By elliott west
ROKiT World Seniors made a surprise announcement yesterday to create a separate tour event for players 55 and over. This a fabulous decision and shows that snooker supports diversity and inclusion. I believe you are never too old to take part in any sport and by creating this tour, it always gives amateurs the chance to compete for silverware and prize money. The “Super Seniors” calendar will I believe create new faces in the sport and showcase their skills, attracting a new audience to players that previously played in clubs and small events across the country.
As recent trends have shown the longevity of playing careers has greatly increased and the certainty days of your twilight years happening in your 40’s have well and truly gone. It is true that snooker is a very hard game to play and even harder to play well at a high and consistent standard. So any announcement that supports this cause is greatly welcomed, so I applaud Jason Francis and Jason Ferguson for agreeing to make this happen with this announcement.
This tour will be made up of 5 “Super Events” and a separate ranking list will be created. The top ranked player at the end of the series will be given a place in the ROKiT World Senior 6 Reds Event in June with the chance of winning £20,000. Entries will only be open to current ROKit World Senior Tour Card players who have entered the main event being staged that weekend. Entries will be limited to 16 players who will play a best of three frame knockout event with a £400 prize fund, entry will be free of charge. The qualifying events on the tour will be as follows:
The Super Senior Events will be held on the Sunday of the main qualifiers in:
Northampton on the 7th July
Jersey on the 8th September
Newbury on the 10th November
Coulsdon on the 9th February
Clacton on the 10th March
These are very exciting times for snooker and decisions like this will attract more women to compete. The main Ladies tour is starting to thrive and with this announcement we should see the great female players that are out there come to the forefront of this amateur circuit for the over 55s. As a blogger and fan I am very proud to be part of our snooker family and this decision only further enforces that snooker is alive, well and there are many more fantastic years ahead for this great sport.
