Shanghai Masters 2009 - Qualifyers and WC round discussions

[wildJONESEYE]

yesterday Xiao Guodong had back to back centuries in beating Thepchaiya Un Nooh but it just shows how class improves round by round he is trailing Rod Lawlor 4-1 today.

[Looki]

Jimmy leads 3-0. Hanneveer had a great chance to nick the third frame but a poor positional shot on the pink ruined it... Actually it was a poor shot on the blue too.

[Looki]

Couple of terrible safety shots from Jimmy in the first frame, still managed to get away with it (or Hanneveer unable to take his chances, if you like).. Hope it'll get better.

[bongo]

7th September to the 13th. As far as i know it will be shown on Eurosport, but i'm not sure if it will be televised elsewhere..

It would probably be shown on Chinese TV and then Eurosport are definitely providing the live coverage in Europe.

[Looki]

Janie will confirm again that the Chinese lads have visas problems. We've still got same problems with Thailand, Mongolia and China players on the PIOS.

Over the last couple of years WSA, together with representatives from the Academy have met with British Home Office officials to try and get the visa problems sorted once and for all.

The PIOS is usually the difficult one because on the pro tour the players apply for a work permit, which backs up their visa applications.

But on the PIOS they're not professionals so it can't, strictly speaking, be described as work, and it's not a holiday either!

I am a tad confused about the Wenbo situation. The Chinese lads told me this morning Wenbo has no visa. Last week WSA told us categorically that no matches were being held over.

But then late this afternoon sometime their website was changed to say match held over to China.

Draw your own conclusions from that. It should always have been held over. It was last year and Wenbo was a round further back last year so had two matches held over.

I can't think of any easy solution to visa problems, which sometimes originate from the home country and sometimes from the country the players are hoping to visit.

We get it all the time in IBSF events. Although it's more rare that it would happen in a European or Asian event as there doesn't tend to be a problem within a region.

It's all about security!! Maybe WPBSA should consult MI5 or MI6 Been watching 'Spooks' too much Anyone familiar with the series..?

For real, it's really unfortunate that they missed the first qualifiers since there aren't too many ranking tournaments this season. Many possible, valuable points lost.

[spike]

When will the actual tournament starts? Will it be televised?

7th September to the 13th. As far as i know it will be shown on Eurosport, but i'm not sure if it will be televised elsewhere..

[choy]

When will the actual tournament starts? Will it be televised?

[Forman]

Janie

michael white looked to be playing well with a 64,72,82 and a 92 ...his match with Parrot tomorrow might be worth a £2.99..

bugger, another match id really like to see, i can see this being an expensive snooker season for me

[wildJONESEYE]

Janie

michael white looked to be playing well with a 64,72,82 and a 92 ...his match with Parrot tomorrow might be worth a £2.99..

[wildJONESEYE]

Intreresting that Xiao,Tchepchayia,Anda and few more Asians did not have any visa problems.
Are more precaucious?

the british problam in a nutshell

they could confuse Julian Cleary to think hes straight lol

[JanieWatkins]

Intreresting that Xiao,Tchepchayia,Anda and few more Asians did not have any visa problems.
Are more precaucious?

There doesn't seem to be any reason why some Chinese players are having a problem and others aren't having a problem.

Thepchaiya is from Thailand anyway and he and Noppadol and James Wattana have had no problem, whereas Suriya and Thaniwat haven't had their through for the PIOS.

For China, Liu chuang has missed two pios events because of no visa already.
It may be that some just left their visa applications too late to get them through, whereas Xiao and Anda have been in the country for a while I think.

[JanieWatkins]

Originally I came on to mention today's play!

The match between Patrick Wallace and his NI "prodigy" Jordan Brown was a fantastic match. Very high quality, 3 centuries in the match. and Jordan lost the match by one point on the final black...

Michael White and Lee Spick both scored extremely well in their matches. Lee won the speed award of the day though.

As I mentioned in my news report on Global Snooker, Ian Preece hasn't been well all summer. He's got some stomach problem and the doctors can't make up their minds what it is. He's lost a lot of weight. He didn't look well today for sure and he's due to go to hospital soon to get it sorted.

Bjorn Haneveer went over the handlebars of his bike on a ride recently. Smashed his head against a log, knocked himself out, broke his shoulder.
He has three metal plates in his shoulder and pins to hold the whole lot together.
He played remarkably well today under those circumstances. There's a few shots he just can't play at the moment, like raising the cue up to strike down on a ball, or over an obstructing ball etc.

Apart from that everyone reported fit and well on day one.

[wildhoney28]

Intreresting that Xiao,Tchepchayia,Anda and few more Asians did not have any visa problems.
Are more precaucious?

[JanieWatkins]

Janie will confirm again that the Chinese lads have visas problems. We've still got same problems with Thailand, Mongolia and China players on the PIOS.

Over the last couple of years WSA, together with representatives from the Academy have met with British Home Office officials to try and get the visa problems sorted once and for all.

The PIOS is usually the difficult one because on the pro tour the players apply for a work permit, which backs up their visa applications.

But on the PIOS they're not professionals so it can't, strictly speaking, be described as work, and it's not a holiday either!

I am a tad confused about the Wenbo situation. The Chinese lads told me this morning Wenbo has no visa. Last week WSA told us categorically that no matches were being held over.

But then late this afternoon sometime their website was changed to say match held over to China.

Draw your own conclusions from that. It should always have been held over. It was last year and Wenbo was a round further back last year so had two matches held over.

I can't think of any easy solution to visa problems, which sometimes originate from the home country and sometimes from the country the players are hoping to visit.

We get it all the time in IBSF events. Although it's more rare that it would happen in a European or Asian event as there doesn't tend to be a problem within a region.

[Matt_2745]

Yeah and it's not as if it's the first time either. Don't know enough about the system to really criticise though I guess but it appears to be a strange thing to be happening these days.