What is happening in Women's Snooker

[robertmac]

I thought there were some very promising players
coming out of both the UK as well as China and
that coaching in China was being run by Terry
Griffiths and/or his team of coaches.
I realize there are issues getting sponsors however
I would have hoped the Chinese would have come
forward with some sponsorship.

[SnkrRef]

The WLBSA seem to be cancelling each of the events for which there is no sponsorship. Seems like most players (English as well as overseas players) will only travel to those where there is decent prize money on offer.

Having said that I think there were only 19 entries for the event in Derby a few months back where they played for £1540 first prize I think. Eight of those came from overseas, the rest from English: not even any Welsh or Scots.

[Byrom]

That is terrible money - world snooker and business's in general should be ashamed not backing these ladies more.

What they need is a few super sexy ton makers wearing hot fashion sponsored by a few clothes companies - maybe one player who turns up does something unusual to capture the attentions of the cameras and the sponsors-

A few are capable - they need a sexy role model not shy to do it. I always felt each big event UK - World and Masters and others should have a single frame shoot out for the women running alongside and sharing the limelight.

[robertmac]

World Snooker should certainly help out as they
are all about growing the sport in various countries
and adding women's snooker can only help expose
more people to the game.

[philip in china]

I had wondered what was going on as there were no posts on here for months.

We had a similar discussion years ago. The reason sponsors won't sponsor any of the women is that they are not good enough to do well on the pro circuit. When a woman, who can compete at a professional level, emerges I am sure she won't lack for sponsorship. The point is ability has to be proved first, then the money will come in.

[Londonlad147]

I had wondered what was going on as there were no posts on here for months.

I suspect that some of that might be down to Mark Jones (Hannah's dad) having taken a back seat now that Hannah has largely stopped playing. Mark was very proactive at promoting the Ladies' game.

[philip in china]

I thought it might be something of the kind.

[likahokeith]

According to the results of IBSF World Championships, Belgium, Hong Kong, Thailand, Australia and India always attend the competition, why don't expand to these places first?

[sberry]

there wont be sponsorship as the standard of play is just at good club level play, its like asking for sponsors for local league div 1 darts play or non-league football - nobody will throw any significant money at it because there is no return, it would be charity only

you can't make it pay with prize money as there aren't enough to pay decent entries and if there were, one player would hoover most of it up anyway

[Master Blaster]

Women aren't going to go into snooker clubs unless sexist attitudes are dropped and a warm welcome offered. Reanne Evans is of a very high standard, so standards are improving. Some clubs still ban women and they need to change for the good of the game. Evans has faced this stupid sexism and still does. If the leagues won't ban sexism at clubs, then World Snooker needs to step in and ban those leagues. Snooker is a good way to stay fit, even though it's not exhaustive, it's still better than sitting on a sofa watching crap. We need to get more girls into sport and this would be a good sport for girls who take no pleasure in running round and round in circles. Instead of the dreaded cross country run, maybe they can play pool or snooker at school instead? Tables can be had quite cheap second hand as well.

[robertmac]

There is a good write up on World Snooker about Reanne Evans
'Reanne Evans To Compete In World Championship'.

http://www.worldsnooker.com/page/New...531587,00.html

"We are working with Ladies Snooker to bring their events under our governance where we can provide sound sports development. World Ladies already has over 40 players on their official World Ranking list and it is our vision to use this as a starting point to see ladies snooker grow.

[philip in china]

We've discussed this many times before.

[sberry]

Yes we have.

[philip in china]

Women aren't going to go into snooker clubs unless sexist attitudes are dropped and a warm welcome offered. Reanne Evans is of a very high standard, so standards are improving. Some clubs still ban women and they need to change for the good of the game. Evans has faced this stupid sexism and still does. If the leagues won't ban sexism at clubs, then World Snooker needs to step in and ban those leagues. Snooker is a good way to stay fit, even though it's not exhaustive, it's still better than sitting on a sofa watching crap. We need to get more girls into sport and this would be a good sport for girls who take no pleasure in running round and round in circles. Instead of the dreaded cross country run, maybe they can play pool or snooker at school instead? Tables can be had quite cheap second hand as well.

How would World Snooker ban a league?

[thecuecoach]

Womens Snookers decline in the UK is mainly down to the fall in entries which has been constant over the last 20 years.
UK entries to WLBSA events are down to single figures now, and thus small entries make it difficult to attract sponsers.
You could put 20k into per event, but if there are not Women playing Snooker it would probably not help much, apart from attract a few ex-players back from English Pool.

Think about it how many Women play in your local League ?, in our County we have only 4 registered females players out of 850 registered Snooker and Billiards League players.
Past regimes in World Snooker/WPBSA have very much failed to support the efforts of Mandy Fisher and the WLBSA, who have kept the Womens game alive during this period.

This is offcourse all a result of the total decline in Juniors who have come into Snooker over the last 10-15 years.
Until we have a funded National development scheme in place for planned growth in the game we will unfortunatly see no change.

Perhaps the WPBSA / EASB recent announcment will see some positive moves in this area, and will move us towards Sport England actually recognising & funding Snooker as a sport, while offcourse it annually funds such 'popular' sports as Lacrosse and Water skiing to the tune of millions (i kid you not check out Sport Englands site).