A winner of the Welsh Open as recently as this February, Chinese number one Ding Junhui remains without doubt one of the game’s top players, but with his ranking having fallen from as high as number four in the summer of 2011, to number 12 at the time of writing, is Ding in real danger of dropping out of the top 16?
For the reasons outlined below, it might not be as crazy as it sounds…
Having defeated Craig Steadman, Steve Davis, Alan McManus and Michael Holt to qualify for his maiden professional venue, India’s Pankaj Advani has taken the difficult decision to withdraw from the tournament, due to a clash of dates with this World Billiards Championship. Click below for more and to see how that affects the draw for the tournament…
World Snooker have tonight issued a statement concerning Stephen Lee, explaining that pending an investigation regarding suspicious betting patterns in relation to his Premier League match with John Higgins (watch in full here), yesterday, the multiple ranking event winner has been suspended from the World Snooker Tour.
Click below for the full statement…
It is hard to believe, but today marks the sixth anniversary of the tragic passing of Paul Hunter at the age of just 27.
Of course, Paul’s career will always be most strongly remembered for his impact upon the Masters tournament, which he won three times, each in dramatic circumstances. Let’s all take a moment therefore to remember each of those thrilling victories, by taking a look at the following links…
The WPBSA has been informed by the Gambling Commission that the CPS will not be taking further action in relation to the match fixing allegations against Stephen Lee, made in 2010. The Commission has decided not to commence criminal proceedings under the Gambling Act 2005.
The WPBSA will now be allowed access to details pertaining to the enquiry in order to consider whether there has been a regulatory breach of the Governing Body’s rules.
Inspired by a bit of chit chat at the last PTC event, today I reconsider the age old debate (it’s up there with shot clocks in terms of repeat value), of whether snooker should re-evaluate its traditional dress code of waistcoat and bow tie, or whether some things should be left untouched…
On 23rd August 2012 the Disciplinary Committee of the WPBSA heard the case of Ronnie O’Sullivan who had been referred to them by World Snooker Limited. The circumstances alleged were that he had entered and subsequently withdrawn from eleven Tournaments without reasonable excuse between August 2010 and March 2012.
So far in 2012/13, the big prizes have gone the way of Mark Davis, Ricky Walden and Barry Hawkins, but the man who has both played and won more matches and frames than any other is Liverpool’s Rod Lawler. It could have been so different for him however, after he came through the final round of this year’s Q School to regain a place on the main tour at the first attempt.
I recently caught up with Rod and in the first part of a two-part interview, he talks about his start to the season, his successful Q School run and his thoughts on the current tour set-up…