And so the yearly festival of snooker begins at 10am today at the English Institute for Sport.

 

Anyone got a favourites to watch. Was gonna watch Jimmy's match but he's got a walkover now.

 

Michael White has been kicked off the World Tour after being sentenced to three years in prison for assaulting his ex-partner.

 

While I'm here:

 

Overshadowed somewhat by the football Ali Carter won the first ranking event of the season at the Championship League back on 3rd July- I know nobody cares about it but it's a ranker for some reason so we might as well congratulate him on the win.

 

The real first tournament of the season kicks off on Monday with the Shanghai Masters. Ronnie O'Sullivan is looking to defend his title at that one. The session starts times are 2:30am BST, 7:00 BST and 12:30 BST. A wildcard round will be played, followed by Last 16, Quarter Finals, Semi Finals and the Final on the 21 July.

O'Sullivan will played Judd Trump in the Best of 19 semi-final on Saturday.

 

The other semi-final will be Mark Selby v Shaun Murphy taking place tomorrow.

The comeback is on, Shaun Murphy was 8-5 down against Selby and now looks set to reduce his arrears to 8-7.

The comeback is on, Shaun Murphy was 8-5 down against Selby and now looks set to reduce his arrears to 8-7.

 

And Murphy wins 10-8 to book his slot in the final.

Renowned snooker commentator Clive Everton has died at the age of 87.

 

Everton worked for BBC TV for more than 30 years from the 1970s onwards and was a respected broadcaster and journalist.

 

He was founder of the Snooker Scene magazine and edited the publication for 51 years.

 

A statement from the World Snooker Tour (WST) said he was "one of snooker's greatest ever commentators and voice of the sport".

 

It added: "Everton devoted his life to snooker and covered some of the sport's most historic moments as a broadcaster and journalist."

 

Players at the British Open in Cheltenham this week are competing for the Clive Everton Trophy, which was named in his honour two years ago, and a minute's silence was held before Friday afternoon's session.

Mark Allen made a 147 maximum break at the British Open - before winning a second match which lasted until 01:30 BST to set up a quarter-final against Judd Trump.

 

Northern Ireland's Allen previously said the table at the tournament in Cheltenham should be "burned" but he comfortably beat Belgium's Ben Mertens 4-1 in his first match of the day, featuring the 147.

 

 

 

 

They'll be an guaranteed player from China in the final of the Wuhan Open as Long Zehuang has reached his first ranking semi-final by beating Jack Lisowski 5-1, and Xiao Guodong who made three consecutive centuries in beating Shaun Murphy 5-1.

 

In the other quarter-finals, Judd Trump plays Chris Wakelin and it is an all Chinese quarter-final between Zhang Anda and Si Jiahui.

 

 

China's Xiao Guodong beat compatriot Si Jiahui 10-7 in the Wuhan Open final to earn his maiden ranking title after 17 years as a professional.

 

In his third ranking final - 11 years after losing the first of those to Chinese snooker doyen Ding Junhui in Shanghai - Xiao withstood a fightback to prevail in a high-quality match.

 

Xiao made an impressive start and moved into a 5-3 lead following a 129 break in the opening session of only the third tour final between two players from mainland China.

 

Si showed resolve with a century break in the eighth frame to pull one back but Xiao later made a run of 113 to extend his lead to 8-4 before winning the next frame of the evening session to move one away from victory.

 

He would have to wait for his crowning moment as Si produced a stirring surge, which included a break of 131, to reduce the deficit to 9-7.

Ranking Movements after the Wuhan Open:

 

10. Zhang Anda (China)

11. Ali Carter (England)

12. Gary Wilson (England)

15. Jak Jones (Wales)

17. Tom Ford (England)

18. Xiao Guodong (China)

19. Barry Hawkins (England)

21. Dave Gilbert (England)

23. Robert Milkins (England)

24. Hossein Vafaei (Iran)

25. Stuart Bingham (England)

26. Zhou Yuelong (China)

27. Pang Junxu (China)

28. Noppon Saengkham (Thailand)

29. Ryan Day (Wales)

30. Wu Yize (China)

31. Stephen Maguire (Scotland)

32. Joe O'Connor (England)

WST also announced the Riyadh Season Snooker Championship invitation event is back. The one with the golden ball.

This time from 18th to 20th December.

 

https://www.wst.tv/news/2024/october/22/riy...o-saudi-arabia/

 

Top 10 in OOM post U.K. Championship qualify.

Williams leads 4-0 at the 1st interval in the final of the Champion of Champions

 

It's not the 1st time this week Xiao has found himself a few frames behind this week, but he must be concerned by how far away some of his pots are.

 

The Independent Disciplinary Committee has delivered its decision on the case of the WPBSA and Mark King. He has been found guilty of one count of match fixing and one count of providing inside information on that match. He has been suspended from the sport for 5 years and to pay £68,299.50 in costs.

Mark Williams held off a fightback from Xiao Guodong to claim his first Champion of Champions title with a 10-6 victory in the final in Bolton.

 

Welshman Williams, 49, surged into a 5-0 lead before China's Xiao reeled off four frames in a row, including two century breaks.

 

After the interval, three-time world champion Williams compiled breaks of 104, 62, 80, 95 and 67 to seal the win, with Xiao only able to win the 12th and 14th frames.

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ITV will not be showing the World Grand Prix this season with news of it being confirmed in Hong Kong.

Eight qualifiers are through to the Last 16 of the Scottish Open. That sounds good, but four already received a bye due to withdrawals.

 

However, Long Zehuang, Lei Peifan, Dean Young and Jackson Page actually defeated their seeded opponents.

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@1869299877978800165