It feels quite weird writing this, quite frankly. This is the first blog post since August 2021 and a lot has happened since then! Before I go into snooker-related stuff, I’ll briefly explain why I put blogging on hold for a while. I started a postgraduate degree at a London university in September and the work, placements and assignments took so much of my time and I had to prioritise the degree. Not only have I now finished my degree but I have a job lined up, which is amazing news and I cannot wait to get started!
Now onto snooker-related stuff. I may not post as much as I would like in the future due to the new job, but I will still be posting articles on snooker. They will include the classic previews, countdowns and featured articles. I will be tweeting as much as before of course! I love interacting with everyone on Twitter, though over the past year there seems to be some animosity between groups. Hopefully, the new season means everyone starts afresh and enjoys the upcoming season! I might start ‘Conversations with CoR’ again because it was so enjoyable last time around and #snookergifsunday will be carrying on too!
Overview of Last Season
The Pros
Last season was slightly odd, as it had many pros and cons. It was amazing to see so many players break through and express how global the circuit really is. Eight different nationalities won at least a ranking trophy and it is great to see the likes of Zhao Xintong, Hossein Vafaei, David Gilbert and most surprisingly Fan Zhengyi finally get their first proper trophy! The UK Championship final between Zhao and Luca Brecel was unexpected yet refreshing. The season didn’t feel dominated by Trump, O’Sullivan, Robertson and Selby this time. The other high is knowing Selby was getting better, having revealed his mental health problems last season.
The World Championships weren’t full of shocks but it was engrossing all the same. Jack Lisowski, Jackson Page and Yan Bingtao had impressed. Judd Trump, even though he won a ranking tournament and was one of the more consistent players, turned his forgettable season into a good one by reaching the final. Then of course there was Ronnie O’Sullivan, who equalled Stephen Hendry’s record of seven World titles.
Of course, we would’ve loved to see a final between Trump and O’Sullivan at full throttle. Trump was probably still reeling from his incredible match against Mark Williams a round earlier. But no doubt that O’Sullivan was the better player in that final and the entire tournament. I do believe that Ronnie was slightly lucky to win his 6th World title in 2020 because the conditions (no audience to play in front of and no crowd to avoid) were hugely advantageous to Ronnie. But he deserved to win that one too – anyone that beats Un-Nooh, Ding, Williams, Selby and Kyren Wilson in any tournament deserves it!
Will he win the 8th one? Depends on how much he wants it I guess.
The Cons
Then there is the worrisome. I would love to forget snooker being in the ‘ecosystem chain’ and to ‘join the metaverse together’. But it was stuck in my head and now it’s stuck in yours. Anyways, while the circuit may be global in players, it isn’t in the calendar. Granted that COVID hasn’t helped regarding China, but it felt far too dominated in England and it hasn’t changed too much that season. This is also the case with Q Tour too. There were other pretty unpleasant controversies such as between Peter Lines and Xiao Guodong and the worst of Liang Wenbo, whose story received justifiable disgust.
Then of course there is Twitter. I love Twitter and will continue to chat all snooker on it. Saying that I need to catch up on a lot of podcasts. I get on with a lot of the snooker community. But there just seemed to be a lot of small fights in there last season. I don’t know if there is a ‘young accounts’ and ‘old accounts’ divide or personal disagreement or not. What concerns me the most is that no one wants to celebrate anyone winning nowadays. Even if fans dislike a player (I’m looking at fan-based groups), few actually congratulate a player. Instead, people would gloat if that player loses or has a bad run. This happens in reference to a lot of players, not just at the top of the rankings table. I never understood that.
New Season, Same Old Me
The new season proves to be an interesting one. Despite the number of experienced players succeeding through Q School (except Jenson Kendrick), there are a number of debutants. Players such as Dylan Emery, Oliver Brown, Nutcharut Wongharuthai, Julien Leclercq, Ben Mertens Ryan Thomerson and Andres Petrov will look to shake things up a little. Improved players such as Lukas Kleckers, Ashley Hugill and the resurgent Michael White and Dechawat Poomjaeng are back. Yet Kurt Maflin, Andrew Higginson, Martin O’Donnell, Sunny Akani, Rory McLeod and Michael Holt are out of the tour? This is quite a shocking and exciting shake-up.
The British Open (which I criticised a lot due to its short length and taking advantage of its historic name) has been revamped. Cazoo has dominated the tour, though I am quite concerned about that. The Hong Kong Masters returns. The Scottish Open is actually in Scotland. We get to see Stadthalle Fürth again! I plan to be more present in the snooker community, though there aren’t many guarantees. Any ideas of what to write or who to interview, let me know. But it’s good to be back.
