Ronnie O’Sullivan vs Mark Selby NI Open 2018 SF - Instant Classic

The stage is set. We’re at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast. I’ve just started my free 7 day trial for the Eurosport Channel on Amazon Prime solely for this purpose. Their previous encounter was 2 years before this event at the UK Championship final in 2016. It was only a best of 11, but man, did everyone get their money’s worth. It’s the semi-final of the Northern Irish Open 2018 and definitely an instant classic.

This match had all the ingredients you would expect from a collision between Ronnie O’Sullivan and Mark Selby. There was a strong O’Sullivan lead; a tenacious Selby comeback; incredible tactical play; flukes; the lot! Not to mention a black ball decider in the deciding frame!

Considering the length of time it had been since these 2 juggernauts have last clashed, it was an important test for both players to see where their games were at 2 years later. Because it’s safe to say that the consistency in in O’Sullivan’s game had really stepped up in those following couple years, similar to what we see nowadays.

Ronnie O’Sullivan built a 4-2, then a 5-3 lead with 3 centuries; only for Selby to storm back to level the playing field at 5-5. And the deciding frame is where the real action began. Selby was in with a chance first then unexpectedly missed a black off the spot. This was followed by O’Sullivan trying to force an angle out of the black and missing the pot entirely.

Inching towards the end of the frame, Selby seemingly fluked a terrific snooker to put O’Sullivan in immense trouble. O’Sullivan took multiple attempts already to near-miss the final red to which Selby took advantage of the miss rule and kept having the red replaced. This is what most believed to be his downfall as he potentially could have taken a pot on to win himself the frame.

Nevertheless, he had the cue ball replaced and O’Sullivan not only hit the red this time, but fluked it into the left centre! What followed was probably one of the best under-pressure clearances you could hope to see (which included a mouth-watering positional shot from yellow to green), to secure O’Sullivan a 70-68 victory.

This match, on paper, had the potential to be monumental. And it was. To refer back to my intro, it had everything. Not only is it easily one of the best matches I have seen already this season, but it is immediately an instant classic. If you haven’t already, I implore you to watch this match.

Player Spotlight – Jack Lisowski

Runner up in the 2018 Riga Masters and 2019 China Open (only to lose to Neil Robertson both times), what do we know about the 27 year old multiple time quarter-finalist? A player with a tremendous talent and ability to pot balls; will we soon be seeing him lift his first ranking title?

Like many others, Lisowski displayed a flair with the sport from a young age, making his first century at 11 years old. He has since been training and practicing his craft with coaches and other players to become the player we know him as today. Most are probably aware of the dire health issues that Lisowski had to overcome at a young age but fortunately, he wasn’t halted in his snooker dream.

Cheltenham-born Lisowski turned professional in 2010 and has since been becoming more of a regular face to look out for in big tournaments. He is now currently ranked 11 in the world but still yet to win a ranking event. He has steadily risen in the rankings since turning pro so perhaps his residence in the Top 16 and maybe even the Top 8 going forward this season will provide the confidence to lift that maiden trophy.

Lisowski first attended the Crucible in 2013 but was eliminated in the first round by Barry Hawkins. His next appearance wouldn’t be until 2018 where he reached the second round but suffered a near whitewash against Higgins. His luck didn’t change this year where he came up against Ali Carter in the first round.

My view of Lisowski is that he suffers from what Judd Trump used to. What I mean is that we have a player with a bucket of potential who is still trying to get experience, not only with big events; but particularly making significant distance in these big events. There are a few occasions off the top of my head this season alone where Lisowski has lost a decider or a big lead in a match.

This will only change with more experience and titles which I am certain Lisowski will possess in the future. I mean, you don’t get rank 11 and amass over half a million in career earnings without having good game.

How much do snooker referees earn?

It’s the age old question which no one seems to know the answer to. If you search the topic, there’s only one article that gives some insight into this. But there isn’t really a concrete answer.

What I’ve been able to gather is that most referees get paid either a daily rate or a match rate; while very few of the top level officials get paid a salary. According to Bizfluent, new referees earn approximately $90 per match, which comes to around £70 per match. There aren’t many sources to confirm this but based on what I’ve looked into, I’d say between £50-75 a match is a reasonable estimate. This amount is likely lower for lesser known, more local events.

The top referees, such as Jan Verhaas, Brendan Moore and (former ref) Eirian Williams; it’s safe to say that they earn substantially more (likely with a salaried structure) and could support themselves on a full-time basis.

A lot of snooker players starting out work part time in order to supplement their income and support themselves as they try to make ends meet as a professional. Similarly, referees tend to work other jobs alongside snooker while they try to gain more experience refereeing. A common example: Olivier Marteel also works as a nurse in and around the busy snooker schedule.

Additionally, expenses are something that are factored into a referee’s earnings. Most likely, they are reimbursed or covered for a certain level of their expenses. As stated on the EASB website (the organisation responsible for training prospect referees in Europe), things such as mileage for travelling to venues as well as hotel expenses are accounted for.

Again, a lot of this is speculation so it could be way off of what is actually the case. And I’m sure there won’t be any referees rushing to make statements about their earnings any time soon (understandably, why would they). But until then, I guess it will remain a mystery.

Like this Short? Click here to read: Snooker Referees: The Unsung Heroes

Top Non-Ranking Events in 2018/19 Season

Following the recent short where we looked at the highest paying ranking events of the 2018/19 season, this time we’ll observe the highest rewarding non-ranking events of the snooker calendar. Unlike ranking events, there are actually just a handful of non-ranking events held in the year.

Much like the short which looked at the top ranking events of 2018/19, we’re mainly looking at the winning prize shares of these non-ranking events.

Both the Masters and Shanghai Masters reward the winner of each event with £200,000. Obviously, the Masters held in Alexandra Palace will hold more esteem considering it is one of the Triple Crown events. Although, it is worth noting that the Shanghai Masters actually has a higher total prize fund than the Masters; £725,000 compared with £600,000 in 2018/19.

Next, the Champion of Champions, held in early November rewards the second highest paying non-ranking event to the winner with a prize of £100,000. This is then followed by the Champions League event, which pays out £3000 to the winners of each group as well as a prize of £10,000 to the overall play-off winner.

Lastly, an event that most may not even have known about; the Haining Open held in China from the end of July to early August provides ¥120,000 which roughly comes to £13,000-14,000. This was won by Mark Selby in 2018.

As stated before, there aren’t many non-ranking events, but for the few that there are, they tend to be invitational events with a fruitful reward. This obviously doesn’t take into account Seniors or Variant events like the 6-red tournaments. It also doesn’t consider amateur or Pro-am events.

So what’s your favourite non-ranking event?