History of the Champion of Champions

The Champion of Champions is a (relatively) recent non-ranking addition to the snooker calendar that involves the event winners of the prior year battling it out to determine who is the true champion. Sixteen players compete in a series of short-format matches, culminating in a best-of-19 final contest where the winner gets a six-figure pay out worthy of champion status.

Despite my stating the tournament is ‘relatively recent’, earlier editions of the Champion of Champions did exist in 1978 and 1980. These were won by Ray Reardon and Doug Mountjoy however, the events didn’t perform well commercially and thus, were discontinued for the foreseeable future.

Fast forward a few decades and the Champion of Champions was recommissioned in 2013 where audience response was far better received, and fans were treated to a match worthy of a final in every contest. Similar to the Masters and the Coral Cup series, the Champion of Champions provided matches that a viewer would normally have to wait multiple rounds of your typical flat-draw event to witness.

The event sees the sixteen players separated into 4x4 ‘groups’ where winners proceed further into the tournament. I put groups in quotations because it isn’t like the Championship League where all players have a chance to play each other; rather two matches are played and the winner of each match progress.

Since its rebirth in 2013, Ronnie O’Sullivan has seen the most success at the Champion of Champions. He won the first two iterations of the tournament in 2013-2014 and has contested the finals in 2016-17, following this with a third title in 2018. O’Sullivan chose not to participate in 2015, leading to Neil Robertson triumphing over Mark Allen; a defeat that Allen was able to remedy in last year’s final. John Higgins and Shaun Murphy are also members of the CoC alumni with their victories over O’Sullivan in 2016 and 2017.

The Champion of Champions was typically held in the Ricoh Arena in Coventry but has since seen venue changes to adapt to the changing times. Most events last season along with the CoC were held in Milton Keynes and this year will see the contest held in Bolton. Whether the tournament will ever return to Coventry is yet to be known.

The Champion of Champions has provided some great contests such as Robertson’s and Trump’s final in 2019 (click here to read about that), O’Sullivan’s and White’s first round match in 2019 (click here to read about that) as well as Reanne Evans’s contest against Shaun Murphy in 2019. Actually, 2019 seemed like the year to watch now that I’m thinking about it. Although, the final between O’Sullivan and Wilson in 2018 also provided a dramatic contest.

But tell me what you think! What do you think of the Champion of Champions? Is it an event you look forward to each year? Are there things that you would change about it? It’s a tournament broadcasted by the ITV team; are you a fan of the coverage? Let me know in the comments!

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Like this Short? Click here to read: How the Champion of Champions Participants are Decided

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History of the British Open

The British Open makes a return to the snooker calendar after being absent for over a decade and a half as the event finds a home in an already packed calendar for 2021/22. The long running, near two-decade tournament has been won by all the greats of the 1980s/90s and will now see the current generation of players attempt to add their names to the impressive list before them.

The British Open was branded and introduced in 1985 to add to the handful of ranking events that existed during the 1980s. Similar to most ranking events, The Open followed the format of a series of short-form matches, culminating in a best-of-17 final (with the exception of the earlier editions of the event).

It’s an event that has been won by all the great names that you can think of going back to the golden decades of snooker – Davis, Hendry, White, The Class of ’92, Paul Hunter and more. Hendry and Higgins share the most British Open trophies with four each, claiming almost half of the victories in this tournament during its original tenure.

If you’re a fan of maximums, the British Open seems to be a breeding ground for the perfect break. The tournament has seen six maximum breaks achieved, three of which were compiled during the 1999 iteration. These were made by Stephen Hendry, Graeme Dott and Jason Prince (in qualifying).

The British Open had a significant presence in Derby from 1985-94 before moving to Plymouth until 2000. For the final few years that the British Open existed, it moved across various locations such as Newcastle, Telford and Brighton. If WST can adhere to the name of the event and have it held at various locations across Britain each year, I think this would be a great sight for the tour.

Whether you’re a fan of the decision to add another event to the calendar will depend which perspective you view it from. If you’re a player, then you’ll probably relish a further opportunity to make some money and win an event. Alternatively, it could be seen as another event that players are obligated to compete in thus burning them out even more. If you’re a fan, you’ll probably view this is the same manner. Or you’ll be delighted at the fact that you’ll be able to watch some more snooker.

This is more of a display of the change in management as Barry Hearn stepped aside from his governing responsibility as Chairman and passed the mantle to Steve Dawson. I would imagine this being the first of a series of ideas that Dawson plans to implement in order to plant his flag and make his mark. My question is, will the newly revived British Open be included as part of Home Nations series?

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Like this Short? Click here to read: History of Snooker & Sports Personality of the Year (SPOTY)

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History of Snooker & Sports Personality of the Year (SPOTY)

It probably means little to some people but conversely, some are very vocal about SPOTY and their selection process given how snooker stars (and the sport in general) has been overlooked for the past three decades. Nevertheless, snooker has found itself back in the Sports Personality spotlight, which hopefully will give a lot of outside viewers a reason to tune into BBC or Eurosport for a ranking event or two.

SPOTY dates back to 1954 – the year where Sir Roger Bannister broke the four minute mile barrier (earning a nomination for the award) and has since been recognising fellow athletes across a wide array of sports, primarily athletics, cycling, tennis and formula 1. It wasn’t until the golden age of snooker during the 1980s where a young up-and-comer by the name of Steve Davis would earn himself a record five top three finishes within SPOTY across the decade. Lewis Hamilton is joint alongside Davis with this record…for the moment.

Alex Higgins seemed a suitable choice for a SPOTY nomination given his moniker as The People’s Champion. Higgins gained the nomination in 1982, the same year he won his second World Championship, but lost out to gold medal decathlete, Daley Thompson. Following Higgins, Davis was the only person to secure SPOTY nominations where he eventually won the prize in 1988, thanks to his stellar performance in capturing the entire Triple Crown that season – and being the first player to do so.

Only one other snooker player had been nominated for SPOTY following Davis and Higgins. If you didn’t know beforehand, you’d be correct in assuming that it was Stephen Hendry. In 1990, Hendry matched Davis’ achievement of gathering all the majors under his belt that season. This warranted a SPOTY nomination in which he lost out to footballer, Paul Gascoigne.

And that leads us to 2020. For thirty years, snooker had not even seen a hint of recognition when it related to SPOTY, as it was overshadowed by many other sports. This wasn’t down to an absence of characters or moments, which were plentiful throughout the decades, but perhaps because of the sport not having the same staying power that it once had in the 1980/90s.

There had been a lot of debate recently, particularly over the past few years as to why Ronnie O’Sullivan specifically hadn’t been nominated given how dominant he has been whilst chipping away at the records held by his predecessors. But I think O’Sullivan said it best in that it wasn’t anything against him necessarily (although, I imagine that would be a slight part of it), but rather where snooker is on the pecking order.

Snooker was such a force in the 1980/90s, similar to how tennis and golf are nowadays whereas, snooker has faded in the background by comparison. It was well put by O’Sullivan that during the 1980s, most people knew who Davis was, regardless of whether they were snooker fans or not. The same can’t really be said about any players of the current crop. Whether that’s down to snooker having a lack of characters or not being high up the ladder relative to other sports, is down to a matter of opinion.

Despite all this, SPOTY 2020 has decided to include O’Sullivan off the back of his sixth WSC win and 37th ranking title as he reached the final six candidates. Personally, I’m indifferent to whether O’Sullivan wins or not because I, as many other snooker fans, know of his wizardry on the table and how brilliant he actually is, even if those outside the sport don’t. And he doesn’t need a long, overdue award to tell him that.

Secondly, while the ‘P’ in SPOTY stands for ‘Personality’, it also stands for ‘Popularity’, which is how the eventual winner gets chosen. Due to how snooker is ranked against other sports, it’s likely that a snooker player – even one with global recognition like O’Sullivan – will get outvoted by a sport with a significantly larger fan base.

But what I’m positive about when it comes to O’Sullivan’s SPOTY nomination is that hopefully it will shine a light back on snooker once again. Maybe it will remind people that snooker is still going strong and encourage them to tune in if they see that O’Sullivan is still lifting titles. Maybe they’ll accidently switch channels and see Judd Trump making the cue ball fly around the table and this will pique their curiosity. Anything that brings more eyes to a deserving sport gets a yes from me. In which case, I thank O’Sullivan for winning the World Championship, because who knows when the next snooker nomination would have ever arrived?

Side note: this Short post was written prior to the results of SPOTY but will likely be posted the week after the winner is announced.

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History of the European Masters (Open)

After a 9-0 whitewash over his fellow finalist (technically earlier this year), Neil Robertson aims to successfully defend his European Masters trophy as the first non-Championship League event gets under way. Similar to other tournaments, the European Masters has gone through alternative names, discontinuations, and also revivals as we look at the brief history of this long-standing event.

Commencing as the first ranking event held outside the UK, the European Open was successful in lasting from 1989-97, including winners such as Parrott, Davis, Hendry and White. In keeping to its name, the tournament was held in locations around Europe, namely across cities in France, Belgium and Malta. The event lasted until 1997, where it didn’t return until 2001 for another three editions.

At this point, Malta started to become a regular home for the European Open to which the event was renamed the Malta Cup from 2005 onwards. It ran under this moniker for a few years before it was discontinued from the tour for a considerable number of years. Much like today, the European Masters of past had followed a short-match format which consisted of a series of best-of-9’s followed by a best-of-11 and then best-of-17 final.

It was eight years following the departure of the last Malta Cup until we saw the ‘European’ event return to the scene. The snooker environment was flourishing, with growing partnerships and tournaments being established in various locations. This included many countries (including within Europe) getting their own ‘Masters’ or ‘Opens’. In 2016, we would see the European Masters return to the calendar, and take us to places such as Romania and Belgium, where snooker was growing in popularity.

This leads us to last year, where the event was held in Austria and became a part of the European Series brand, which grouped together the European Masters, German Masters, Shootout and Gibraltar Open. The top performer across these series of events would end up securing a six-figure bonus, which in turn ended up going to Judd Trump following his stellar season. The European Series has since seen additions for this season which include the Championship League and the…Welsh Open?

What I particularly like about the European Masters primarily lies in its concept. A roaming tournament which allows players, fans and spectators to experience snooker as well as the locations it is played in provides a fresh perspective and insight to the fans of the sport within that country. The European Masters, whilst it is short-lived under that name, actually dates back several decades and has seen all of the top players lift the trophy.

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Like this Short? Click here to read: Looking Back At Snooker History: World Championship Challenge Matches (1964-68)

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