Packed Weekend of Ladies Snooker

WOMEN’S snooker star Reanne Evans admitted she was “drained” after retaining the Wytech Masters trophy in a dramatic late-night battle with Katie Henrick.
Three women world champions from three different cue sports appeared at the invitation-only event, sanctioned by the World Ladies Billiards & Snooker Association, at the North East Derbyshire SC , Clay Cross, on Saturday, September 13.
Kent-based world number three Henrick twice took the lead in the best-of-five final but Evans twice levelled with breaks of 59.
At a quarter-to-one in the morning, Evans, the four-time world champion from Dudley, fluked the brown in the decider and cleared up.
“We were drained,” said the 22-year-old mother-of-one who pocketed £529.
“I think we both played quite well, considering how late it was. Everybody seems to have improved a bit. They must be fed up of me winning now.” she laughed.
“I feel confident; I’m playing quite well – for the time being, anyway.” Evans heads to Austria next month to defend her IBSF world title.
Tournament sponsor Mark Jones, MD of Midlands IT company Wytech, said: “It was a very long day but it was fantastic. There was a lot of appreciation from the players. It went on too long but that’s something we can look at next year.”
World 8-ball pool champion Lynette Horsburgh, from Blackpool, and world billiards champion Emma Bonney, from Portsmouth, both went out 3-2 to Henrick.
Newcastle’s Pam Wood was taken ill minutes after clearing the colours to lead Maureen Logan 2-0 in the first round. She was rushed to hospital where a scan revealed a two millimetre kidney stone and she was discharged later that day. The 39-year-old legal secretary picked up a £10 bonus for the highest break of the round.

Ladies Snooker Will it Get it's Day

It was back in the mid-nineties when World Snooker decided to pull the plug on funding the women’s snooker tour.
Since that time player numbers have fallen and earning any money from the game is a non-starter even for the top ladies. Many of the multiple World Champions of the 80’s and 90’s have upped sticks and moved to the USA to play on the lucrative pool circuit. Those players, like Alison Fisher, Kelly Fisher and Karen Corr now earn very good money playing pool and the snooker background has given them a firm foundation over their US and Asian rivals.
There is still a lot of potential in the womens game with the likes of Reanne Evans, Maria Catalano and Katie Henrick sharing the major tournaments between them. However, it is unlikely that they will ever reach their full potential as there is not enough money in the game to warrant playing it full-time.
How good could these players be with a decent tour?
That comment is not flippant either as Mandy Fisher, who has run the ladies game since the 1980’s, does an amazing job with limited funds and time (she works for a living!)
My opinion is that the game for women needs a revamp, I have never understood the need for women to be dressed in waistcoats and trousers (like men) to play snooker. If we use the Pool circuit in the USA as an example, the players are smartly dressed but also in very modern clothing. Surely snooker should opt for this route? Another big issue is being able to sell the game to sponsors, when an event is held in a snooker club it is less-likely to receive any funding. I am however, massively aware of the cost implications of moving out of clubs but it is food for thought.
This weekend I am off to Derby to provide live Internet coverage of the Wytech Ladies Masters event. It will be the first time theWLBSA tour has received live internet coverage. But I think with the right plan going forward there may be an opportunity away from the Internet for the womens game.

2009\10 main tour players

Stephen Maguire

Shaun Murphy

Ronnie O’Sullivan

Ryan Day

Governance and Tournaments

The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA, also known as World Snooker), founded in 1968 as the Professional Billiard Players' Association, is the governing body for the professional game. Its subsidiary, World Snooker, based in Bristol, England, organises the professional tour. Over the years the board of the WPBSA has changed many times, which some argue is an indication of in-fighting within the sport. The amateur game is governed by the International Billiards and Snooker Federation (IBSF).
Professional snooker players can play on the World Snooker main tour ranking circuit. Ranking points, earned by players through their performances over the previous two seasons, determine the current world ranking.

A player's ranking determines what level of qualification they require for ranking tournaments. The elite of professional snooker is generally regarded as the "Top 16" ranking players, who are not required to pre-qualify for any of the tournaments. The tour contains 96 players - the top 64 from the previous two seasons, the 8 highest one-year point scorers who are not in the top 64, the top 8 from the previous season's Pontin's International Open Series (PIOS), and various regional, junior and amateur champions.
The most important event in professional snooker is the World Championship, held annually since 1927 (except during the Second World War and between 1958 and 1963). The tournament has been held at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield (England) since 1977, and was sponsored by Embassy from 1976 to 2005. Since 2005, tobacco companies have not been allowed to sponsor sporting events in the United Kingdom, and the World Snooker Championship had to find a new sponsor. It was announced in January 2006 that the 2006–2010 world championships would be sponsored by online casino 888.com. The Championship is currently sponsored by BetFred.com after 888.com pulled out of their five year sponsorship deal after three years.On 15th April 2009 the World Snooker Championship website announced that Betfred.com would be the new sponsor of the World Championship for the next four years.
The status of winning the World Championship is great, and it is the most highly valued prize in professional snooker, both in terms of financial reward (£250,000 for the winner) as well as prestige. The World Championship is televised extensively in the UK by the BBCand gains significant coverage in Europe on Eurosport and in the Far East.
The group of tournaments that come next in importance are the other ranking tournaments. Players in these tournaments score world ranking points. A high ranking ensures qualification for next year's tournaments, invitations to invitational tournaments and an advantageous draw in tournaments. The most prestigious of these after the World Championship is the UK Championship. Third in line are the invitational tournaments, to which most of the highest ranked players are invited. The most important tournament in this category is The Masters,[37] which to most players is the second or third most sought-after prize.
In an attempt to answer criticisms that televised matches can be slow or get bogged down in lengthy safety exchanges and that long matches causes problems for advertisers, an alternative series of timed tournaments has been organised by Matchroom Sport Chairman Barry Hearn. The shot-timed Premier League Snooker was established, with seven players invited to compete at regular United Kingdom venues, televised on Sky Sports. Players have twenty-five seconds to take each shot, with five time-outs per player per match. While some success has been achieved with this format it generally does not receive the same amount of press attention or status as the regular ranking tournaments.
There are also other tournaments that have less importance, earn no world ranking points and are not televised. These can change on a year-to-year basis depending on calendars and sponsors.