Category: Snooker

The final action of the 2021/22 season begins on Monday when a number of prominent potters attempt to secure their professional future in Sheffield.

Former Shoot Out winner Michael Holt, 2020 Crucible quarter-finalist Kurt Maflin and 1999 British Open champion Fergal O’Brien are three of the names bidding to recapture their respective playing rights on the main World Snooker Tour circuit for the next two years.

Holt needed to finish inside the top 64 to extend his 24-year stay on the tour, but finished the season in 65th spot after a 6-3 loss to Tom Ford in the third round of World Championship qualifying last month at the English Institute of Sport.

Maflin finished his campaign at 66th in the rankings with O’Brien at 79th.

“I now have to go to Q School and get through. My game is still there. What can I do? I just have to prepare for it and see how I go.

“The situation completely took away any thoughts about the Crucible. All I wanted to do was to win my next match and be safe. If I’d got to Judgement Day, then I’d have thought about it. All I wanted was to save my tour spot and it was all or nothing.

“You have to win your matches and I didn’t. It happens every year to players and this time it happened to me. I tried and I failed.”

12 tour cards are available in Sheffield. Three events are staged at Ponds Forge between 16th May until 2nd June with four semi-finalists from each tournament earning a tour card.

Holt begins his campaign on Tuesday needing to win six matches to secure his future. If he falls shorts in event one, he will move onto event two of Q School.

An Asia-Oceania Q School will also take place in Bangkok for the first time starting on 1st June with another four tour cards on the line.

Two events are to be hosted Thailand’s capital city with the finalists from both earning a two-year card to the elite circuit.

Simon Blackwell has been hit with an 18-month suspension from snooker after being found guilty of an attempt to fix the outcome of a match, the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) said.

The 29-year-old, who was playing under amateur status, was competing in the EPSB Open Series – where the carrot for a top-four finish would have been a place at Q School – when he approached another player and offered £200 to ensure he won the two frames he required to guarantee a spot in the top four.

The player approached by Blackwell did not take up the offer and reported it to WPBSA officials.

Blackwell was handed an immediate suspension by WPBSA chief Jason Ferguson, pending a disciplinary hearing.

At the hearing, Blackwell was found in breach of three WPBSA rules:

• 2.1.2.1 to fix or contrive, or to be a party to any effort to fix or contrive, the result, score, progress, conduct or any other aspect of the Tour and/or any Tournament or Match;
• 2.1.2.2 to seek or accept or offer or agree to accept any bribe or other reward to fix or to contrive in any way or otherwise to influence improperly the result, score, progress, conduct or any other aspect of the Tour and/or any Tournament or Match;
• 2.1.2.4 to solicit, induce, entice, persuade, encourage or facilitate any Member to breach any of the foregoing provisions of this paragraph 2.1.2.

Blackwell was also ordered to pay costs of £1,400.

WST confirmed Blackwell has until May 27 to lodge an appeal.

Simon Blackwell has been hit with an 18-month suspension from snooker after being found guilty of an attempt to fix the outcome of a match, the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) said.

The 29-year-old, who was playing under amateur status, was competing in the EPSB Open Series – where the carrot for a top-four finish would have been a place at Q School – when he approached another player and offered £200 to ensure he won the two frames he required to guarantee a spot in the top four.

The player approached by Blackwell did not take up the offer and reported it to WPBSA officials.

Blackwell was handed an immediate suspension by WPBSA chief Jason Ferguson, pending a disciplinary hearing.

At the hearing, Blackwell was found in breach of three WPBSA rules:

• 2.1.2.1 to fix or contrive, or to be a party to any effort to fix or contrive, the result, score, progress, conduct or any other aspect of the Tour and/or any Tournament or Match;
• 2.1.2.2 to seek or accept or offer or agree to accept any bribe or other reward to fix or to contrive in any way or otherwise to influence improperly the result, score, progress, conduct or any other aspect of the Tour and/or any Tournament or Match;
• 2.1.2.4 to solicit, induce, entice, persuade, encourage or facilitate any Member to breach any of the foregoing provisions of this paragraph 2.1.2.

Blackwell was also ordered to pay costs of £1,400.

WST confirmed Blackwell has until May 27 to lodge an appeal.

Simon Blackwell has been hit with an 18-month suspension from snooker after being found guilty of an attempt to fix the outcome of a match, the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) said.

The 29-year-old, who was playing under amateur status, was competing in the EPSB Open Series – where the carrot for a top-four finish would have been a place at Q School – when he approached another player and offered £200 to ensure he won the two frames he required to guarantee a spot in the top four.

The player approached by Blackwell did not take up the offer and reported it to WPBSA officials.

Blackwell was handed an immediate suspension by WPBSA chief Jason Ferguson, pending a disciplinary hearing.

At the hearing, Blackwell was found in breach of three WPBSA rules:

• 2.1.2.1 to fix or contrive, or to be a party to any effort to fix or contrive, the result, score, progress, conduct or any other aspect of the Tour and/or any Tournament or Match;
• 2.1.2.2 to seek or accept or offer or agree to accept any bribe or other reward to fix or to contrive in any way or otherwise to influence improperly the result, score, progress, conduct or any other aspect of the Tour and/or any Tournament or Match;
• 2.1.2.4 to solicit, induce, entice, persuade, encourage or facilitate any Member to breach any of the foregoing provisions of this paragraph 2.1.2.

Blackwell was also ordered to pay costs of £1,400.

WST confirmed Blackwell has until May 27 to lodge an appeal.

Simon Blackwell has been hit with an 18-month suspension from snooker after being found guilty of an attempt to fix the outcome of a match, the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) said.

The 29-year-old, who was playing under amateur status, was competing in the EPSB Open Series – where the carrot for a top-four finish would have been a place at Q School – when he approached another player and offered £200 to ensure he won the two frames he required to guarantee a spot in the top four.

The player approached by Blackwell did not take up the offer and reported it to WPBSA officials.

Blackwell was handed an immediate suspension by WPBSA chief Jason Ferguson, pending a disciplinary hearing.

At the hearing, Blackwell was found in breach of three WPBSA rules:

• 2.1.2.1 to fix or contrive, or to be a party to any effort to fix or contrive, the result, score, progress, conduct or any other aspect of the Tour and/or any Tournament or Match;
• 2.1.2.2 to seek or accept or offer or agree to accept any bribe or other reward to fix or to contrive in any way or otherwise to influence improperly the result, score, progress, conduct or any other aspect of the Tour and/or any Tournament or Match;
• 2.1.2.4 to solicit, induce, entice, persuade, encourage or facilitate any Member to breach any of the foregoing provisions of this paragraph 2.1.2.

Blackwell was also ordered to pay costs of £1,400.

WST confirmed Blackwell has until May 27 to lodge an appeal.