This was announced by World Seniors Snooker Tour on social media:
A storm is coming…. World Seniors Snooker are delighted to announce the TORNADO Tony Drago has been invited into the 2023 World Championships which will be played from the 3rd-7th May at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. Join us there https://t.co/laG4Sk3TYapic.twitter.com/5aJ5WdyEjb
The Draw was done this morning for World Seniors Snooker World Championship Qualifier 3.
The event will be played weekend of 17th – 19th February 2023. The Winner will take their place at the Crucible in May.
1 Philip Williams v Frank Gumbrell
2 Peter O’Malley v Bradley Jones
3 Alfie Burden v Minesh Doshi
4 Andrew Pagett v Bye
5 Gary Filtness v Paul Dawson
6 Patrick Fagan v Damon Sykes
7 Rory McLeod v Paul Burrell
8 Richard Pipe v Marc Shaw
9 Bal Sembi v Adrian Morrissey
10 Wayne Townsend v Bye
11 Nigel Howe v Ian Desmier
12 John Hunter v Karl Townsend
13 Mark Ganderton v Raymond Gent
14 Neil Craycraft v Karl Ashmore
15 David Brock v Luke Simmonds
16 Matthew Ford v John Palmer
17 Craig Steadman v Bye
18 Gareth Edwards v Bye
19 James O’Sullivan v Jamshid Kharazchi
20 Gary Britton v Tony Corrigan
21 Steve Crowley v Andy Lavin
22 Dharminder Lilly v Ian Phipps
23 Stuart Watson v Bye
24 Michael Judge v Bye
25 Adam Denham v Neal Jones
26 Aaron Canavan v James McGouran
27 Mark Bell v Man Sing Albert Fok
28 James Height v Dennis Tristram
29 Ant Parsons v Bye
30 Dean Sycamore v Rob Wells
31 Gareth Prosser v Jamie McCarthy
32 Peter Lines v Daniel Young
Also today, World Seniors Snooker announced an important initiative. In collaboration with Sheffield Council, the Crucible Theatre and AgeUKSheffield they will organise the “Seniors of Sheffield Day” on Friday 5th May 2023.
Sheffield Charities Unite with World Seniors Snooker
The World Seniors Snooker Tour, in collaboration with Sheffield City Council, The Crucible Theatre and Age UK Sheffield is proud to announce a Seniors of Sheffield Day which will take place on Friday 5th May 2023 and give 500 residents of the city a chance to come to the Crucible Theatre to not only see some top class snooker but meet likeminded others and engage with many of the great organisations based in the city helping and serving the ageing population and those living in isolation.
Research done by World Seniors Snooker Director Rohit Sagoo, with Age UK Sheffield, shows the number of over 50’s experiencing loneliness is set to reach two million by 2025/6. This compares to around 1.4 million in 2016/7 – a 49% increase in 10 years. There are 1.2 million chronically lonely older people in the UK and half a million older people go at least five or six days a week without seeing or speaking to anyone at all.
Loneliness, living alone and poor social connections are as bad for your health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day and lonely people are more likely to be living with dementia, heart disease and depression
Rohit said “Loneliness is likely to increase your risk of death by 29% and we have a great opportunity to use our Seniors Snooker event in Sheffield to get local residents along and help them understand the support that is available in the city through Age UK Sheffield and all the other great groups.”
Jason Francis, Chairman of the World Seniors Snooker Tour said “This is the start of a project to allocate a day each year to the senior people of Sheffield, who may be vulnerable or living in isolation. Many may not have been able to see snooker in the Crucible before but more importantly we will have representatives of the city’s charities on site to let people know they are not alone and there is help out there. We also want to say thank you to all the volunteers and carers out there.”
Steve Chu, Chief Executive of Age UK Sheffield said “This is a fantastic initiative to engage older people in Sheffield with a sport we know many of them love. We believe there are 12,000 lonely and isolated older people in Sheffield, many of whom whose main source of company is either a pet or the television.
“Visiting the Crucible to see some live snooker will be a great experience for those who benefit from Seniors of Sheffield.”
Tickets will be allocated through one of the city nominated groups and will include a free ticket to the 1pm session of the snooker on Friday 5th May, a hot drink on arrival and the chance to engage with Age UK Sheffield and other city charities. A few of the snooker legends will be on site to say hello and share some memories of what the city and the Crucible means to them.
If you feel you can use some of these tickets for older people you are supporting, please e-mail Lucy Sharp lucy.harper@ageuksheffield.org.uk.
Gerard Greene will play at the Crucible in May, after winning the World Seniors Snooker Championship qualifying event 2, in Reading, last week-end. He beat Phil Williams in the Final.
The Dazzler Darren Morgan has been nominated as the EBSA Seniors Champion and will take his place at the Crucible Theatre for the 2023 World Seniors Championship.
Darren is a former seniors champion. Well done Darren, he will join PABSA Seniors Champion Vito Puopolo as one of the WSF Continental Invites
This nomination came shortly after Darren won the IBSF Amateur World Championship (Masters) in Turkey last week. Congratulations Darren … 11 World titles and counting!
Puopolo is Crucible Bound After Pan-American Seniors Win
Vito Puopolo is set to make his Crucible Theatre debut next year after winning the 2022 PABSA Pan-American Seniors Snooker Championship in Toronto.
Victory for reigning Canadian National Champion Puopolo in the multi-continent event – organised by the Pan-American Billiards and Snooker Association – qualifies him for the 2023 World Seniors Snooker Championship in May.
Players from Brazil, the United States of America and host nation Canada travelled to The Corner Bank venue for the event. Puopolo began his campaign with a 3-0 win over Jesus Batista Oliveria (Brazil) before he made breaks of 91 and 47 during a 3-0 defeat of Ajeya Prabhakar (USA) in the quarter-finals.
Frank Ammirante (Canada) won the opening frame of their semi-final with the help of a 67 break, but Puopolo strung together the next three frames to reach the final.
On the other side of the draw, defending champion Ahmed Aly Elsayed made it through; the record six-time United States National Champion came from 2-1 down to deny Jason Williams in the other last four match, 3-2.
However, the title would change hands, as Puopolo won the final 3-0, registering a run of 46 in the second frame.
The open Pan-American Snooker Championship will now take place over the coming days at the same venue, with the victor earning a professional World Snooker Tour card for the 2023/24 and 2024/25 seasons.
Article by Michael Day.
Here is how the latter stages of the event went
Today, the first qualifying event for the Seniors World Championship will start at the Crucible club in Reading… the club is ready!
You will find the draw, and you will be able to follow the event as it unfolds here
This was shared by Jason Francis on social media earlier this week:
The Draw for the World Seniors Snooker Championship Qualifier to be held at Crucible Reading has been made. Matches begin on Friday 28th. Format and match times to follow
Pre-Lim Matches
PL1 Nigel Howe v Marc Shaw
PL2 Paul Vallance v Dessie Sheehan
PL3 Michael Judge v Zhong Wei Tan
PL4 Michael Philbin v Damon Sykes
PL5 Chris Cookson v Ian Whiting
PL6 Muhammad Asif v Lee Stephens
PL7 Gary Thomson v Steve Porter
PL8 Kevin Palmer v Cary Kikis
PL9 Justin Eggins v Mark Sutton
Matches (with match number)
1 Peter Lines v Winner of Pre-Lim 1
2 Andrew Booker v Rodney Goggins
3 Lee Richardson v Winner of Pre-Lim 2
4 Gerard Greene v Gareth Prosser
5 John Hunter v Bal Sembi
6 Adam Denham v Craig Steadman
7 Steve Crowley v Winner of Pre-Lim 3
8 Adrian Morrissey v Ben Hancorn
9 Neil Craycraft v Gareth Edwards
10 Aaron Canavan v Milan Krstanovic
11 Steve Bird v Winner of Pre-Lim 4
12 Stuart Reardon v Jamshid Kharazchi
13 James Brown v James O’Sullivan
14 Mark Ganderton v Aaron Downey
15 Peter O’Malley v Winner of Pre-Lim 5
16 Dharminder Singh Lilly v Daniel Ward
17 Philip Williams v Ahmed Alashmi
18 Alfie Burden v Andrew Pagett
19 Dean Sycamore v Anthony Harris
20 Garry Coulson v Stephane Ochoiski
21 Patsy Fagan v Andy Battams
22 James Height v Winner of Pre-Lim 6
23 Matt Ford v Winner of Pre-Lim 7
24 David Brock v Paul Burrell
25 John Palmer v Daniel Mooney
26 Wayne Townsend v Simon Chandler
27 Karl Townsend v Winner of Pre Lim 8
28 Rod Lawler v Daren Millard
29 Andrew Greaves v Nigel Phillips
30 John Snape v Mohamed Shehab
31 Neal Jones v Winner of Pre-Lim 9
32 Stuart Watson v Gary Britton
Quite a few pros and “recent pros” in this draw.
Nice as well to see Stephane Ochoiski, from France, giving it a go. Stephane is Brian Ochoiski’s father. Brian was on the tour in recent years. Stephane runs a club in St Avold and is a coach.
The calendar is headlined by four qualifying events for the 2023 World Seniors Snooker Championship, which will provide opportunities for any amateur player, or any current WST professional player ranked 65-131 on the main tour, and over-40 on or before 28 October 2022, to win one of four coveted spots at the event.
Each qualifier will be held at the Crucible Club in Reading, with the winner of each event progressing to the final stages.
Alongside each qualifying event there will also be a Super Seniors ranking tournament staged on the final day, open to players aged 55 years or over.
Open Series
As well as the World Championship qualifiers, new for this season are three World Seniors Open Series tournaments, which each carry full ranking points and prize money.
In the event of late withdrawals, the world ranking system is often used to replace those who withdraw from the main televised events.
Entry for all tournaments will open on Monday 3 October via WPBSA SnookerScores with the entry deadline for the opening tournaments of the season set to fall on 14 October.
All players will need to secure, or already hold, a World Seniors Tour Membership for the 2022/23 Season. Professionals who already hold a WPBSA membership do not need both.
The WPBSA World Seniors Tour 