Eight Nominated for BetVictor Shoot Out

The field for this week’s BetVictor Snooker Shoot Out will once again include eight WPBSA nominations aimed at promoting the development of junior snooker and women’s snooker at the highest level.

Set to run from 4-7 February at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes, the unique ranking event tournament will see 128 players battle it out for the £50,000 top prize and a place at next season’s Champion of Champions.

For a third successive year, eight amateur players have been nominated by the WPBSA to promote grassroots snooker and sport development. All players have been selected from the Home Nations to minimise travel during the ongoing pandemic.

Among those included are England’s Reanne Evans and Rebecca Kenna who both compete on the World Women’s Snooker Tour. Record 12-time champion Evans will make her third appearance in the competition as she takes on China’s Si Jiahui, while world number four Kenna will face Germany’s Simon Lichtenberg.

They will be joined by promising juniors Connor Benzey (England), Dean Young (Scotland), Dylan Emery (Wales), Robbie McGuigan (Northern Ireland) and Fergal Quinn (Northern Ireland). Both Young and McGuigan will be making their second appearances in the event – Young having reached the last 32 last year – while Benzey won his first match in a professional event at this season’s English Open.

Emery was a semi-finalist at last season’s WSF Open in Malta, while Quinn is the current Northern Ireland Under-21 champion.

Competing the line-up will be Northern Ireland’s Declan Lavery after the reigning national champion missed out on competing at this season’s Northern Ireland Open following a positive COVID-19 test in Milton Keynes.

The BetVictor Shoot Out runs from February 4 to 7 in Milton Keynes. Top stars in the field include John Higgins, Mark Williams, Shaun Murphy and defending champion Michael Holt.

The popular tournament, which was first staged in 2011, has a unique set of rules, with matches lasting a maximum of ten minutes and a shot clock of 15 seconds for the first five minutes and ten seconds for the last five.

Televised live by Eurosport and a range of other broadcasters worldwide, the event is part of the BetVictor European Series. For the first round match schedule click here.

Further information about the BetVictor Shoot Out is available at wst.tv