The following changes have been announced on social media by Jason Francis, chairman of WSS

Following consultation with the Players Commission the following recommendations have been made by them which I am largely happy to adopt.

1, Black Ball
For the World Championships and Uk Championships to begin with the respot will be removed with all matches to semi final being best of 5 and from semi finals best of 7. The conditions to allow this are as follows
a, Matches may begin at 9am
b, the competition must be played down to the quarters by end of play Saturday.
c, players should expect much longer days
d, a minimum third referee will be added and their hours scheduled in shifts as no one should be expect to officiate for 12 hours.
e, in order to fund and third referee and potentially another TD to help T BAG the entry fee for qualifiers we run will be increased to £60.

2, Prize Money For the qualifiers we run (predominantly Uk but some overseas) Prize money will be as follows
£700 winner
£400 runner up
£200 semi finals
£100 quarter finals
£100 High Break

3, Consideration for Saturday play will only be considered for players entering from outside the country where the event is being staged. Consideration does not mean a promise and players will need to confirm on entry they are available to play at any time during the tournament specified dates. I am happy to consider requests for Friday play but again this is a request and no promises can be made.

The commission is currently considering some other points.

We will announce the first set of qualifiers on Tuesday with entries opening Wednesday.