Snooker: Ronnie Takes A 4th UK Title

Ronnie played some great snooker to take his 4th UK title 10-2 last night. In the first session yesterday, Ronnie blew away and whitewashed Stephen Maguire 8-0 who looked completely out of sorts. It wasn't superlative snooker from Ronnie, most of the time he needed a couple of chances to win a frame. Maguire failed to take his chances and came increasingly and visibly frustrated as the match progressed. I think Maguire was probably happy when the first session was over.

Maguire took the first frame of the second session with a break of 99, he missed a simple blue for the century. Ronnie responded in great style by knocking in a 126, then Maguire made a 57 break and Ronnie rounded off the match with a 94 break. So Maguire looked to have found some form in the second session but a comeback was almost an impossible task with Ronnie in such good form.

This is Ronnie's first ranking event since March 2005 when he won the Irish Masters. It is worth noting that he won the Masters this year as well as the Premier League though, so it's not like he hasn't been playing well enough to win titles. This also puts Ronnie provisionally number 1 in the world with Stephen Maguire provisionally number 2, both players leapfrogging Shaun Murphy.

It's great to see Ronnie winning a ranking event again and he's come a long way from walking out of the UK Championship in York last year. The O'Sullivan camp looked very happy with his partner Jo and their daughter Lily getting in on the photo action at the presentation.

The next tournament is the Masters at Wembley in January, and the next ranking event is the Welsh Open in February.

Snooker: O'Sullivan and Maguire In The Final

Maguire played some good snooker to beat Murphy and get through to the final of the UK Championship. In the end Maguire took the victory by 9 frames to 5. I thought Murphy would have put up more of a fight but he let Maguire build up too much of a lead.

Ronnie claimed his final spot with a really gritty fightback against Mark Selby eventually winning the match in the deciding frame with a maximum. I'm quite gutted to have missed this match and after talking to a few snooker friends, they say it was a real cracker. You could see what the match and the max meant to Ronnie when he clenched his fist in delight as the last black dropped. I think I'm going to have to start re-arranging my life round Ronnie's snooker matches as there seems to be moments of magic every time he plays these days!! For those of you who missed the maximum, or simply want to see it again, ...here it is.

Snooker: York Out! Telford In!

Due to lots of building work going on at the Barbican in York, World Snooker have decided to move the Maplin UK Championships to the Telford International Centre.

This is a big loss for York, they weren't hoping to lose the tournament but lots of delays gave World Snooker cold feet, and they decided to jump ship. I'm sure they don't want the tournament going on in the middle of a monumental "viking style" building site.

The Telford International Centre has previously staged two ranking tournaments, the 2000 Grand Prix and the 2002 British Open, as well as the qualifying rounds of the 2002 World Championship.

A spokesman for World Snooker said, "From past experience we know that the Telford International Centre has proved a popular venue for the players, and that there is enthusiastic support for snooker in the area, so we are delighted to be staging one of our biggest tournaments there."
Maplin Marketing Director David O'Reilly said: "Maplin is excited about moving to the Telford International Centre. I think this is an excellent venue to host one of the most important events in the snooker calendar."

Tom Gray, CEO at The International Centre, said: "We are very much looking forward to hosting the Maplin UK Championship in December. It is a fantastic event - not just for our venue but for the whole of Shropshire."

"Since we last hosted a snooker tournament, our venue has gone through a massive redevelopment programme, which has seen the addition of purpose-built conference and seminar rooms, as well as the addition of a second on-site hotel, and a third just two minutes away.

"These developments help to ensure that we are a first class venue worthy of hosting such a prestigious event."

It's not known if the UK championships will move back to the Barbican next season. I'm sure Telford will want the event for more than one season. It's a bit of a blunder from the bosses at the Barbican to get themselves into a situation where they've managed to lose the event. I'm pretty sure World Snooker didn't want to leave York, as everybody involved thinks the Barbican is a great venue for a major snooker tournament. Maybe they'll get some other tournament back next season.

Snooker: 2007/2008 Season, Provisional Dates

2007

August 6-12
Shanghai Masters at a venue to be confirmed

October 6
Pot Black Cup at a venue to be confirmed

October 13-21
Royal London Watches Grand Prix, Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre

November 4-11
Northern Ireland Trophy, Waterfront Hall, Belfast

December 3-16
Maplin UK Championship, The Telford International Centre, Telford

2008

January 13-20
Saga Insurance Masters, Wembley Arena

February 11-17
Welsh Open at a venue to be confirmed

March 23-30
Beijing Open at a venue to be confirmed

April 19-May 5
888.com World Championship Crucible Theatre, Sheffield

Qualifiers

2007

June 26-29 - Shanghai Masters, Pontins, Prestatyn
September 7-11 - Saga Insurance Masters, World Snooker Academy, Sheffield
September 17-23 - Royal London Watches Grand Prix, Pontins, Prestatyn
October 23-25 - Northern Ireland Trophy, Pontins, Prestatyn
November 25-30 - Maplin UK Chgampionship, Pontins, Prestatyn

2008

January 4-11 - 888.com World Championship, Pontins, Prestatyn
January 22-25 - Beijing Open, Pontins, Prestatyn
February 5-7 - Welsh Open, Pontins, Prestatyn
March 7-10 - 888.com World Championship, World Snooker Academy, Sheffield

Originally sourced from the Snooker Scene blog

Well looking at these dates, it looks like there won't be a Malta Cup! That's a bit of a shame because I was planning on going to the Malta Cup next season!

World Snooker have announced that China will host two world ranking events. The first event (and a new event to the calendar) will be the season opener running from 6th-12th August.

The new tournament will be known as the Shanghai Masters and will be underwritten by the Chinese Billiards and Snooker Association. The contract that has been signed between the WSA and the CBSA means that these two tournaments are secured for the next five years.

The second ranking event will be the China Open in March where Graeme Dott will defend his title.

Some of the information above has been sourced from Billiards Boutique