Bad planning?

[elvaago]

The Welsh open starts the day after the Malta Cup ends. How horrible is this for planning?

February

4-10: Malta Cup
Hilton Conference Centre Official Welsh Open site
11-17: Welsh Open
The Newport Centre
Official Welsh Open site

[kellie-text]

On the plus side, only the top players will be in Malta and none of those will be in the first round first day in Wales.

[wildJONESEYE]

well tony drago will be in malta, joe swail will be there plus dominic dale and joe perry.....

all players that could be on very soon at the welsh open if they reach the later stages in malta.....

[elvaago]

You are not quite correct, kellie-text. The Malta Cup will at least four players who are playing on day 1 of the Welsh Open. So if Marco Fu wins the Malta Cup, he's going to have to fly overnight to Wales to play his first round match against a qualifier as he is in the first half of the draw. This goes as well for Joe Swail and Joe Perry. Dale doesn't play until day 2, so he is luckier in that regard.

Malta Cup players: (* will play on day 1 of the Welsh Open)
Group 1
John Higgins
Joe Perry *
Ali Carter
Ryan Day
Alex Borg
Group 2
Ken Doherty
Neil Robertson
Joe Swail *
Stephen Lee
Marco Fu *
Group 3
Shaun Murphy
Stephen Hendry
Stephen Maguire
Mark Selby
Tony Drago
Group 4
Graeme Dott
Peter Ebdon
Mark Williams
Ding Junhui
Dominic Dale *

[wildJONESEYE]

You are not quite correct, kellie-text. The Malta Cup will at least four players who are playing on day 1 of the Welsh Open. So if Marco Fu wins the Malta Cup, he's going to have to fly overnight to Wales to play his first round match against a qualifier as he is in the first half of the draw. This goes as well for Joe Swail and Joe Perry. Dale doesn't play until day 2, so he is luckier in that regard.

Malta Cup players: (* will play on day 1 of the Welsh Open)
Group 1
John Higgins
Joe Perry *
Ali Carter
Ryan Day
Alex Borg
Group 2
Ken Doherty
Neil Robertson
Joe Swail *
Stephen Lee
Marco Fu *
Group 3
Shaun Murphy
Stephen Hendry
Stephen Maguire
Mark Selby
Tony Drago
Group 4
Graeme Dott
Peter Ebdon
Mark Williams
Ding Junhui
Dominic Dale *

now that is increadably bad planning.........suerly they could re arange the matches at the welsh open so that the players that play in malta could have played at least second day in wales..........and when you talk about Marco Fu in particular he could go all the way and win it hes one of the form players at the minute.......

[ADR147]

umm to be fair though its not like flying from china - malta to wales is not a long flight!

[wildJONESEYE]

no but christ lol its a flight...obviously for it to trully afect them they will have to reach the final though......

[ADR147]

i suspect they will cope it not the hardest job in the world is it!

[wildJONESEYE]

ummmmmmm no but not in every job you arent expected to go from one country to another and get payed less if you dont perform well and goes home early due to tierdness either do you lol

[CaveBadSeed]

This is insane planning - it's happened before as well - a few years ago, Joe Perry reached the final of a tournament & the UK started the next day. He had a final then a first round match in the space of 2 days.

What makes it even more crazy is the number of weeks where there aren't any tournaments, then 2 in 2 weeks.

Utter madness & more evidence of the complete lack of sense the people who run Snooker have, where venue decisions are made more on cost than actual decent venues.

[ADR147]

ummmmmmm no but not in every job you arent expected to go from one country to another and get payed less if you dont perform well and goes home early due to tierdness either do you lol

i would cope!

[missneworleans]

You are not quite correct, kellie-text. The Malta Cup will at least four players who are playing on day 1 of the Welsh Open. So if Marco Fu wins the Malta Cup, he's going to have to fly overnight to Wales to play his first round match against a qualifier as he is in the first half of the draw. This goes as well for Joe Swail and Joe Perry. Dale doesn't play until day 2, so he is luckier in that regard.

Malta Cup players: (* will play on day 1 of the Welsh Open)
Group 1
John Higgins
Joe Perry *
Ali Carter
Ryan Day
Alex Borg
Group 2
Ken Doherty
Neil Robertson
Joe Swail *
Stephen Lee
Marco Fu *
Group 3
Shaun Murphy
Stephen Hendry
Stephen Maguire
Mark Selby
Tony Drago
Group 4
Graeme Dott
Peter Ebdon
Mark Williams
Ding Junhui
Dominic Dale *

I think only Fu may suffer if he gets to Malta Cup final, others probably won't

[ferret]

The Welsh Open was cursed last year also with all of the building work going on around The Newport Center - Remember my article last year - http://www.jesterssnooker.co.uk/arti...ut_of_the_open

[Alex0paul]

Jimmy White had worse. He finished his Grand Prix qualifying and then had a Premier League match later that night down in Surrey(?). It isn't exactly going to be the most stressful of things and a professional should be a ble to cope with that. Also if they are in form they wouldn't want to have a break.

Edited to add that Stephen Maguire reached the final of the British Open and then the next day was in York playing his first match on his way to winning the UK Championships so he coped with it.

[Nina]

Are other tournaments even taken into consideration when each is being organised? I would expect other factors to be given priority, such as the availability of the venue. The Malta Cup wasn't on the calendar at the beginning of the season and that can explain the schedule issues.
In any case, I think the players will manage just fine.