November on the Baize
As we head into November today we look ahead to the upcoming tournaments on the World Snooker Tour and to be staged by World Disability Snooker and Billiards.
- View the latest provisional seeding list
- View the Masters Race
- View the provisional end of season rankings
188BET Champion of Champions (6-12 November)
The 188BET Champion of Champions returns to Coventry’s Ricoh Arena with 16 event winners over the last 12 months set to battle it out for the title.
As usual, the event will be broadcast live within the UK on ITV4 and will feature the sport’s biggest names, with only one place still to be decided following the International Championship final this Sunday. At the time of writing either Mark Allen or Yan Bingtao could still snatch the final place, which would in turn deny 2015 winner Neil Robertson a return to the Ricoh.
For more information about the event visit: www.championofchampionssnooker.co.uk
WDBS Hull Open (10-12 November)
World Disability Billiards and Snooker hosts its final event of 2017 from 10-12 November at Hull’s Tradewell Snooker Club.
Open to players with visual, hearing and learning disabilities, the event has seen a record number of entries from deaf players in particular and is set to be one of the biggest disability snooker events staged yet.
To learn more about the WDBS and how you can get involved visit: www.wdbs.info
You can also watch a video of last yar’s event shown during the BBC’s coverage of the Betway UK Championship HERE.
Shanghai Masters (13-18 November)
An ever-present on the calendar since 2007, the Shanghai Masters returns a little later than usual in 2017 with a record prize fund and new format, having moved away from its traditional tiered structure.
Qualifiers for the event took place last month in Wigan, with Shaun Murphy, Neil Robertson, Kyren Wilson and Anthony McGill among the big names failing to make it through to the venue stages in China.
Together with the Northern Ireland Open and UK Championship (see below), the event is one of just three ranking tournaments remaining ahead of the all-important cut-off in the battle to race for this season’s Dafabet Masters, so it could be a crucial week for the likes of Ryan Day and Liang Wenbo who are battling to secure their places at the Alexandra Palace next January.
Ding Junhui won the event in 2016 with a 10-6 victory against Mark Selby.
Northern Ireland Open (20-26 November)
It is hard to believe that almost a year has passed since Mark King’s emotional maiden ranking event success in Belfast, but later this month he and the rest of the field will return for this season’s Northern Ireland Open.
This year’s event will be held at the Belfast Waterfront, switching from the Titanic Exhibition Centre and as with the recent English Open, its draw will see 16 players seeded with the remainder to be drawn at random. The tournament will be seeded using the ranking list updated following the International Championship.
All eyes will be on Ronnie O’Sullivan who after his win in Barnsley last month, will be targeting a victory which would take him halfway to the £1,000,000 bonus on offer to a player who can win all four Home Nations events during the same season. Can he do it?
UK Championship (28 November – 10 December)
While the Betway UK Championship is not the final event of the calendar year, it remains one of the most important as defending champion Mark Selby returns looking to complete the ‘triple triple crown’, having already won the World and Masters crowns three times apiece.
As ever, the tournament will be played at the York Barbican and adopt a strictly seeded draw, with 1 v 128, 2 v 127 in the first round and so on. As with the Northern Ireland Open, the ranking list issued following the International Championship will be used to determine the draw.
With a £170,000 top prize and places at the Masters on the line with the crucial seeding cut-off to follow this event, expect plenty of drama over the course of the 13 days.
Check out the full 2017/18 calendar at worldsnooker.com
