My snooker digest and all-round summary of everything you need to know about snooker was published a year ago. You’ll be desperate to know who’s won the most recent Triple Crown events, who the number one is and the current situation in ladies’ snooker. Let’s deal with those questions:
2017/18 season
2017 UK Championship (December 2017): Ronnie O’Sullivan beat Shawn Murphy 10-5
2018 Masters (January 2018): Mark Allen beat Kyren Wilson 10-7
2018 World Championship (May 2018): Mark Williams beat John Higgins 18-16
2018 World Ladies Championship (March 2018): Ng On Yee beat Maria Catalano 5-0
World rankings: Mark Selby is still the world number one, as he has been since 9 February 2015, followed in the rankings by Mark Williams, Ronnie O’Sullivan and John Higgins. Ng On Yee is the women’s number one, followed by Reanne Evans.
Summary of Events
First, note that the number of ranking events increased from 19 to 20, with the promotion of the China Championship to ranking status. Although Mark Selby remains number one, he had a relatively poor 2017/18 season, losing in the first round of the World Championship and the second round of the UK Championship, and only holds the position based on his performance in 2016/17 (snooker’s rankings are based on the previous two years). Taking 2017/18 in isolation, Mark Williams topped the list with Ronnie O’Sullivan second. Without a strong performance early in the 2018/19 season, there could be a new number one after the UK Championship in December. The World Championship produced a final between two ‘old-timers’ with Mark Williams (two times previously World Champion, but not since 2003) beating John Higgins (a four times winner, most recently in 2011) in an excellent, tight match. Mark Williams promised to perform his press conference naked if he won, and duly delivered, wearing just a towel.
In the World Ladies Championship, held in Malta, Maria Catalano—who had previously reached four finals and lost them all to Reanne Evans—beat Reanne 4-3 in the semis to scupper the expected final between Ng and Reanne. Ng won to retain her title and make it three world crowns in total. However, Reanne performed strongly in the season overall and is only narrowly behind Ng in the ranking points. Ng and Reanne both played in the first qualifying round of the World Championship, Reanne losing 10-7 to Dominic Dale and Ng 10-1 to Matthew Selt.
So what’s up next? Snooker rankings events are taking place pretty much from late July to the World Championships in April/May, with events scattered around the UK, the rest of Europe and Asia (especially China). The season comes to life with more frequent and higher profile events from late September, though. The next really big tournament will be the UK Championship at the York Barbican, which starts 27 November. We’re also wondering if Mark Selby will retain his number one ranking, how the rivalry between Reanne Evans and Ng On Yee will develop, and, looking further ahead, how next year’s World Championship and World Ladies Championship will pan out.
