FEATURED: The Season So Far…

Being away from the snooker scene allowed me to see the sport from the outside without the Twitter glasses. Let’s be honest, there is a lot of good and bad since the 2022/2023 season started.

There has been plenty to talk about. Ranging from Jimmy White’s altercation with referee Ben Williams and Ronnie O’Sullivan winning two titles, to Gary Wilson having issue with Andres Petrov’s toilet troubles to finally Mark Selby winning a title after his mental struggles, it hasn’t been a boring season. There hasn’t been too many people breaking through, but Gary Wilson FINALLY winning his first ranking title over first-time finalist Joe O’Connor is an obvious highlight! Not forgetting Marco Fu’s amazing maximum in his home touranment earlier this season and the inaugural mixed doubles event. Let’s get started!

Mark Allen Arrives All Pistols Blazing

There is no doubt who the most in-form player is at the moment. Mark Allen has won two ranking titles, which includes the prestigious UK Championship, and an additional final. This was a huge turnaround for Allen, considering his personal problems last season, such as declaring bankruptcy. Since Ronnie O’Sullivan comfortably defeated him in the 2022 World Snooker Championship, things have been brighter for the Northern Irishman.

It was documented that Allen lost at least four stone in weight, which must be appluaded. In fact, he lost so much that he was forced to change his cue action because of the lessening of his belly! It has clearly had an effect on his snooker because he now feels more confident and healthier around the table and his personal life is improving. Defending his Northern Ireland Open title was awesome but to win his second Triple Crown event is even better for him. No doubt he will be dangerous in the upcoming Masters.

Ronnie O’Sullivan SPOTY Nomination

People have often accused the Sports Personality of the Year organisers of snobbery towards snooker. This ranges from Shaun Murphy’s criticism over snooker’s lack of funding and Stephen Hendry querying over why Ronnie O’Sullivan and Mark Selby haven’t been considered. It comes as no surprise that Eurosport branded past exclusions of O’Sullivan as a ‘disgrace‘. Ronnie O’Sullivan was finally nominated in 2020 after winning his sixth World Championship, but failed to finish in the Top 3. He lost to Formula 1 driver and eventual winner Lewis Hamilton, footballer Jordan Henderson and horse racer Hollie Doyle.

Ronnie O’Sullivan was nominated again for equalling Hendry’s record for winning seven World Championship titles, beating Judd Trump in the 2022 final. As well as breaking numerous other records, he cemented his standing as being the greatest snooker player to ever pick up a cue. He wasn’t successful – he failed to make the Top 3 again, losing to footballer Beth Mead, cricketer Ben Stokes and curler Eve Muirhead. It is strange that this year was dominated by individuals within team sports and the timing of SPOTY being straight after the football World Cup is convenient.

Many consider O’Sullivan losing to Muirhead to be an insult, given what O’Sullivan achieved compared to Muirhead. I would argue that is hypocritical to show an act of ‘snobbery’ towards other sports given how fans feel snooker is being treated. Personally, I wasn’t optimistic of his chances and Mead and Stokes were worthy winners. Despite the sport being dominant in the UK, it isn’t one of the biggest sports and some do act comtemptuously towards snooker. O’Sullivan doesn’t believe he’ll win one anyway and he hasn’t painted snooker in a positive light himself on numerous occasions.

One of Snooker’s Darkest Weeks

December has been a disasterious month for snooker. If you don’t know why, you have been living in a cave.

On 9th December, the WPBSA suspended FIVE Chinese players due to match-fixing allegations (Lu Ning, Li Hang, Zhao Jianbo, Bai Langning and Chang Bingyu). This is in addition to Liang Wenbo’s suspension back in October. Since then, two more Chinese players were immediately suspended due to match-fixing allegations – most recently Chen Zifan and most shockingly, Masters champion and potential World Championship winner Yan Bingtao.

As it stands, all of these players are innocent until proven guilty. We need to wait for a verdict and hope for a swift conclusions to these investigations. But this is disasterous for snooker. It doesn’t help that Chinese players Yu Delu and Cao Yupeng recieved bans from playing snooker for the exact same offences just a few years ago. It also doesn’t help considering how influential China has been for snooker over money, tournaments, players and expanding snooker’s global appeal. It is even more scary that Chang claimed that he was pressued into match-fixing by Liang. We all feel that this is the tip of the iceberg, especially since Thai snooker player Thanawat Tirapongpaiboon has also been banned for match-fixing earlier this year. It is horrified and it will be interesting how the sport can recover.

A few people had suspicions early on in relation to the recent match-fixing suspensions. Snookerbacker being one of the prominent snooker-related people to notice – here are two of his examples here and here. But it is a wonder as to why it took a while for WST to look into it. But the main focus is who is behind the match fixing or if there is some kind of bigger operation behind it all and how to destroy whatever poisonous influence there is.

I always admitted that betting is not my thing. I stayed away from talking about what odds are, what they mean, etc. I didn’t comment because of my lack of knowledge about these things. Maybe I should learn about understand match-fixing in snooker and signs of its activity. That is rather sad.

Is the Season Spread Far Too Thin?

Since starting my postgraduate degree last year, there was a change I wasn’t comfortable with. That is the introduction of ‘qualification’ matches. This is normal regarding international tournaments like the German Masters and former events in China. But it was strange to see the same with Home Nations events and the British Open. Now that the Championship League round-robin event is now a ranking tournament, the calendar gave us the impression that the season is packed! Look at the increased number of invitational events! But it isn’t. It just means there are long periods of moving tumbleweed for those who lose early. Also, invitiational events are filled with only top players for obvious reasons.

Matt Selt recently complained about the tour structure, financial benefits and the WPBSA’s failure to replace Chinese events cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. I agree with him. It is completely understandable during 2020 why WPBSA had to make do during the coronavirus pandemic. To be the tour busy and supported during those troubled times were deserving of applause. But after two years, it is becoming harder for the snooker bosses to find excuses to not try to resolve these issues.

Has the UK Championship Format Changed for the Better?

Opinions were divided when the UK Championship dramatically changed its format in 2013. No change there. The format was changed so that everyone, regardless of seed, would start in the first round rather than the Top 16 to be automatically qualfied. I wrote plenty of stuff on that topic, whether it is better with that format or if it was actually affecting its reputation. I personally thought it was because it isn’t guarranteeing an exciting finals, half of the tour wins no money at all, the tournament felt like a hard slog and making matches shorter until the final didn’t feel prestigious. Heck, I rate the Masters higher than the UK Championship now.

However, things have changed. The Top 16 are automatically in the main event. Everyone else had to qualify similar to how they qualify via the World Championship now. I appreciate these changes – more people earned money, there were less one-sided match-ups and the main event and coverage felt more important. But the matches are all still BO11, so there is still improvement. It is less likely that we will see finals like Luca Brecel vs. Zhao Xintong last year (both outside the Top 16) again. But Ding Junhui managed to qualify and reach the final, so maybe it can be done!

The Qualifiers Are Starting To Impress

Let’s look at how the newly-qualfied veterens and rookies are doing. One thing I had mentioned back this July was that there are many young and talented players. Belgian rookies Ben Mertens and Julien Leclercq had some flashes of brilliance but clearly need some time on the tour to grow. I would say the same with Oliver Brown, Peng Yisong and Ryan Thomerson. But the most impressive rookies are Dyland Emery and Andres Petrov. Petrov almost qualfiied for the UK Championship despite starting in the first round, beating Jackson Page and Gary Wilson along the way. Emery has won one match in every event bar one this season, beating the likes of Li Hang, Tom Ford and Cao Yupeng. Now he needs to get that second consecutive win…

But there are a few who are impressing. It is great to see Michael White back after a few years off tour. The two-time ranking event winner had a few personal demons to deal with and it is fantastic he is now able to compete to reach the Top 64 where he belongs. Ashley Hugill is another great player who made a milestone himself by reaching his first ranking quater-final in the 2022 English Open.

Dechawat Poomjaeng Is Back!

That is all. What a legend. I was gutted not to see him play O’Sullivan earlier this season. But it’s great to see him back after years in the amateur wilderness. That’s all.