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Well JiangYu I've never heard of Phil Seaton, McLeod before this very topic. I believe they're basing their judgment off the rankings and off previous performances. Might be wrong though...
Yeah you're right Qualifiers aren't broadcasted anywhere.
Well done to Tony Knowles. I dont remember him playing myself live in the flesh but have seen videos. Jiangju a lot of people havent heard of some of these players quite simply because they arent on the main tour or there very young but you will hear of a few more in the next couple of years.
Always play snooker with a smile on your face...You never know when you'll pot your last ball.
China Open 2009 Fantasy Game Winner.
Shanghai Masters 2009 Fantasy Game Winner.
Jimmy White- V. Muldoon 2-2 at mid session interval.....after Jim lead 2-0.
"There has only ever been Alex Higgins, myself and now Ronnie O'sullivan who play the game the way it should be played with such excitement - I know the fans love it this way" - Jimmy White
After the surprisingly big interest for the prelim stage (quite a few of us would even watch it on live stream if possible) and this win from Tony Knowles, I think it would be a good idea from the WSA to hold a proper 'wildcard event' for the WC. They could include the WSA coaches as usual and they could invite some former pros, who are still playing at a decent enough level, and want to play. The WSA could also invite lets say the top 3 of the PIOS, and perhaps even the women's world champion. I think they could fill 16 places easily, maybe even more. Then the "first four" (so the semi-finalists), or more could have a go against Main Tour players like this year.
So basically apart from the WSA coaches/Knowles we could have a field with players like these:
Kirk Stevens
Alex Higgins
Tony Drago
Darren Morgan
Mike Hallett
Dean Reynolds
James Wattana
Bjorn Haneveer
Craig Steadman
Shokat Ali
Reanne Evans
etc.
I think there would be some interest for an event like that, and the winners might stand a chance against some of the lower ranked pros and would draw some audience for the qualifying rounds as well.
rivercard... This kind of "Ok you kids... eat the veggies first, then you get the meat!" idea actually might work.
Well yes, I think it would work quite well. A think there are 2 acceptable principles regarding the WC. The first one is to say it is the World Professional Championship, so only the players on the Main Tour can enter, and no-one else. That is fair enough. If, however, the WSA starts to add 'wild-cards' to the tournament (who to be fair don't stand a chance against 90% of the pros), than why not invite some "past masters" too? I know it is possible to keep the pro status as Tony Knowles does, but not many players would like to do that, because than they couldn't enter any amateur events. That would mean that the likes of Kirk Stevens and Darren Morgan couldn't compete in the IBSF events, which they are willing to do otherwise to represent their country. I'm sure a lot of snooker fans would like to see the aforementioned former pros taking part in the qualifying.
The other fair solution is to make the WC open for anyone (for some fee of course), I think many would pay quite an amount of money (which the WSA could do with) to appear in the snooker stat books.
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