Following the announcement of the draw for the first Pro Challenge Series event which was made yesterday while I was in Leeds, here is confirmation of it and how the three day event will pan out…
Ever since the new series was introduced by World Snooker, speculation has been rife as to how many players would enter the events and now we know that 40 of the 96 main tour players will be getting some useful match practice as the Shanghai Masters qualifiers draw ever closer.
Unsurprisingly with the levels of prize money on offer and the fact that they do not have to qualify for events, only world number two Stephen Maguire of the top 16 will be taking part and will no doubt go into the event as favourite as a result. As world number 15 Mark Williams told the Wales and West Media:
“Thailand was really good and I will definitely be playing in it again next year. It’s a bit like nine-ball (pool).
“I’ve heard about the other ones (on the Pro Challenge). I don’t know about the prize money but I don’t think it’s going to be great so I’m not entering.”
“We all want to play in more tournaments,”
“But we don’t want to play in tournaments where there is only a grand or two grand for the winner. There is no point in that at all.”
From the 17-32 bracket the number of entrants is a much more healthy 11, while from 33-48 there are six and from 49-75 another 13. What is slightly surprising to me however is that of the 21 newcomers to the main tour for 2009/10, just nine have entered the event. Given that these are the players who the series was really designed for in order to give them match practice and an opportunity to earn some prize money ahead of the new season, I would have expected more of these to participate.
Perhaps one explanation is that due to the low levels of prize money on offer in the early qualifying rounds, many will have full-time jobs and will simply not be able to get the time off work to play in this mid-week event. A couple of players have told me this and it is hard to argue with them in this case.
Still, hopefully it will be a good event and I will be there at the NSC next Wednesday to see how the action pans out. Having been at the venue for the English Open this week it will be interesting to see how the two compare, how relaxed the players and how smoothly things run.
The draw as posted on World Snooker here is as follows:
Pro Challenge Series – Event One
28-30 July 2009
Northern Snooker Centre, Leeds
Tuesday 28 July 2009
7pm
Match 1 – Fergal O’Brien v Robert Milkins
Match 2 – Mark Boyle v Matthew Selt
Match 3 – Marcus Campbell v Andrew Norman
Match 4 – Gerard Greene v Graeme Dott
Match 5 – Ken Doherty v Jimmy White
Match 6 – Andrew Higginson v Lee Spick
Match 7 – Bjorn Haneveer v Ricky Walden
Match 8 – Mark Davis v Stephen Maguire
Wednesday 29 July 2009
10am
Match 11- Judd Trump v Mark Joyce
Match 12- Alan McManus v Matthew Couch
Match 14 – Sam Baird v Jamie Cope
Match 17 – Simon Bedford v Michael Holt
Match 18 – Ben Woollaston v Stephen Lee
Match 21 – Jordan Brown v Craig Steadman
Match 23 – Tom Ford v Peter Lines
Match 24 – Dave Harold v Stuart Bingham
Not Before 11.30am
Match 9 – Tony Drago v Winner of match 1
Match 10 –Barry Pinches v Winner of match 2
Match 13 – Christopher Norbury v Winner of match 3
Match 15 – Joe Swail v Winner of match 4
Match 16 – Jimmy Michie v Winner of match 5
Match 19 – Jimmy Robertson v Winner of match 6
Match 20 – Daniel Wells v Winner of match 7
Match 22 – Rod Lawler v Winner of match 8
Not Before 3.30pm
Match 25 –Winner of match 9 v Winner of match 10
Match 26 –Winner of match 11 v Winner of match 12
Match 27 –Winner of match 13 v Winner of match 14
Match 28 – Winner of match 15 v Winner of match 16
Match 29 –Winner of match 17 v Winner of match 18
Match 30 – Winner of match 19 v Winner of match 20
Match 31 –Winner of match 21 v Winner of match 22
Match 32 – Winner of match 23 v Winner of match 24
Not Before 6pm
QF1 –Winner of match 25 v Winner of Match 26
QF2 – Winner of match 27 v Winner of Match 28
QF3 – Winner of match 29 v Winner of match 30
QF4 – Winner of match 31 v Winner of match 32
Thursday 30 July 2009
10am
SF1 – Winner of QF1 v Winner of QF2
SF2 – Winner of QF3 v Winner of QF4
3pm