Though it isn’t utterly necessary, snooker isn’t a fantastic spectacle without a crowd. Though I initially did wonder why no-one clapped a fantastic long pot at the start of this tournament, I got used to watching it without the clap.
Could there will be the World Snooker Championship without a crowd? Yes. But it would be so eerie and strange. We’ve seen how tense the Crucible is with the crowd ooo-ing and ahh-ing. The Snooker Shoot-Out thrives on the enthusiasm from the spectators. There’s a reason why there are so few professional events without crowds. Unfortunately, whether to have a crowd or not is completely out of the organiser’s hands.
Will the Championship League be changed?
I don’t think so.
The main reason why this competition was sorted in the first place was that snooker players have zero opportunity to earn money during the pandemic. Once the pandemic ends, this version will have lost its purpose.
The viewing figures peaked at 400,000 on the opening day, with 250,000 watched the final match on the last day, according to a recent article by BBC’s Shamoon Hafez. But are those figures enough to influence change?
The organisers may decide to change the entire format so that lower-ranked players can earn money anyway. The other side of the coin is that the betting organisers aren’t interested in them. They would be far more interested in groups featuring Trump, Robertson, Perry, Bingham, O’Sullivan. We will have to wait and see what happens.
It all went rather well! Luca Brecel was terrific and the finish was great.
But you are right, this ‘Covid Classic’ won’t be repeated. Under normal circumstances the top players wouldn’t be interested in best-of-4 league matches. Without them, no deal. It’s an important (even historic) one-off.
Sam Craigie isn’t top-16 quality – he has won only a few matches this season and his one-year ranking is 77. He does of course have talent and potential, and occasionally produces a sparkling performance, possibly helped by improved lighting on the main tables. But the format and the circumstances gave several young players the hope and exposure to offer us a bit of encouragement for the future.
I agree with you about the commentary. I also think ITV4 can do a bit more to help the narrative, be bolder in their selection of matches (Table 2 matches were sometimes better), show tweets from fans at home, and involve the pundits more. Hopefully they will work a few things out before the TC. It’s harsh of me to criticise, because it’s new territory for them too.
They can also do some radical things to ‘simulate’ an atmosphere. I suggested the commentators have an ‘applause’ button, maybe with 5 levels, which punctuates the action with an appropriate degree of canned sounds (they can have a 6th button for Ronnie O’Sullivan matches). The times we are in call for imaginative solutions, although this might be a bit much for British audiences!
It’s a sort of format that can go twofold. Either it’s good because you don’t get bogged down with a terrible match for too long or it’s bad because you want to see more than just four frames that are great quality.
Even two years ago, Neil Robertson says Craigie’s game is Top 16-standard, it’s just how he can do it consistently that matters. It might be ideal to give them Championship League ‘Team B’ to those outside the Top 64, but that’s just splurging off the top of my head.
Disagree with adding an applause button, sounds far too cheap and manufactured of me!