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Ssb - brazil here we come
The new Brazilian Masters has been a long time coming.
It was Barry Hearn’s Matchroom that first took 15-red snooker to Brazil in 1985 when Steve Davis played a televised exhibition against the national champion, Rui Chapeu.
Brazil has a history of playing on smaller tables with ten reds so this was something of a novelty.
In the 1990s, it was rumoured that Brazil would stage the World Cup but this all fell through.
At the Wembley Masters in 2004 I attended a press conference in which two Brazilian promoters, as well as the then WPBSA chairman, Sir Rodney Walker, announced a new tournament in Recife.
Very exciting it sounded, too, the only snag being it never happened (leading to cruel pressroom wags to call it a Recife for disaster).
This time around, things have been done properly. The problem, though, has been securing a date in the increasingly over-crowded calendar.
Players just back from Shanghai are having to jet out again almost immediately, although the overriding reason for no-shows is financial. Snooker Scene knows of leading players who have asked for more money to go.
But it’s an invitation tournament. Players are free to either accept the invitation or not. It’s not as if they don’t have plenty of snooker to play elsewhere throughout the season.
Davis is going, indeed was requested by the Brazilians who remember his exhibition a quarter of a century ago.
Stephen Hendry will also be on the trip, as will Mark Selby, who has just won the Shanghai Masters.
Former world champions Peter Ebdon, Shaun Murphy and Graeme Dott have accepted their invitations.
The tournament also represents a good chance for players a little outside the elite to win a TV title.
It is being played in Florianopolis at an exclusive resort, the choice of the Brazilian promoters.
In this month’s issue of Snooker Scene we publish a letter of concern from a British ex-pat who lives in Brazil.
He believes the venue is too secluded and the ticket prices too high. Coupled with the lack of so many star names and the fear is the audience attendance will be low.
I hope not. This is a new market and an exciting step for snooker, albeit into the unknown.
It’s one of those events where the identity of the eventual winner is less important than the spectacle the players jointly put on.
Good luck to those involved.
More...
It was Barry Hearn’s Matchroom that first took 15-red snooker to Brazil in 1985 when Steve Davis played a televised exhibition against the national champion, Rui Chapeu.
Brazil has a history of playing on smaller tables with ten reds so this was something of a novelty.
In the 1990s, it was rumoured that Brazil would stage the World Cup but this all fell through.
At the Wembley Masters in 2004 I attended a press conference in which two Brazilian promoters, as well as the then WPBSA chairman, Sir Rodney Walker, announced a new tournament in Recife.
Very exciting it sounded, too, the only snag being it never happened (leading to cruel pressroom wags to call it a Recife for disaster).
This time around, things have been done properly. The problem, though, has been securing a date in the increasingly over-crowded calendar.
Players just back from Shanghai are having to jet out again almost immediately, although the overriding reason for no-shows is financial. Snooker Scene knows of leading players who have asked for more money to go.
But it’s an invitation tournament. Players are free to either accept the invitation or not. It’s not as if they don’t have plenty of snooker to play elsewhere throughout the season.
Davis is going, indeed was requested by the Brazilians who remember his exhibition a quarter of a century ago.
Stephen Hendry will also be on the trip, as will Mark Selby, who has just won the Shanghai Masters.
Former world champions Peter Ebdon, Shaun Murphy and Graeme Dott have accepted their invitations.
The tournament also represents a good chance for players a little outside the elite to win a TV title.
It is being played in Florianopolis at an exclusive resort, the choice of the Brazilian promoters.
In this month’s issue of Snooker Scene we publish a letter of concern from a British ex-pat who lives in Brazil.
He believes the venue is too secluded and the ticket prices too high. Coupled with the lack of so many star names and the fear is the audience attendance will be low.
I hope not. This is a new market and an exciting step for snooker, albeit into the unknown.
It’s one of those events where the identity of the eventual winner is less important than the spectacle the players jointly put on.
Good luck to those involved.
More...