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Mixed Doubles Tournament Announced

Postby SnookerFan

As one of the few major sports where men and women can compete together on an equal footing, snooker will showcase its inclusivity in September with the BetVictor World Mixed Doubles.

The pioneering tournament will see the world’s top four men – Ronnie O’Sullivan, Judd Trump, Mark Selby and Neil Robertson – each paired with one of the top four women – Reanne Evans, Ng On Yee, Nutcharut Wongharuthai and Rebecca Kenna.

Televised live by ITV, the invitation event will take place over the weekend of Saturday September 24 and Sunday September 25 at the Marshall Arena at MK Stadium in Milton Keynes. Ticket details will be announced soon.

The random draw will take place in advance of the event, with one man drawn to play alongside each woman. The four pairs will compete over two days in a round-robin format, followed by the final with the winning team to be crowned inaugural champion.

Each round-robin match will be four frames, with all frames to be completed. Teams will score one point for each frame. At the end of the group phase, the top two teams will go through to the final, which will be best of seven frames. The two players in a team will make alternate visits to the table (rather than alternate shots).

Session times are 1pm and 7pm on both days. Each of the first three sessions will feature two group matches, so all eight players will be in action. The final will then take place on Sunday September 25 from 7pm.

The players:

Ronnie O’Sullivan – current World Champion, world number one and crowd favourite
Judd Trump – 2019 World Champion known for his flamboyant style
Mark Selby – four time Crucible king and current world number three
Neil Robertson – the best player of the 2021/22 season, winning four titles
Reanne Evans – the most successful ever World Women’s Snooker player with 12 world titles
Ng On Yee – three-time World Champion and one of Hong Kong’s most famous sport stars
Nutcharut Wongharuthai – up-and-coming talent from Thailand who won her first world title in 2022
Rebecca Kenna – women’s world number four and multiple title winner

This will be the first televised mixed doubles snooker event since 1991 when Steve Davis and Allison Fisher joined forces to win the title in Hamburg.

WST Chairman Steve Dawson said: “This is the first time that a mixed doubles snooker event will be broadcast live on free-to-air television so it’s a very significant moment for our sport. We’re delighted to partner with ITV and BetVictor for this fantastic tournament.

“Snooker is a game for everyone, regardless of age, gender and nationality, and we have proved this with the expansion of our tour and of the sport at grassroots level. There is no reason why men and women can’t compete together and we are thrilled to have – for the first time – four women on our professional tour in the coming season.

“The BetVictor World Mixed Doubles will be an opportunity for the eight players to compete in pairs, creating a different dynamic to the usual individual formats. It will be fascinating to watch both for the live audience and television viewers.

“We look forward to delivering a high quality event and we hope to make this a regular fixture on the circuit.”

Global Sponsorship manager Sam Boswell from sponsor BetVictor added: “We’re proud to be sponsoring the BetVictor World Mixed Doubles in September, it’s an event that showcases how the game is for everyone, and we look forward to growing our presence in world snooker by supporting this unique tournament.”


https://wst.tv/snooker-breaks-new-groun ... d-doubles/

Re: Mixed Doubles Tournament Announced

Postby SnookerFan

Juddernaut88 wrote:This sounds great <ok>


I'm in a minority as usual, but I don't like the sound of the format. A point a frame, players on the same team take alternate goes. I dunno, I've just neve been into doubles/team snooker. (Or group stage snooker either.) Not my personal preference.

But it does promote the women's game, which is good. Something World Snooker really needs to start doing properly. Getting the women playing on ITV4 can't be a bad thing. I can even see it getting some good press coverage. Which also can't be bad for snooker as a whole.

Re: Mixed Doubles Tournament Announced

Postby SteveJJ

SnookerFan wrote:
Juddernaut88 wrote:This sounds great <ok>


I'm in a minority as usual, but I don't like the sound of the format. A point a frame, players on the same team take alternate goes. I dunno, I've just neve been into doubles/team snooker. (Or group stage snooker either.) Not my personal preference.

But it does promote the women's game, which is good. Something World Snooker really needs to start doing properly. Getting the women playing on ITV4 can't be a bad thing. I can even see it getting some good press coverage. Which also can't be bad for snooker as a whole.


I guess once they decided on mixed doubles they needed a format that could stretch over 4 sessions so had to be some form of round robin stage.

I'm happy, always liked the doubles. Hope there can be a longer knockout doubles tournament at some point too.

Change of player every shot may have been better than every visit

Re: Mixed Doubles Tournament Announced

Postby SnookerFan

Irrespective of the format, it's a good chance to promote the Woman's Game.

I thought about going to a woman's tournament once to watch. Can't remember exactly which one it was. (Which says a lot about how high profile they are in themselves.) But it was in the back room of a pub a bus ride or two away from me.

Seeing it on a channel like ITV4 will be good for the game. Might see some young girls watch it, and decide to pick up a cue.

Instead of tucking their qualifying matches away on Discovery+, this is a step in the right direction.

Re: Mixed Doubles Tournament Announced

Postby Prop

SnookerFan wrote:Apparently, it's on ITV1 then.


Interesting. I wonder if this opens the door to more tournaments on the main channel in the future. Regardless, it’s good to see these decisions being made.

Re: Mixed Doubles Tournament Announced

Postby SnookerFan

Prop wrote:
SnookerFan wrote:Apparently, it's on ITV1 then.


Interesting. I wonder if this opens the door to more tournaments on the main channel in the future. Regardless, it’s good to see these decisions being made.


I hope so.

I know this is meant to promote the women's game, but there's no reason why it can't promote the game in general too.

Be good to see The Cazoo Series on ITV1, especially things like the Tour Championship. It can only grow the game.

Re: Mixed Doubles Tournament Announced

Postby Dan-cat

rekoons wrote:
SteveJJ wrote:Change of player every shot may have been better than every visit


I agree, would be better. Like this:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Og-Q58llCVs


You mean Scotch doubles.

I do see it - would be more interactive. But it would mean you won’t get to see a fluid Ronnie break etc which means new viewers - brought in by the female curiosity factor - will not get to see the game played well.

Re: Mixed Doubles Tournament Announced

Postby SnookerFan

Like I've said, I don't find doubles to be that interesting a form of the game either way.

But, I think it would be even worse if two players were alternating shots on the same break.

Re: Mixed Doubles Tournament Announced

Postby Iranu

Dan-cat wrote:
rekoons wrote:
SteveJJ wrote:Change of player every shot may have been better than every visit


I agree, would be better. Like this:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Og-Q58llCVs


You mean Scotch doubles.

I do see it - would be more interactive. But it would mean you won’t get to see a fluid Ronnie break etc which means new viewers - brought in by the female curiosity factor - will not get to see the game played well.

Mate the players are good enough that they can play well as teams! Ronnie’s only one of 8 players <laugh>

Re: Mixed Doubles Tournament Announced

Postby Andre147

Very good news.

But I believe it should be scotch doubles type matches, instead of alternate visits.

Doing it the latter way the male players will likely get most of the table time anyway.

Re: Mixed Doubles Tournament Announced

Postby mick745

Scotch doubles does make it more disjointed and reduces the entertainment value.

It also means one player is potting all the reds and the other player the colours on a break.

Re: Mixed Doubles Tournament Announced

Postby SteveJJ

The downside may be...and I'm not trying to talk the women's game down..if its to showcase the women's game, I wonder what the table time split between the male/female members of the pair will be considering the quite high performance differential between the members of each pair.

Whilst disjointed, scotch doubles might even up the table time.

I hope it succeeds at showcasing the womens game and doesn't backfire and showcase the gulf in quality.

I am aware that the female players being involved in this event on terrestrial tv is a huge positive step forward and matters as much if not more than performance levels in terms of visibility and inspiration to girls and women who may be encouraged to take up the game by watching or attending.

Re: Mixed Doubles Tournament Announced

Postby Iranu

Dan-cat wrote:Can you imagine Ronnie/Trump/Robbo trying to construct a break and having to stop every other shot?

They’ve made the right decision.

It’s not all about them!

Re: Mixed Doubles Tournament Announced

Postby chengdufan

Iranu wrote:
Dan-cat wrote:Can you imagine Ronnie/Trump/Robbo trying to construct a break and having to stop every other shot?

They’ve made the right decision.

It’s not all about them!

That's right. Selby is playing too

Re: Mixed Doubles Tournament Announced

Postby Iranu

I actually don’t have an opinion on which I’d prefer. I’m just being spicy.

Both options have benefits and drawbacks.

Re: Mixed Doubles Tournament Announced

Postby SnookerFan

Prop wrote:I’ll just leave this here:

https://youtu.be/Og-Q58llCVs


Doubles just always feels like a novelty to me. Putting up an exciting Scotch Doubles break that lasts 8 minutes is one thing, watching an entire tournament of it, the appeal would wear off.

Obviously, in this Mixed Doubles tournament it's somewhat necessary. But watching two players take alternate shots for the entire match would get tiresome after a while. At least allowing them time to make a break each would make the tournament a bit more fluid. And also has the benefit of showing what the women can do. If one of the girls comes in, makes one shot, than Ronnie or Robertson or whoever rushes in to make the next shot, I don't think it does that as much as watching one of the women make a break does.

You could argue the exact format is incidental anyway. The real MVP about this tournament is the fact that it's on ITV1. Hopefully that brings in more viewers. Those viewers might be able to be persuaded into watching the British Open which starts the next day on ITV4. Even maybe attend the venue. Both the Mixed Doubles and the British Open are being held in Milton Keynes.

When Mark Allen played Reanne Evens, it got into the papers and mentioned on TV news. Not a lot, but more so than just a regular match would have. Let's hope this tournament gets the same sort of publicity.

Re: Mixed Doubles Tournament Announced

Postby Iranu

To be fair I watched some of that pool tournament that Seby was in last season and that was Scotch doubles and it was still pretty fluid. Different ball game (literally) with the smaller table but the player would wait where they’d expect their teammate to leave the cue ball so there wasn’t a lot of downtime or anything.

Re: Mixed Doubles Tournament Announced

Postby Iranu

Dan-cat wrote:Pool is a different beast though you only need a few shots to win a game.

Oh yeah totally I mean in terms of AST. If anything it meant there was less time walking around to the next shot.

Of course the other thing is the players would need to be in sync to know where to stand if that was the case.


   

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