World Snooker have today released the draw for the fourth event of the 2013/14 Asian Tour, the final event which will determine the final order of merit and with it, places in the Players Championship Grand Finals and main tour cards for next season…
The WPBSA have this evening issued the following statement in connection with the ongoing appeal of Stephen Lee against his conviction for match-fixing and subsequent 12-year ban:
“The Appeals Committee have considered the evidence and submissions made by all parties in the first part of Stephen Lee’s appeal against his conviction for match fixing. Today they have delivered their decision and they have dismissed this aspect of his appeal.
A new date will be set to hear the remainder of his appeal.”
Specifically, the first part of Lee’s appeal refers to the consideration of whether there could have been any bias in the initial hearing chaired by Adam Lewis QC, due to the fact that he had previously represented World Snooker Chairman Barry Hearn in the Leyton Orient / Olympic Stadium case.
Clearly it has now been found that there was no bias, but the aspect of his appeal concerning the actual conviction for match-fixing and the punishment handed out of a 12-year ban and for Lee to pay £40,000 in legal costs, remains still to be determined.
We now therefore await the date for a further hearing…
Monday at the Newport Centre and today we have seen the start of the last 64 of the Welsh Open, as the television coverage got underway on BBC2 Wales and Eurosport…
World Snooker have today published the schedule for Monday’s play at the Welsh Open, which you can now view here to see who will be getting the last 64 stage underway.
There is also an interesting line for anyone who is planning on attending the Newport Centre on Friday, as there has been a subtle format change to allow three matches to be televised, as opposed to the original two:
“Please note a change of schedule for the Quarter Finals on Friday, 28 February. The start time is now 12 noon, with one match being played. The second quarter-final will follow after a 10-15 minute break. The further two quarter-finals (one televised and one non televised) will be played at 7pm as originally scheduled. This now means three of the four quarter-finals will be televised as opposed to two on the original schedule. We apologise for the short notice of this change.”
Preston’s Guild Hall will stage a major snooker tournament for the first time in nine years next month, as the Players Championship Grand Final comes to the city.
Day one at the Welsh Open in Newport and it has been a case of so far, so good for the top players in action, with former champions Stephen Maguire, Ding Junhui, Ali Carter and Ronnie O’Sullivan among the winners today.
Click below for a round-up of Wednesday’s action at the Newport Centre…
Hot on the heels of the China Open qualifiers which only finished earlier today, the snooker circus continues tomorrow with the start of 11 days of action at the 2014 Welsh Open, which looks set to be the last to be staged at the Newport Centre.
Much like the UK Championship earlier in the campaign, the event will see all 128 main tour players in action at the venue from round one, including all of the big names such as Ronnie O’Sullivan and Ding Junhui, both of whom get underway tomorrow.
As ever, you can view the draw here at snookerorg, while the tournament format is available in pdf format here. Clearly, it is going to be a hectic tournament, with four sessions for the majority of the days and up to 16 matches. Up to and including the last 16 stage, these will be played over the best of just seven frames, before increasing eventually to the best of 17 for the final.
In terms of television coverage, the first four days will be covered by liveworldsnooker.tv via the usual livestreams, before the action is picked up by BBC Wales and Eurosport from next Monday.
The second biggest tournament still to be played in the run up to the crucial final seedings revision prior to the World Championship, not to mention the race for places on the latest provisional money list, this year’s Welsh Open promises to be a tournament to keep an eye on over the next couple of weeks.
As ever, there will be plenty of updates here at PSB, as well as @prosnookerblog on Twitter.
