World Championship 2009 [provisional discussion]

[JiangYu]

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.

You've never heard of McLeod

[RocketRoy1983]

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.

[attilahun]

Jimmy White- V. Muldoon 2-2 at mid session interval.....after Jim lead 2-0.

[Templeton Peck]

Tony Knowles might be my dad so I always like to see him do well.

[dannyd0g]

Tony Knowles might be my dad so I always like to see him do well.

LOL - good one !

[jw147]

think tony might be my dad too..he was a bit of a romancer in his time

jimmy starting to slip up? 2-0 and now 2-2

[jw147]

typical jimmy..puttin his fans through the mill again.

5-2 down

[JohnPizzapan]

You've never heard of McLeod

Have just joined this forum recently so my snooker knowledge is rather basic to be honest

[noel]

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.



=o)

Noel

[crucible77]

yay Tony Knowles won, how many games would he have to win to win the tournament

[Jules_USA]

yay Tony Knowles won, how many games would he have to win to win the tournament

I believe TK would just have to win another eight matches to become world champion.

[jw147]

i think if tony wins his next 9 matches he will be crowned the 2009 world champion

[crucible77]

wot are the odds on tony becoming 2009 world champion?

[rivercard]

@ Noel

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.

[jw147]

wot are the odds on tony becoming 2009 world champion?

not sure..probably about 33-1, i mean 33,000-1

worth a flutter, good qualifying draw