by elliott west
Yesterday was a seismic day in Glasgow with many of the leading lights of snooker falling in the carnage that is the best of seven format.
Ding Junhui, John Higgins and Shaun Murphy all fell foul to the process with Mark Allen, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Mark Selby and Judd Trump remaining in contention for the title.
Snooker is always more exciting when other players do well and this has been proven at this year’s Scottish Open with faces such as Graeme Dott, Scott Donaldson, David Gilbert, Jack Lisowski and Thepchaiya Un-Nooh still riding high. Of course O’Sullivan and Trump remain favourites for this title but come Sunday we may again have a new person winning this Scottish title!
Rather than concentrating on results it is important to look at the broader picture in snooker. It’s clear especially in this event that lower ranked players are suffering as a result of the rules around the drawing process. The reason we don’t see many new faces on the televised stages of tournaments is because they are drawn against top seeds in the qualifiers or if they do get to the main event they lose heavily to such players.
Frankly this is not the way forward and in a climate where snooker clubs are on the decline, there is no proper base or few places for rising players to be coached and practice in. Don’t get me wrong places do exist like Grove Snooker, the Northern Snooker Centre and Dunstable Snooker Club where organisers do a fantastic job with mentoring and coaching but sadly they are still in the minority. Ask any player who was around in the golden days of snooker in the 1980’s, what it was like and they will recount stories of children filling clubs just to have have a chance of have a practice on a table.
I know World Snooker has attempted a school’s programme to engage pupils with snooker by linking it to mathematics and bravo for such efforts but there needs to be the likes of the Snooker Academy on a grand scale across the country.
Here Chinese and other European players are taken under the wing and can practice on the tables provided and live in the local area. Snooker can be a lonely place especially when you don’t speak the language or know the culture, so such institutions grow with help of funding from World Snooker, the National Lottery and local charities and businesses.
As we approach the end of another year and the last tournament of the season draws to an end, reflection is important for progress to happen.
Enough of my soapbox, I will leave that to the politicians and perhaps that is sore subject especially on a post election day. Moving back to the Scottish Open itself, so far this has been an exciting week of snooker with records broken, debate around the play of the tables especially the noise of the balls when in play and the need to improve replay facilities in the sports to scrutinise fouls.
This is a tremendous tournament has definitely breathed life again into the game in Scotland which has been sadly lacking in recent years. Hopefully other tournaments will spring up in Scotland as a result and with a large number of players on the tour harking from these shores, Glasgow can act as a catalyst.
