Player Spotlight – Neil Robertson

After a stellar 2018/19 performance which included 3 ranking titles and 3 further finals, Neil Robertson was one of the Holy Trinity of players that dominated this past season. An incredible career so far and he seems to be back in top form, so let’s find out more about the 2010 World Champion.

The Thunder from Down Under turned professional in 1998 but despite his display of talent from a young age, he had a difficult few years in the snooker environment. He had to re-qualify for the main tour a couple times before maintaining permanent residence since 2003. Robertson formerly practiced at Willie Thorne’s snooker club in Leicester.

Robertson really started to shine in 2006. He had just made the quarter-finals of the UK and World Championship (05/06 season) then went to win 2 ranking titles later on in the season; his first being the Grand Prix (06/07). At this stage of his career, Robertson was beating players like O’Sullivan, Hendry and Davis to stamp his authority in the snooker world.

However, it was 2010 which was the year of triumph for the Aussie. The first of the Triple Crowns and probably his most notable; victory over Graeme Dott 18-13 in the World Championship to establish himself as the 3rd non-UK player to win the WSC – preceded by Cliff Thorburn and Ken Doherty.

Since then, Robertson has played the game we are all familiar with today - tremendous break-building and temperament followed by the completion of his Triple Crown collection with a Masters and UK Championship secured in 2012 and 2013 respectively. He is the only non-UK player to achieve this feat.

Robertson has won 11 ranking titles since his WSC win in 2010 which takes his tally up to 16 ranking events and counting. His other significant accomplishment came in 2014 where he reached 103 century breaks in a single season – something which hasn’t come close to being replicated since then.

Although the following years may not have seen the success one would expect from Robertson, he has now recently found the form that had brought him these success stories some years ago. Robertson is one of those players that prove to be unbeatable when he is in top form and now that flame has been rekindled this past season, he is a danger to others who may be looking to steal the spotlight. And Robertson is a huge video game fan, which is a plus in the eyes of Snooker Shorts!

Would a professional play well on any table?

This short post derives from one previously written on why snooker tables are heated. Click here if you haven’t check that one out yet. Effectively, that led to the question as to whether professional players would be able to play well on any snooker table; whether at the club, bar or in a tournament venue.

At initial thought, the answer would be yes - and this is true to a reasonable degree. The best way to think of a professional playing on any snooker table is whether a football player would be able to play on any pitch; or if a tennis player would be able to play on any court.

A football player will likely struggle if a pitch is wet/damp as opposed to regular, dry conditions. Similarly, in tennis you have players that perform better at Wimbledon when playing on grass and players that are better at competing on clay. The same applies to snooker tables in that players will need to adjust to the conditions they are given.

Typically, club tables are slower running because they are cheaper than professional match tables and don’t have under-table heaters or finer cloths. Most who play on these tables will often find themselves struggling to find good position and will need to ‘punch’ the cue ball a little more – and if the cushions aren’t reactive, can make for a difficult session of snooker.

Obviously, professional players are better equipped than anyone else to deal with conditions like these considering the amount of practice and experience they have, but it wouldn’t be ideal for them. Even when playing in high profile tournaments involving a one or two-table setup, you will sometimes hear commentators and players mentioning tables not playing well. Pros very quickly have to adapt to the conditions of the table they are playing on in order to compete.

Ultimately, professionals technically can play on any kind of table but a poorer table means that scoring and break building will suffer, especially if the players can’t adapt to the conditions. Slow cloths and less than ideal rails can make for a difficult game of snooker where players will need to pot themselves out of trouble.

For those who play snooker leisurely, have you tried playing on a match table before and noticed any difference?

What is the situation with Women's Snooker?

When Reanne Evans won her 12th world title, I observed an interesting fact that the total prize fund for the entire World Championship was only £15,000. And that is total – not even the winners share. For context, just competing in the first round of the WSC gets each contender £20,000. This made me wonder about other differences in the World of Women’s Snooker.

That was a convenient segue - women’s snooker is run by the WWS (World Women’s Snooker). They are responsible for organising and running all the snooker events for female competitors and are provided support by the WPBSA. Much like the main tour we are all used to, events are held globally and throughout the year. Although, as I imagine most aren’t too aware of the women’s tour, there are some differences.

There are considerably less tournaments than on the main tour. In the 2018/19 season, there were only 8 events held in the WWS calendar, which is a fraction in comparison to the main. Certain players like O’Sullivan would probably welcome a spread out calendar like that but for most, they would probably prefer a few more options. These 8 events don’t include the main tour events that women can take part in such as Q School, Shoot Out or the World Championship.

Furthermore, the length of the matches are much shorter. In order to win the World Championship, the winner only needs to take 6 frames in the final as opposed to the 18 frames required at the Crucible.

Then there’s the prize money. The WWS claimed that the prize fund for 2018/19 was at least £50,000. Although I couldn’t confirm this, it seems realistic given the number of tournaments. The aim of the WWS is to keep this figure rising as the years roll on. I won’t go into a rant about this as I want to keep this more informative but this number should be multiplied significantly. Bear in mind, this is for the entire season.

Obviously, women’s snooker doesn’t bring in the viewership or revenue of their main tour counterparts, but you would expect the WPBSA to be able to set aside a more reasonable budget to provide an incentive and make things more worthwhile for female players.

There also needs to be a focus on encouraging women to participate in this male-dominated sport in order to try and root out the next big talent. I think it does come to participation numbers and by giving the female players a larger canvas of tournaments to be able to compete in will raise the standard in the women’s game and hopefully, allow more females to qualify for the big events on the main tour.

History of the Riga Masters

The first ranking event of the 2019/20 season is fast approaching and many players are looking to get their season off to a good start and set the standard for the rest of the snooker year. With his exemplary form last season, Neil Robertson is looking to be in a fine position to defend his title from last year.

Relatively speaking, the (Kaspersky) Riga Masters quite a young event having only been introduced in 2014. For the first 2 years, it was known as the ‘Riga Open’ and was run as a minor-ranking event. This meant that the points obtained by players in this event contributed to their ranking position but at a lower rate than a standard ranking event. It was in 2016 when the event was renamed and converted to a full ranking tournament.

Like most tournaments, the Riga Masters involves 128 players qualifying to compete in the tournament. The event consists of a series of best-of-7 or first to 4 matches all the way up until the semi-final and final where this ups (slightly) to a best-of -9 or first to 5. The winner of the Riga Masters is able to take home a cool £50,000 while second place earns £25,000.

The total prize fund for this year’s Riga Masters has increased from £259k to £278k (7%) where the extra funds have been allocated to a rise in the high break prize and for those in the Last-64 bracket.

The Riga Masters is a good tournament to view which players are ones to keep an eye on for the remainder of the season. However, it doesn’t tell us the story entirely considering that many players choose not to compete in this event.

Previous winners include Mark Selby, Barry Hawkins, Neil Robertson (twice) and Ryan Day. The Riga Masters is held in Latvia’s capital and then players are off to China to compete in the International Championship!