So after a month away from the baize, the majority of snooker’s professional players will be back on the baize this week as the first of this season’s six European Tour events gets underway in Riga, Latvia.
Tag: Mark Selby
The Big Neil Robertson Interview – Part One
During recent seasons, current world number one Neil Robertson has been one of the most consistent winners on the professional circuit, last year completing a career ‘triple crown’ with his victory at the UK Championship in York, as well as famously becoming the first player ever to compile more than 100 competitive century breaks during a single season.
With the return of professional snooker now just around the corner, I recently caught up with the Australian to talk about a wide range of subjects from his achievements on the table, the opportunities now available to younger players, ranking lists and playing conditions, to his off-table interests such as football, video games and HBO’s Game of Thrones saga.
Click below for part one of my chat with Neil…
World Snooker Rankings 2014/15: Seedings Revision One Round-Up
It might only be early July, but today saw the first mid-season seedings revision of 2014/15, following Judd Trump’s victory at the Australian Goldfields Open in Bendigo.
This list will now be used to determine the seedings for September’s Shanghai Masters, which remains one of three events that will not be staged under the increasingly common flat draw structure.
Click below for a round-up of all of the changes to the seeding list, including a change at the head of the rankings…
Closing In On The Cut: July 2014
We might still be in June as I write this, but little over a week from now will come the first seedings revision of the 2014/15 season, following the final of the Australan Goldfields Open in Bendigo.
Determining the seedings for this season’s Shanghai Masters, one of just three events remaining under the ‘non-flat’ draw structure, the cut-off marks the first mid-season revision under the new prize money based ranking list.
Click below for my analysis…
My Ten To Follow In 2014/15
A few days ago, fellow blogger Snookerbacker flagged up his ‘ten to follow’ across the course of the ongoing 2014/15 season, which you can read here.
In the interests of bloggers solidarity…or something, I decided to chip in with my ten to keep an eye on next season and today ahead of the start of the Wuxi Classic tomorrow (usual links on the right), I thought I would expand upon that and detail my choices here…
2014/15: Money To Defend, Themes To Follow
For those of us who like to keep an eye on all things rankings related, during each season there are usually a number of themes to follow just from a look at the various ranking lists.
For example a couple of seasons ago, it was only a matter of time before Judd Trump became number one, given the relative lack of points that he was defending compared to those above him, while last season it was the likes of Neil Robertson and Ding Junhui who were well placed to climb to the top of the list due to lesser performances two years previously.
This year has of course seen a change to a prize-money based ranking list, but the premise of a two-year rolling system remains the same and so below I take a look at a few themes that I will be following as the season progresses.
To assist, @joanneballantyn has also helped to put together the usual ‘money to defend’ lists (available here), which show which points will be coming off at each cut-off point.
Click below for more…
Wuxi Classic 2014: Qualifying Wrap
Yesterday saw the conclusion of five days of qualifying matches in Gloucester for the 2014 Wuxi Classic and there was a mix of strong wins for the established names, as well as shocks at the South West Snooker Academy.
Click below for a round-up of the main stories from the event…
My 2014 Top Eight Revisited
Five years ago following John Higgins’ victory at the 2009 World Championship at the Crucible, following a similar feature prepared by the BBC, I wrote a blog, predicting how the top eight of the world rankings would look in 2014.
Having been reminded of the article earlier during this year’s World Championship, now exactly five years on I take a look back at accurate my predictions were, all well as attempting to predict how the top eight will look in another five years in 2019…