Love it or hate it, 6-Red snooker appears here to stay and as reported on both Snooker Scene Blog and Foul4.com, this December will see the inaugural World Championship staged at the INEC in Killarney…
From the articles above, the key facts can be summarised as follows:
- The event will be staged at the INEC Arena in Killarney, Ireland over four days from December 15-18 2009.
- The prize fund for the inaugural event will be ‘over €35,000’
- Over 160 players are expected to take part, with each of the current 96 main tour professionals being given an invite.
- As is the case with the Paul Hunter Classic in Germany at the moment, the first two days of the event will see several matches take place during an initial group stage before the tournament reverts to a knock-out format.
- Tickets for the first three days event will be completely free, while the final day will cost €10 per person.
- An official website for the event will be launched in due course and accessible via the following link: www.6redworldchampionships.com
As I have said in the past, personally I am not a huge fan of the 6-Red format but if an event like this can help generate interest in the sport and give the players another opportunity to practice and earn some more money, then it cannot be a bad thing.
With the UK Championship finishing a couple of days before as well as the fifth event of the PIOS, they should be able to attract a strong field which can only help. As Jimmy White showed when he won the Sangsom 6-Red event over in Thailand this summer, the format certainly helps to level the playing field and who knows, perhaps we could see another shock winner…