World Snooker have been busy away from the Crucible this week, announcing three new events as new chairman Barry Hearn attempts to pump some new life into the sport.
First up, and one for the old romantics out there, is a World Seniors Championship, to be held in Bradford in November. Snooker fans have clamoured for some sort of 'Masters' event featuring the former greats for years now and they finally get their wish with the £50,000 event set to feature the likes of Alex Higgins, Dennis Taylor, Joe Johnson, Tony Knowles and Mike Hallett.
The best-of-three frames event will hold a qualifying event in Bradford, in May, before the November contest in which the opening rounds will be best-of-three, semis best-of-five, while the final will be over seven frames.
Other former stars of the sport set to be involved include David Taylor and Darren Morgan, while current players still on the main tour, Steve Davis, Jimmy White, Nigel Bond, Peter Ebdon, Joe Swail, Ken Doherty, Dave Harold and Tony Drago, will also play in the event, but it is rumoured that Stephen Hendry turned down an invite.
This should be a fascinating event and it will be great to see some of the old guard in action again, but a shame that former pros like Willie Thorne, John Virgo, Neal Foulds, Kirk Stevens and Cliff Thorburn won't be amongst those lining up to play, rather than Ebdon and Doherty, who hardly rank among the senior statesmen of the sport.
Hearn has also announced a three-year deal for the Wuxi Classic in China, formerly the Jiangsu Classic – won by Mark Allen last year – and a tournament popular with the world's best players. The first year will be an invitation-only event, but there are already plans in place to make it a new ranking event for years two and three.
The third in the triumvirate of new events is the World Open, the first ever open ranking tournament, to be held in Glasgow, at the SECC in September – a strange choice of venue considering how poor attendances were there for the Grand Prix last year.
There will be field of 128 players, with the 96 Tour pros joined by 32 amateurs, which will include two former world champions, the ladies world champion plus another female player, two juniors and 20 players who will have come through qualifying events throughout the country, 10 from Rileys clubs and 10 from local snooker clubs. There will also be a relaxed dress code in operation and it gives the chance to pit unknown snooker hopefuls against their idols, which will have every club player in the UK desperate to get through.
Matches will be played over the best-of five frames, culminating in an 11-frame final, with £500,000 prize money up for grabs. The BBC, along with Eurosport, will screen the latter stages of the event.
