Snooker: Belgian Open

A new pro-am tournament starts in Duffel, Belgium from 19th-21st September.

The top professionals who will be competing are Stephen Maguire, Shaun Murphy, Mark Selby, John Higgins, Neil Robertson, Graeme Dott, Mark Allen, Mark Williams, Ken Doherty, Matthew Stevens and John Parrott. This really is an excellent line-up!

If you can't get to Belguim for these dates then there's no need to panic as you can watch the tournament online at cuesport.tv I've had a look at some of the coverage from some of the other other events this cue sports channel covers and the quality really is first class!! The cost is £8 for the 3 days.

More information about the tournament can be found here. Win free cuesport.tv passes here! But be quick, the closing date is Monday.

Snooker: Parrott Subdued by Murphy

Shaun Murphy played a good solid 5 frames to dispose of John Parrott by 13 frames to 8. John has really shown that the pubic should not be condemning him to the BBC TV studio as a full time job just yet!

Parrott showed great mettle to come back from 4-0 down, then to 7-4 and then finished the second session with a 123 break to level at 8-8. It certainly shows that Parrott isn't scared of modern day former world champions and Murphy wasn't playing particularly badly.

But the 2005 champion showed his class in the final session; punching his fist at his supporters going into the mid-session interval 12-8. During the frame that clinched his victory, the man from Rotheram didn't really blink and wrapped up the match that people thought he would win reasonably easily. Just goes to show that the old fellas can still give the young guns a good game over distance!!

It's great to see Parrott back on the main stage and I think Murphy now looks a serious contender for the championship.

Snooker: 888 World Championships, Last 16 Order of Play

Thursday 26 April

Second round matches (best of 25 frames)

1430 BST
Shaun Murphy (Eng) v John Parrott (Eng)

1900 BST
Anthony Hamilton (Eng) v Ian McCulloch (Eng)

Friday 27 April

1000 BST
Shaun Maguire v Joe Swail (NI)
Shaun Murphy (Eng) v John Parrott (Eng)

1430 BST
Anthony Hamilton (Eng) v Ian McCulloch (Eng)
Matthew Stevens (Wal) v Mark Allen (NI)

1900 BST
Stephen Maguire (Sco) v Joe Swail (NI)
Shaun Murphy (Eng) v John Parrott (Eng)

Saturday 28 April

1000 BST
Anthony Hamilton (Eng) v Ian McCulloch (Eng)
Matthew Stevens (Wal) v Mark Allen (NI)

1430 BST
Stephen Maguire (Sco) v Joe Swail (NI)
Stephen Hendry (Sco) v Ali Carter (Eng)

1900 BST
John Higgins (Sco) v Fergal O'Brien (Ire)
Matthew Stevens (Wal) v Mark Allen (NI)

Snooker: 888 World Championships, Second Round Matches

For me the pick of this round will be Ronnie vs Robertson and Allen vs Stevens.

Ian McCulloch
Anthony Hamilton

Stephen Maguire
Joe Swail

John Higgins
Fergal O'Brien

Neil Robertson
Ronnie O'Sullivan

Mark Allen
Matthew Stevens

John Parrott
Shaun Murphy

Peter Ebdon
Mark Selby

Ali Carter
Stephen Hendry