Some Thoughts on the 2024-25 season

PERFORMANCE OF THE SEASON
Zhao Xintong winning the World Championship. Nine matches won. 111 frames won. No deciding frames. Ronnie O'Sullivan dispatched with a session to spare.
Honourable mention to Lei Peifan winning the Scottish Open. Eight matches won - at the time the most to win a ranking title in the Hearn era. All six opponents in Edinburgh members of top 32. Mark Allen beaten in semi-final 6-5 having trailed 5-2.

NOSTALGIA KICK
John Higgins winning the World Open. For sure the draw opened up, his highest ranked opponent was Pang Junxu, but a first flat 128 title for almost seven years still had to be won and that's what John Higgins did.
Honourable mention to Mark Williams. Runner-up in both the Saudi Masters and the World Championship.

FRAME OF THE SEASON
The final frame in Saudi Arabia. Mark Williams close to the title. Time standing still. Judd Trump at the table and staying there.

BIGGEST MYSTERY
Jamie Clarke falling off tour. Beating Allan Taylor in Sheffield would have been enough to stay on tour. Did he forget to enter QSchool? Or did he not see the danger? Or some other reason entirely?

LUCKIEST PLAYER OF THE SEASON
1 Neil Robertson
One of 16 players to play in the Masters. He qualified because: Ronnie O'Sullivan withdrew; the rankings cut-off came after the UK not after the most recent event (Scottish Open); he was awarded 1000 ranking points for finishing last in stage two of the Championship League despite withdrawing after phase one (note that in 2021-22 when Ronnie O'Sullivan withdrew at the same stage he kept the points already earned but wasn't given the extra 1000).
2 Matthew Selt
One of 32 players to play in the World Grand Prix. Qualified because the ranking cut-off occurred after the Welsh Open rather than after the most recent event (World Open).

UNLUCKIEST PLAYER OF THE SEASON
Jak Jones
The player that missed out on the Masters. The seed that drew Zhao Xintong in the last 32 at the Crucible.

PLEASED FOR
Ishpreet Singh Chadha and Stan Moody
Very good seasons rewarded by just about finishing in the top 64. Thus the pair will start 2025-26 with their accumulated ranking points. Fully deserved.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT
WST
It's good that prize money has gone up - well done WST. But how can it be healthy for the sport to have no ranking event snooker in front of a crowd for over three months after the conclusion of the World Championship? Why are any events being staged behind closed doors in the post-Covid era? There's much more. For another thread. Let's hope things improve.

BEST SNOOKERISLAND MOMENT
McManusfan announcing that he would ensure the completion of the Revolving Cues prediction contest.

MISSING IN ACTION
Lhpirnie. I miss his contributions to the Island.

RESPECT
HappyCamper. Two ThinkPink titles in three seasons. Awesome.

gninnur karona wrote:BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT
WST
It's good that prize money has gone up - well done WST. But how can it be healthy for the sport to have no ranking event snooker in front of a crowd for over three months after the conclusion of the World Championship? Why are any events being staged behind closed doors in the post-Covid era? There's much more. For another thread. Let's hope things improve.

This feels like a relatively small reason to be disappointed in WST considering all of the other rubbish.

And don’t think I didn’t notice the veiled (and valid) criticism of my RC performance.

According to his Facebook Jamie Clarke is opening his own Academy for Snooker so not trying to get back on tour for now.

Jamie Clarke Snooker Academy

Iranu wrote:

gninnur karona wrote:BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT
WST
It's good that prize money has gone up - well done WST. But how can it be healthy for the sport to have no ranking event snooker in front of a crowd for over three months after the conclusion of the World Championship? Why are any events being staged behind closed doors in the post-Covid era? There's much more. For another thread. Let's hope things improve.

This feels like a relatively small reason to be disappointed in WST considering all of the other rubbish.

And don’t think I didn’t notice the veiled (and valid) criticism of my RC performance.

Sorry - no criticism of you intended. Much appreciate everyone who runs a competition in their free time, and understand that sometimes life priorities mean that free time is no longer there. There's a link between choosing this moment and my final position in the competition - in any other season ensuring competition completion wouldn't have left so deep an impression.

Could have written a lot more on WST. But staying with the opening month of the season why the Championship League? Wouldn't it be better for the sport to have a month of PTCs (4-5 events) across Europe instead? Surely there's no shortage of willing venues - Antwerp, Sofia, Riga, Gdynia and several venues in Germany have staged multiple PTCs in the past. The most notable result of Luca Brecel winning the World Championship has been WST removing the European Masters from the calendar. Makes no sense to me.

The season just finished felt that many of the top players are now very much in the autumn of their careers and blindingly obvious that there ain't any young british players coming through to replace them.

This was from a recent blog from Dave Hendon.

Snooker remains popular in Britain, but the long production line of talent has dried up. The youngest British player in the top 16 is 33 year-old Chris Wakelin. The highest ranked UK player in their 20s is world no.28 Joe O’Connor, who turns 30 this year. Only two other British 20-somethings make the top 64, Jackson Page and Stan Moody.

mick745 wrote:The season just finished felt that many of the top players are now very much in the autumn of their careers and blindingly obvious that there ain't any young british players coming through to replace them.

This was from a recent blog from Dave Hendon.

Snooker remains popular in Britain, but the long production line of talent has dried up. The youngest British player in the top 16 is 33 year-old Chris Wakelin. The highest ranked UK player in their 20s is world no.28 Joe O’Connor, who turns 30 this year. Only two other British 20-somethings make the top 64, Jackson Page and Stan Moody.

While I agree with that conclusion from Hendon, it is plainly obvious after all, I have to disagree that there's no production line of new talent. I think it's always been there, it's just not producing dozens of top 16 players.

Interestingly, I think the main blocker to new talent coming through has been the sheer number of players who have maintained their talent for so long.

Over the last 20 years, how many young players have been demoralised by being not quite good enough to maintain consistent victories over those mainstay top 16 players.

Let's look at players like Gary Wilson, Dave Gilbert, Tom Ford, Michael Holt and innumerable other players that have spent 10 years floating around the top 16 spot before succumbing to the mental depression that whatever avenue they fork into in a competition, just getting to the semi finals will usually involve beating possibly 2 all time greats, with possibly 2 more to go.

We know they're good enough to lift trophies, many have, some multiple times. We know they're good enough to reach the latter stages of the World Championship. But they can never get on a roll, they are never going to be regulars at the masters, they have to rely on several all-time greats not being bothered with a tournament.

And this is also why it's been so difficult for the new Chinese talent to make a mark. And there have been lots of Chinese players who have given up or got depression or felt the need to gamble to compensate their sorry performances.

For the last 20 years, practically every event has been bottlenecked by the Class of '92, Murphy, Selby, Robertson, Trump (ok, 15 years) and Ding, Allen.

That 9 people who everyone thinks will definitely win every event, and if these players don't win all the events, people consider it some uncanny fluke.

9 people is the Quarter finals of every event. It's half the Masters roster every year, it's half the World Championship auto-qualifying every year.

And while it's obvious that what Hendon is talking about is new superstar talent, that kind of talent is actually quite rare. Even after decades of Academies and huge popularity and great investment, there's only been one Chinese 'super' talent, Xintong, which shows the kind of statistics we're talking about here.

People rag on Kyren Wilson because he has to 'work hard' to maintain his place in the elite. They are hinting he's not naturally talented. That he's not the kind of person people mean when they say 'Talent'. But the only reason he has to 'work so hard' is precisely because the top of the tree is so unusually stacked with super-talent.

And it's this crushing workload that sends a lot of players into their deep depressions, even some of the top super talents.

I think when age finally catches up with those top 9 regulars it will act as a balancer and we'll see a lot more 'talent', but not necessarily 'super' talent, come through the ranks more consistently.

Like all double edged swords, the benefits of having so much talent for such a long time also comes with some downsides. And those downsides are the fact that new talent gets very quickly humbled on a regular basis. There you are, fresh on the tour, and your first few ranking events have you playing the all time greats in the first or second round. This puts a huge amount of pressure on any event where they are lucky to not meet an ATG in the early stages. They become must wins instead of simple ladder challenges.

I'm not sure what can change this scenario, snooker has always been a top heavy sport, but the 2010s have been quite unprecedented in the sheer depth of ATGs. Obviously, that's not the fault of the ATGs, but it's certainly something to consider when wondering why new talent, but not necessarily super talent seems a bit restricted. And why we often don't see the new talent blossoming until their close to or into their 30s.

So I put my theory to the test and had a look at Liam Davies' 1st season on tour. He's 18 years old, arriving with pedigree and trophies and many people suggesting we keep an eye on him for the future.

1st ranker of the season is the Championship League. He beats Marco Fu, draws with Hammad Miah and loses to Ryan Day, does not progress but comes 2nd in the group.

Pretty good.

Next: Xian Grand Prix: 1st opponent - Ricky Walden, loss.

Next: Saudi Arabian Masters: He beats Ken Doherty but then loses to Marco Fu.

Next: English Open: Beats Amir Sarkhosh but then loses to Dominic Dale.

Next: British Open: Beats Barry Hawkins in the 1st round, beats Anton Kazakov, then loses to Luca Brecel in the last 32.

Next: Wuhan Open: 1st opponent is Kyren Wilson, loses.

Next: Northern Ireland Open: Beats Dean Young but loses to Jordan Brown.

Halfway through the season tally:

Wins: Marco Fu, Ken Doherty, Amir Sarkhosh, Barry Hawkins, Anton Kazakov, Dean Young.
Losses: Ryan Day, Ricky Walden, Marco Fu, Dominic Dale, Luca Brecel, Kyren Wilson, Jordan Brown.

And it's difficult to fault his progress. He's pretty much won all he could. Every one of his losses was against a ranking event winner. Perhaps Jordan Brown was the one where he could have been expected to have a good chance of winning? Maybe Dominic Dale? But Dale was on quite some form for his last season.

Does that look like someone being eased into their 1st professional season though? Or is it quite in at the deep end?

Ok, time to regroup, what can be salvaged from the 2nd half of the season?

International Open: loses to Daniel Wormersley. Clearly his worst result.

UK Championship: beats Ahmed Aly Sayeed, loses to David Lilley.

Shoot Out: beats Mark Davis and Gary Wilson but loses to Wu Yize.

Scottish Open: Loses to Wang Yuchen in a final frame decider, if he'd won he'd have to play Lyu Haotian (then seeded 33).

German Masters: Beats Ishpreet Singh Chadha, loses to David Lilley once again.

Welsh Open: Beats Anton Kowalski, beats Anthony McGill, loses to Elliot Slessor.

World Open: Loses to Mark Davis in a final frame decider. if he'd won he'd have faced John
Higgins in the next round.

World Championship: Beats Ahmed Aly Sayeed again, loses to Sanderson Lam in a final frame decider. If he'd won he'd have played Ryan Day next.

Wins and losses for the 2nd half of the season:

Wins: Ahmed Aly Sayeed x2, Mark Davis (so), Gary Wilson (so), Ishpreet Singh Chadha, Anton Kowalski, Anthony McGill.

Loses: Daniel Wormersley, David Lilley x2, Wu Yize, Wang Yuchen, Elliot Slessor, Mark Davis, Sanderson Lam. Three of which were final frame deciders, 4 if you count the SO.

So the 2nd half of the season is much more in his range, but he's having to do it after experiencing quite a battering in the 1st half of the season.

I can't help but feel, particularly with the loss to Wormersley, that he must have built up a lot of pressure by the mid-way point, having done everything right but still not getting much in the way of ranking points, Particularly with so many early round blockers.

At the moment he doesn't look like he'll make the 60/70k he'll need this season, but then to what extent is it just... the luck of the drawer?

He’s just not good enough.

Holden Chinaski wrote:He’s just not good enough.

Calm down.

LDS wrote:

Holden Chinaski wrote:He’s just not good enough.

Calm down.

Climb out.

Iranu wrote:And don’t think I didn’t notice the veiled (and valid) criticism of my RC performance.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT

We want Eurosport back!

Juddernaut88 wrote:We want Eurosport back!

mantorok wrote:

Iranu wrote:And don’t think I didn’t notice the veiled (and valid) criticism of my RC performance.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT

If anyone wants to run a Revolving Cues this season, please feel free. I probably won’t be around much.

In fairness, I think people rag on Kyren for constantly talking about how hard he works, rather than the fact itself.

Kyren should have Dolly Parton as his walk on music.

If Alan wants to hold the reins that’s cool with me.

Iranu wrote:

mantorok wrote:

Iranu wrote:And don’t think I didn’t notice the veiled (and valid) criticism of my RC performance.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT

I probably won’t be around much.

Why?

Juddernaut88 wrote:We want Eurosport back!

Agreed, snooker will be no more than a schedule filler on tnt now

Holden Chinaski wrote:Kyren should have Dolly Parton as his walk on music.

Is he begging for you please to not take his man?

SnookerFan wrote:

Holden Chinaski wrote:Kyren should have Dolly Parton as his walk on music.

Is he begging for you please to not take his man?

He’s working 9 to 5.

Holden Chinaski wrote:

Iranu wrote:

mantorok wrote:

Iranu wrote:And don’t think I didn’t notice the veiled (and valid) criticism of my RC performance.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT

I probably won’t be around much.

Why?

I don’t have TNT so I won’t be watching a lot of snooker.

Iranu wrote:

Holden Chinaski wrote:

Iranu wrote:

mantorok wrote:

Iranu wrote:And don’t think I didn’t notice the veiled (and valid) criticism of my RC performance.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT

I probably won’t be around much.

Why?

I don’t have TNT so I won’t be watching a lot of snooker.

Same for me

The Day That Snooker Died.

[quote="SnookerFan"]The Day That Snooker Died.

[\quote]

There am an RIP thread; please use it

Ursenbacher's 1st two games of the season are against Selby and the Brecel, lol.

However, Brecel pulls out, so he has to face Carty instead. Loses anyway. Ah well, he was building up a good case for a moment there.

Ed's ability to quote.

SnookerFan wrote:Ed's ability to quote.

Ban Ed?