Here are a few more of my photos from the Pro Challenge Event held at the Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds this week. Enjoy…
Ken Doherty
During the day I spent a fair part of it watching Ken Doherty in action and as a result my first selection of images is dedicated to him…
Ken practises at around 11am ahead of his last 32 match with Jimmy Michie
Following victory over Michie, Ken returned for another practice and interestingly spent much of the time attempting mid-range pots across the table as above.
Later on in action against Joe Swail on the main table
Alan McManus
Another player who we saw practising between both his matches was Scotland’s Alan McManus and like Ken it helped him through to the semi-finals on Thursday.
Mark Joyce
Like Ken and Alan, Mark Joyce had a practice after his win over Judd Trump…
The other hand on the table belongs to veteran Barry Stark who was keeping an eye on Mark’s progress
Maguire v Lawler
The second match to take place on the main table on Wednesday was the last 32 clash between world number two Stephen Maguire and Rod Lawler. Stephen eventually won the match 4-3…
The Players
Here are some of the players away from the table…
Ken Doherty
Sam Baird following a terrific win over Jamie Cope
Mark Joyce following a similarly good win against…
Judd Trump
Dave Harold following a comfortable win over English Open champion Stuart Bingham
Jimmy Robertson
Eventual champion Stephen Maguire
Local favourite Peter Lines
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9 comments
EDITHA says:
July 31, 2009 at 9:17 am (UTC 0 )
Thanks for the pictures!!!!
doey says:
July 31, 2009 at 11:35 am (UTC 0 )
walden was hiding?
Bryan says:
July 31, 2009 at 1:31 pm (UTC 0 )
Matt, i don’t say thanks enough to you. But without you we would have had no insight into this event so thank you very much for all your posts and for keeping us informed on the Pro Challenge.
Nicky says:
July 31, 2009 at 3:48 pm (UTC 0 )
Great site. Was interesting to see Joe Swail picking the balls out for Ken Doherty. Were there no refs in place?
matt2745 says:
July 31, 2009 at 5:24 pm (UTC 0 )
The only ref there was Eirian Williams and he was doing admin stuff rather than actual refereeing. There was one moment during the match between Ricky Walden and Ben Woollaston where they could not decide whether it was a free ball or not and they called him over, but otherwise they did it all themselves.
Was quite funny last week to see Harold and Lawler debating the scores, they weren’t the only ones either. All very sporting though.
matt2745 says:
July 31, 2009 at 8:23 pm (UTC 0 )
On Ricky by the way, my battery went by the time he got on the main table.
Craig says:
July 31, 2009 at 11:11 pm (UTC 0 )
DISGRACE!!!
Nicky says:
August 1, 2009 at 4:47 pm (UTC 0 )
Just a thing on the reffing. Can u imagine a small pro tennis tournament with no umpires, it would be ridiculous. Surely World Snooker could have got refs from somewhere. I honestly can’t believe their attitude and general lack of professionalism. No wonder all the big names turned their backs on the event. If the general public knew this and some of the more critical journalists found out the sport would be laughed at even more than it probably now
matt2745 says:
August 1, 2009 at 6:52 pm (UTC 0 )
You say that but in tennis at the Futures events they also have no umpires and have to keep the score and call the shots themselves. These are tournaments with a €12k prize to the top winner in some instances so I guess it isn’t just snooker.
Obviously it’s not ideal and could be open to abuse but it’s not just snooker.