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Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby chengdufan

2005 Irish Masters - Citywest Hotel, Dublin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Irish_Masters

Ronnie O'Sullivan took the title, beating Matthew Stevens 10-8 in the final. O'Sullivan had been 6-1 up, but Stevens then won 5 straight to bring the scores back to parity. It was a high scoring match throughout, with 17 50+ breaks in total, 11 from Ronnie. In the 18th, match-winning frame, the Welshman knocked in a 68 and must have thought he'd taken the match to a decider, but the Rocket responded with a 69 to win by a point.

Rob Milkins was the surprise package of the event, beating Paul Hunter on his way to the semi-finals, where he lost a decider to Stevens. It was his first ever semi-final, in the week of his 30th birthday.

QFs:
Robert Milkins (46) 6-3 Dave Harold (56)
Matthew Stevens (11) 6-5 Stephen Hendry (2)
Mark Williams (22) 6-4 Stephen Lee (23)
Ronnie O'Sullivan (1) 6-4 Gerard Greene (49)

SFs:
Stevens (11) 9-8 Milkins (46)
O'Sullivan (1) 9-5 Williams (22)

Final:
O'Sullivan (1) 10-8 Stevens (11)

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby chengdufan

Following the 2005 Irish Maters

Top 16
1 = Ronnie O'Sullivan 23784
2 = Stephen Hendry 18184
3 = Stephen Maguire 15834
4 +7 Matthew Stevens 13144
5 -1 Graeme Dott 12914
6 = Neil Robertson 12766
7 -2 John Higgins 12271
8 -1 Mark King 11876
9 = Barry Hawkins 11559
10 -2 Paul Hunter 11012
11 +2 Andy Hicks 10753
12 -2 Ryan Day 10610
13 -1 Peter Ebdon 10040
14 +8 Mark Williams 9673
15 = Barry Pinches 9460
16 -2 Joe Perry 9445

In: Mark Williams
Out: Ali Carter

Top 32
In: Robert Milkins; Steve Davis
Out: Adrian Gunnell; Ding Junhui

Top 64
In: Scott McKenzie; Joe Delaney; Paul Wykes
Out: Andrew Norman; David Roe; Sean Storey

Top 128
In: Lee Spick; Stefan Mazrocis; Wayne Brown
Out: Steve Mifsud; Supoj Saenla; Joe Meara

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby chengdufan

2005 China Open - Beijing (either the 'Chaoyang' or 'Haidian' Stadium depending on if you believe cuetracker or Wiki. My guess would be the Stadium in Chaoyang District sponsored at the time by Haidian)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_China_Open_(snooker)

The top 16 qualified for the venue stages automatically.
The remaining 16 were determined via a wildcard round, with 16 wild cards playing the 16 who came through the regular qualifying route. All of the Chinese professionals, including Ding Junhui, entered as wild cards.
We saw Liang Wenbo and Xiao Guodong for the first time.

Ding Junhui remarkably won the event. He went 4-1 down to Stephen Hendry in the final, but won 8 of the next 9 to claim a 9-5 victory. He finished off both his semi-final and the final with centuries.

For a reason unknown to me, Ronnie O'Sullivan withdrew from the event.

QFs:
Ding Junhui (38) 5-2 Marco Fu (49)
Ken Doherty (19) 5-1 Paul Hunter (10)
Stephen Hendry (2) 5-0 Ricky Walden (20)
Alan McManus (35) 5-2 Mark Williams (14)

SFs:
Ding (38) 6-0 Doherty (19)
Hendry (2) 6-4 McManus (35)

Final:
Ding (38) 9-5 Hendry (2)

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby chengdufan

Following the 2005 China Open

Top 16
1 = Ronnie O'Sullivan 20975
2 = Stephen Hendry 19003
3 = Stephen Maguire 14915
4 = Matthew Stevens 12546
5 = Graeme Dott 12143
6 = Neil Robertson 11560
7 = John Higgins 10464
8 +1 Barry Hawkins 10323
9 -1 Mark King 10177
10 = Paul Hunter 9719
11 = Andy Hicks 9632
12 = Ryan Day 9603
13 +2 Barry Pinches 8816
14 = Mark Williams 8745
15 +5 Ricky Walden 8718
16 = Joe Perry 8702

In: Ricky Walden
Out: Peter Ebdon

Top 32
In: Ding Junhui; Alan McManus; Adrian Gunnell; Stuart Bingham
Out: John Parrott; Quinten Hann; Steve Davis; James Wattana

Top 64
In: Darren Morgan
Out: Patrick Wallace

Top 128
In: Justin Astley; Joe Meara; Supoj Saenla
Out: Jason Ferguson; Wayne Brown; Johl Younger

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby chengdufan

2005 World Championship - Crucible Theatre, Sheffield
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Worl ... ampionship

Shaun Murphy won his only World title to date, beating Matthew Stevens in the final. In many respects it was of course a surprise result. It is noted though that many of the key contenders from previous seasons had had relatively poor years going into this year's championship. Mark Williams, Ken Doherty, Alan McManus and Stephen Lee had all slipped considerably. John Higgins too was not the contender he once was.
That said though, O'Sullivan and Hendry were in form, and Stephen Maguire and Matthew Stevens were perhaps at their peak.

L32
Ronnie O'Sullivan (1) 10-9 Stephen Maguire (3)
Marco Fu (37) 4-10 Ali Carter (20)
Stephen Lee (22) 10-5 Tony Drago (54)
Peter Ebdon (21) 10-2 Quinten Hann (34)
John Higgins (7) 10-5 Mark Selby (44)
Chris Small (72) 5-10 Shaun Murphy (28)
Steve Davis (35) 10-9 Gerard Greene (45)
Paul Hunter (10) 8-10 Michael Holt (46)
Stephen Hendry (2) 10-7 Neil Robertson (6)
David Gray (26) 8-10 Anthony Hamilton (19)
Jimmy White (24) 10-5 Fergal O'Brien (48)
Matthew Stevens (4) 10-5 Andy Hicks (11)
Ken Doherty (18) 10-5 Barry Pinches (13)
Alan McManus (25) 10-9 Drew Henry (51)
Graeme Dott (5) 9-10 Ian McCulloch (23)
Mark Williams (14) 10-1 Robert Milkins (27)

L16
O'Sullivan (1) 13-7 Carter (20)
Ebdon (21) 13-9 Lee (22)
Higgins (7) 8-13 Murphy (28)
Davis (35) 13-10 Holt (46)
Hendry (2) 13-3 Hamilton (19)
Stevens (4) 13-5 White (24)
Doherty (18) 11-13 McManus (25)
Williams (14) 12-13 McCulloch (23)

QFs
O'Sullivan (1) 11-13 Ebdon (21)
Davis (35) 4-13 Murphy (28)
Hendry (2) 11-13 Stevens (4)
McManus (25) 8-13 McCulloch (23)

SFs
Ebdon (21) 12-17 Murphy (28)
Stevens (4) 17-14 McCulloch (23)

Final
Stevens (4) 16-18 Murphy (28)

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby chengdufan

Here are the rankings at the end of the 2004-05 season. The +- change indicates the rise or fall since the start of the season. I'm just including the 96 professional players this time.

1 = Ronnie O'Sullivan 23895
2 = Stephen Hendry 21895
3 +2 Matthew Stevens 19390
4 +9 Stephen Maguire 15959
5 +28 Shaun Murphy 13519
6 +4 Graeme Dott 12647
7 +29 Neil Robertson 12372
8 -1 Peter Ebdon 12362
9 +9 Ian McCulloch 12010
10 -2 John Higgins 11608
11 +39 Barry Hawkins 10323
12 = Mark King 10177
12 -9 Mark Williams 10177
14 -10 Paul Hunter 10167
15 +24 Andy Hicks 10132
16 +10 Alan McManus 9744
17 -11 Ken Doherty 9719
18 -2 Ryan Day 9603
19 +5 Ali Carter 9471
20 -9 Stephen Lee 9134
21 -6 Barry Pinches 9096
22 -5 Anthony Hamilton 9095
23 +44 Ricky Walden 8718
24 -2 Joe Perry 8702
25 -16 Jimmy White 8599
26 +34 Ding Junhui 8407
27 -8 Steve Davis 7905
28 -7 David Gray 7507
29 +8 Robert Milkins 6945
30 +22 Tom Ford 6725
31 +15 Adrian Gunnell 6471
32 +12 Stuart Bingham 6374
33 -1 Nigel Bond 6373
34 = John Parrott 6296
35 -8 Michael Holt 6269
36 -11 Quinten Hann 6196
37 -7 James Wattana 5887
38 -24 Marco Fu 5539
39 -19 Gerard Greene 5381
40 +44 Shokat Ali 5299
41 +4 Mark Selby 5298
42 +9 Dave Harold 5234
43 = Rory McLeod 5196
44 +26 Paul Davies 5150
45 -10 Joe Swail 5118
46 -17 Drew Henry 4995
47 -9 Fergal O'Brien 4933
48 +16 Michael Judge 4885
49 +6 Simon Bedford 4809
50 +6 Mark Davis 4623
51 +3 Mike Dunn 4551
52 -21 Tony Drago 4307
53 -13 Dominic Dale 4235
54 +22 Jamie Burnett 4087
55 -32 Lee Walker 4001
56 +42 Marcus Campbell 3811
57 +48 Darren Morgan 3786
58 +22 Scott MacKenzie 3767
59 -18 Stuart Pettman 3766
60 +9 Jimmy Michie 3744
61 -13 Leo Fernandez 3713
62 = Paul Wykes 3711
63 +27 Joe Delaney 3700
64 -11 Rod Lawler 3678
65 -23 Patrick Wallace 3503
66 -7 David Roe 3474
67 -4 Andrew Norman 3380
68 -40 Chris Small 3214
69 +5 Robin Hull 3069
70 NEW Joe Jogia 3045
71 -22 Nick Dyson 2995
72 +31 Alfie Burden 2972
73 +2 Liu Song 2906
74 -27 Sean Storey 2855
75 -10 Brian Morgan 2740
76 -19 Craig Butler 2353
77 +85 David McDonnell 2301
78 -10 Bjorn Haneveer 2136
79 NEW Gary Wilson 2111
81 +11 Nick Walker 1896
82 +14 Anthony Davies 1858
83 -6 Gary Wilkinson 1851
84 +79 Adam Davies 1841
85 +64 Hugh Abernethy 1804
86 +79 Steve James 1730
89 NEW Ben Woollaston 1534
96 NEW Rodney Goggins 1187
101 NEW Sean O'Neill 1130
102 +48 Brian Salmon 1119
106 +40 Paul Davison 1081
108 +48 Mike Hallett 1050
109 +43 Jin Long 1000
111 +36 Stefan Mazrocis 807
118 -9 Jonathan Birch 762
123 +5 Mark Gray 585
154 NEW David Hall 120

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby chengdufan

To the end of the 04-05 season, 190 ranking events have been played. Here is the roll of honour:

Stephen Hendry 36 (2005 Malta Cup)
Steve Davis 28
Ronnie O'Sullivan 18 (2004 Grand Prix | 2005 Welsh Open | 2005 Irish Masters)
John Higgins 16 (2004 British Open)
Mark Williams 15
Jimmy White 10
John Parrott 9
Peter Ebdon 6
Ray Reardon 5
Ken Doherty 5
James Wattana 3
Stephen Lee 3
Paul Hunter 3
Cliff Thorburn 2
Tony Knowles 2
Dennis Taylor 2
Doug Mountjoy 2
Alan McManus 2
Stephen Maguire 2 (2004 UK Championship)

John Spencer, Terry Griffiths, Alex Higgins, Willie Thorne, Silvino Francisco, Joe Johnson, Neal Foulds, Tony Meo, Mike Hallett, Steve James, Bob Chaperon, Tony Jones, Dave Harold, Nigel Bond, Dominic Dale, Fergal O'Brien, Chris Small, David Gray, Matthew Stevens, Ding Junhui (2005 China Open), Shaun Murphy (2005 World Championship): 1 each

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby D4P

If I'm not mistaken, Ronnie's loss to Ebdon was the one in which Ebdon made the 5-minute break of 12 points. I'd be curious to know how many shots he played in making those 12 points. Was it (for example) red, color, red, color? If so, that would be 4 shots in 12 minutes, at an AST of 3 minutes.

That kind of slow play simply should not be allowed.

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby Prop

D4P wrote:If I'm not mistaken, Ronnie's loss to Ebdon was the one in which Ebdon made the 5-minute break of 12 points. I'd be curious to know how many shots he played in making those 12 points. Was it (for example) red, color, red, color? If so, that would be 4 shots in 12 minutes, at an AST of 3 minutes.

That kind of slow play simply should not be allowed.


I might be wrong, but I think Ebdon was actually on the WPBSA board in some capacity at the time of that match!

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby SnookerEd25

D4P wrote:
That kind of slow play simply should not be allowed.


You’re right, and technically it isn’t, but it is up to the referees to stamp it out and they’re just too soft these days.

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby Iranu

Prop wrote:
D4P wrote:If I'm not mistaken, Ronnie's loss to Ebdon was the one in which Ebdon made the 5-minute break of 12 points. I'd be curious to know how many shots he played in making those 12 points. Was it (for example) red, color, red, color? If so, that would be 4 shots in 12 minutes, at an AST of 3 minutes.

That kind of slow play simply should not be allowed.


I might be wrong, but I think Ebdon was actually on the WPBSA board in some capacity at the time of that match!

He was. Pretty disgusting really, that situation.

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby D4P

Iranu wrote:
Prop wrote:
D4P wrote:If I'm not mistaken, Ronnie's loss to Ebdon was the one in which Ebdon made the 5-minute break of 12 points. I'd be curious to know how many shots he played in making those 12 points. Was it (for example) red, color, red, color? If so, that would be 4 shots in 12 minutes, at an AST of 3 minutes.

That kind of slow play simply should not be allowed.


I might be wrong, but I think Ebdon was actually on the WPBSA board in some capacity at the time of that match!

He was. Pretty disgusting really, that situation.


I haven't watached the match, but I get the impression that Ronnie essentially forfeited a great chance to win the World Championship because of Ebdon's disrespectful flaunting of the rules.

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby KrazeeEyezKilla

That was the last Irish Masters apart from a one off Invitational a couple of years later. The way which the tournament ended was farcical.

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/no-pla ... -1.1172616

World Snooker paid Kevin Norton something like €400,000 to take over the event so that it would become a ranking tournament and then paid him a fee to run the event. And three years later it was gone.

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby KrazeeEyezKilla

This was the start of the era where wild predictions of Chinese players taking over Snooker were being made. Looking back it's easy to see why people thought that. At the time Snooker was a young mans game and most people would have guessed that would continue. The success of Ding plus Maguire and Murphy winning major titles seemed to indicate a changing of the guard with a new generation taking over. O'Sullivan, Higgins & Williams all turned 30 in 2005 and you would have seen them having a gradual decline like Hendry or Davis. In a decade the new players would be in their 30's and in decline and by then there would be a post Ding wave of Chinese players ready to dominate. A lot of this did happen. Certain players went into decline and new players from China emerged but the wave hasn't been as strong as expected and a lot of the established players have shown far greater longevity than expected.

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby mick745

KrazeeEyezKilla wrote:This was the start of the era where wild predictions of Chinese players taking over Snooker were being made. Looking back it's easy to see why people thought that. At the time Snooker was a young mans game and most people would have guessed that would continue. The success of Ding plus Maguire and Murphy winning major titles seemed to indicate a changing of the guard with a new generation taking over. O'Sullivan, Higgins & Williams all turned 30 in 2005 and you would have seen them having a gradual decline like Hendry or Davis. In a decade the new players would be in their 30's and in decline and by then there would be a post Ding wave of Chinese players ready to dominate. A lot of this did happen. Certain players went into decline and new players from China emerged but the wave hasn't been as strong as expected and a lot of the established players have shown far greater longevity than expected.


Incidentally Ding is now no longer the most likely Chinese player to win the worlds this year, at least according to the bookies. Bingtao is being offered at shorter odds to be 2021 WS champion.

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby LDS

KrazeeEyezKilla wrote:This was the start of the era where wild predictions of Chinese players taking over Snooker were being made. Looking back it's easy to see why people thought that. At the time Snooker was a young mans game and most people would have guessed that would continue. The success of Ding plus Maguire and Murphy winning major titles seemed to indicate a changing of the guard with a new generation taking over. O'Sullivan, Higgins & Williams all turned 30 in 2005 and you would have seen them having a gradual decline like Hendry or Davis. In a decade the new players would be in their 30's and in decline and by then there would be a post Ding wave of Chinese players ready to dominate. A lot of this did happen. Certain players went into decline and new players from China emerged but the wave hasn't been as strong as expected and a lot of the established players have shown far greater longevity than expected.


Yes, looking at the ranking event stats, the predictions did seem to bearing out:

Eight years after Ding's first ranking title, the whole of the season 2013-2014 was absolutely dominated by Chinese players, or, at least, non-English players.

Ding won 5 Ranking events and was a finalist in a sixth.
Marco Fu won one event and was runner-up in another (yes, technically Honk Kong, but you know what I mean)
Xiao Guodong was a ranking event finalist

There was even an Indian finalist, Aditya Mehta

Neil Robertson won two titles and was a finalist in two others (the other side of the world)

John Higgins & Gerard Greene were other home nations finalists (Scotland and Northern Ireland).

So of the 12 events, making 24 finalists, only 8, or one third of them (33%) were English claimed, whereas 14 of those finalist places (58%) were claimed by people from the other side of the world.

And it's more detailed than that, as the first half of that season, from Jun to Dec 2013, of the first 6 events, only 2 of the finalists were home nations, John Higgins in the first event and Mark Selby in the 6th.

So of that first half of the 2013 season 85% of finalists were from the other side of the world.

And then it just kinda didn't happen. Ding has only won 4 rankers since that season ended, less than the number he got in that one season. And no other Chinese player ever came to replicate Ding's brief dominance. Or potential dominance. Though, obviously, China has produced some great random champions here and there since then.

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby chengdufan

15 players lost their professional status at the end of the 04/05 season (rankings on the left):

68 Chris Small
73 Liu Song
76 Craig Butler
81 Nick Walker
82 Anthony Davies
89 Ben Woollaston
96 Rodney Goggins
101 Sean O'Neill
102 Brian Salmon
106 Paul Davison
108 Mike Hallett
111 Stefan Mazrocis
129 Jonathan Birch
123 Mark Gray
154 David Hall

They were replaced by 7 returning pros:
Stuart Mann (b.1972)
Lee Spick (b.1980)
Jamie Cope (b.1985)
David Gilbert (b.1981)
Matthew Couch (b.1974)
Justin Astley (b.1983)
Alex Borg (b.1969)

And 8 new professionals:
Liang Wenbo (b.1987)
Habib Subah (b. unknown)
Chris Norbury (b.1986)
Mark Allen (b.1986)
Judd Trump (b.1989)
James McBain (b.1978)
Keen Hoo Moh (b.1987)
James Tatton (b.1978)

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby chengdufan

2005 Grand Prix - Guild Hall, Preston
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Grand_Prix_(snooker)

This was the first of a meagre 6 ranking events in the 05-06 season. The rankings don't have a high level of validity with such little data, and things won't improve much until Barry Hearn comes along. We carry on though :-)

John Higgins returned to form, beating the top 2 players, Hendry and O'Sullivan, in the semis and final.
The Wizard blew Ronnie away in the final. From 2-2 at the first mid-session interval, he won seven in a row for a 9-2 victory. This included 4 consecutive centuries in frames 7-10.

Judd Trump and Mark Allen made their professional debuts. Trump lost his first match to Fergal O'Brien, while Allen beat fellow newby James Tatton 5-0 before being defeated 5-2 by David Gray.

The 2005 World Championship was Quinten Hann's last appearance by the way.

QFs:
Ronnie O'Sullivan (1) 5-2 Barry Pinches (21)
Barry Hawkins (11) 5-1 Michael Holt (35)
Stephen Hendry (2) 5-1 David Gray (28)
John Higgins (10) 5-1 Stuart Bingham (32)

SFs:
O'Sullivan (1) 6-5 Hawkins (11)
Higgins (10) 6-4 Hendry (2)

Final
Higgins (10) 9-2 O'Sullivan (1)

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby chengdufan

Following the 2005 Grand Prix

Top 16
1 = Ronnie O'Sullivan 18793
2 = Stephen Hendry 17620
3 = Matthew Stevens 14979
4 +1 Shaun Murphy 11934
5 -1 Stephen Maguire 11543
6 +4 John Higgins 10826
7 +2 Ian McCulloch 9724
8 +3 Barry Hawkins 9508
9 -1 Peter Ebdon 9256
10 -3 Neil Robertson 9149
11 -5 Graeme Dott 8622
12 +3 Andy Hicks 7843
13 +3 Alan McManus 7757
14 +7 Barry Pinches 7456
15 -3 Mark King 7292
16 +2 Ryan Day 7051

In: Barry Pinches; Ryan Day
Out: Paul Hunter; Mark Williams

Top 32
In: Michael Holt
Out: Adrian Gunnell

Top 64
In: Andrew Norman
Out: Paul Wykes

Top 128
In: Chris Norbury; Kobkit Palajin; Liang Wenbo; Jason Ferguson
Out: Chris Melling; Supoj Saenla; Joe Meara; Billy Snaddon

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby D4P

chengdufan wrote:SFs:
O'Sullivan (1) 6-5 Hawkins (11)
Higgins (10) 6-4 Hendry (2)

Final
Higgins (10) 9-2 O'Sullivan (1)


Ronnie beating Hawkins in a decider in the SF, then losing the last 6 frames of the final?

Pfftt, that will never happen again...

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby chengdufan

2005 UK Championship - Barbican Centre, York
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_UK_Championship

Nobody would have predicted the final pairing of Ding Junhui and Steve Davis. It was a remarkable run for both players. It wasn't a particularly high-scoring affair, with only 8 breaks over 50 in 16 frames, and it was fairly one-sided from 3-3 on, with Ding eventually winning 10-6.

Ronnie lost 9-8 to Mark King in the first round.

L16:
Steve Davis (23) 9-8 Stephen Maguire (5)
Ken Doherty (21) 9-6 John Higgins (6)
Ali Carter (17) 9-7 Peter Ebdon (9)
Stephen Hendry (2) 9-3 Mark Williams (27)
Joe Perry (26) 9-6 Mark King (15)
Stuart Bingham (29) 9-2 Mark Davis (52)
Ding Junhui (18) 9-2 Paul Hunter (24)
Neil Robertson (10) 9-8 Shaun Murphy (4)

QFs:
Davis (23) 9-7 Doherty (21)
Hendry (2) 9-7 Carter (17)
Perry (26) 9-8 Bingham (29)
Ding (18) 9-5 Robertson (10)

SFs:
Davis (23) 9-6 Hendry (2)
Ding (18) 9-4 Perry (26)

Final:
Ding (18) 10-6 Davis (23)

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby chengdufan

Following the 2005 UK Championship, Stephen Hendry returns to the number 1 spot.

Top 16
1 +1 Stephen Hendry 18846
2 -1 Ronnie O'Sullivan 17601
3 = Matthew Stevens 13958
4 = Shaun Murphy 12862
5 = Stephen Maguire 12145
6 +12 Ding Junhui 11395
7 -1 John Higgins 11310
8 +2 Neil Robertson 10800
9 = Peter Ebdon 10160
10 +13 Steve Davis 9935
11 -3 Barry Hawkins 9905
12 -5 Ian McCulloch 9367
13 +4 Ali Carter 9147
14 +1 Mark King 9050
15 +14 Stuart Bingham 8506
16 +5 Ken Doherty 7922

In: Ding Junhui; Steve Davis; Ali Carter; Stuart Bingham; Ken Doherty
Out: Graeme Dott; Alan McManus; Andy Hicks; Ryan Day; Barry Pinches

Top 32
In: Nigel Bond; Dave Harold
Out: Tom Ford; Robert Milkins

Top 64
In: Joe Jogia; Paul Wykes; Sean Storey; David Roe
Out: Leo Fernandez; Scott MacKenzie; Joe Delaney; Lee Walker

Top 128
In: Mark Allen; Alex Borg; Craig Steadman; Habib Subah
Out: Darryn Walker; Kobkit Palajin; Alain Robidoux; Jason Ferguson

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby chengdufan

Bizzarely, after only 2 ranking events so far in the 05-06 season, we have the qualifiers for the World Championship.

With Quinten Hann gone, and Steve James having recently retired, there were two places in qualifying up for grabs for amateur players.
Following 3 pre-qualifying rounds, Stefan Mazrocis took one spot, and the other was won by Dutch player Gerrit bij de Leij. While Mazrocis then lost his first qualifying round match, the completely unknown bij de Leij beat former Crucible qualifier Sean Storey 10-4, before putting up a respectable 6-10 in losing to Robin Hull in the last 80 (2nd qualifying round).
I'm very surprised that I haven't come across this bij de Leij name before as I'm familiar with most of the lesser known non-British players.... He was 25 at the time of this run.

The following players qualified for the Crucible directly (rankings in brackets are our rankings at the time of the qualifying matches):
Stephen Hendry (1)
Ronnie O'Sullivan (2)
Matthew Stevens (3)
Shaun Murphy (4)
Stephen Maguire (5)
John Higgins (7)
Peter Ebdon (9)
Steve Davis (10)
Ken Doherty (16)
Joe Perry (17)
Graeme Dott (18)
Alan McManus (19)
Mark Williams (25)
Paul Hunter (26)
Jimmy White (28)
Stephen Lee (29)


Let's have a look at the final qualifying round results:

Neil Robertson (8) 10-6 Gerard Greene (33)
Barry Hawkins (11) 10-6 Ding Junhui (6)
Ian McCulloch (12) 9-10 Dave Harold (32)
Ali Carter (13) 10-5 Michael Judge (43)
Mark King (14) 10-5 Adrian Gunnell (37)
Andy Hicks (20) 10-7 Mark Allen (74)
Ryan Day (21) 10-7 Stuart Bingham (15)
Barry Pinches (23) 8-10 Joe Swail (36)
Anthony Hamilton (24) 10-8 Rod Lawler (54)
David Gray (27) 10-9 Mark Davis (42)
Michael Holt (30) 10-2 Stuart Pettman (46)
Nigel Bond (31) 5-0 Mike Dunn (56) (Dunn retired)
Robert Milkins (35) 4-10 Mark Selby (45)
James Wattana (41) 10-6 David Gilbert (90)
John Parrott (47) 10-9 Lee Spick (86)
Marco Fu (50) 10-7 Fergal O'Brien (51)

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby D4P

It's amazing (and presumably, not such a good sign) how many players from 15 years ago are still playing today, and are still among the top players in the game.

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby LDS

Yes, I was thinking that. That top16 after the 2005 UK Championship wouldn't be far off any random last 16 of any event played this year, only 4 of the players are no longer contenders, well, only three now that Hendry has returned.

I still think we're going to see some serious movement in the next couple of years though.

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby KrazeeEyezKilla

Incredibly silly that the World Championship qualifiers are played in the middle of the season. And what an anti-climax that straight after Ding's big UK Championship win he is already out of the World Championship, having had the play one of the other form players on the tour.