The fourth, and last, qualifying event for the 2023 World Seniors Snooker Championship at the Crucible took place over the week-end and was won by Peter Lines. He beat Andrew Norman in the final.
This was announced yesterday by Jason Francis on Facebook
MARK DAVIS INVITED TO SENIORS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP.
The World Seniors Snooker Tour is proud to announce that Mark Davis, the 2016 World Seniors Champion has accepted an invitation into the 2023 Event.
Current World Number 66 Davis has been a professional since 1991, making him one of the games longest serving players. As well as the Seniors Crown in 2016 the ‘Battler from Hastings’ has won multiple World 6 Reds Titles and achieved a highest ranking of 12 in 2013.
Mark said ‘I’m really proud to be a former World Seniors champion and although my aim is still to play on the professional tour I think the opportunities the seniors tour has given to amateurs and the lower ranked your players has been brilliant’
Jason Francis said “In some ways Mark becoming eligible for an invitation means his current professional status is in peril which is a shame for someone who has been on tour for over thirty years, that said the chance to compete at the Crucible Theatre in the single table set up is still one of the greatest things a snooker play can do and I am sure Mark will embrace it”
The World Seniors Snooker Championship is being staged from the 3rd to the 7th May and is live on BBC Digital Channels. The field already contains former World Champions Stephen Hendry, Ken Doherty and Joe Johnson as well as 3 times World Seniors Champions Jimmy White. Tickets can be purchased by going to https://www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk/…/world-seniors…
Should Mark Davis regain his professional status before the event, his place will be taken by multiple event winner, and former World Number 2 Tony Knowles.
Burden ousted fellow main tour professional Peter Lines 4-3 in the final at the Crucible Sports and Social Club in Reading to reach the venue stages of the Championship for the first time in his career, and make up for losing in the final of the first qualifying event in October.
The 46-year-old Londoner made it through to Sunday’s last eight after opening round wins against Minesh Doshi 3-0 (where he made the event’s highest break of 138), Andrew Pagett 3-2, and Philip Williams 3-0. He then came from behind to defeat Rory McLeod 4-2 in the quarter-finals and saw off Luke Simmonds 4-0 in the last four.
On the other side of the draw, former champion Lines advanced to the last eight without dropping a frame before eliminating James McGouran 4-1 and pipping Dharminder Lilly 4-3.
‘The AB of London’ made a statement in the opening frame of what would be a close and compelling final by clearing up with a 59 break to take an early lead, although Lines responded by securing the next two frames – which were also decided on the final black ball.
A pot on the final pink at the end of frame four levelled the match for Burden, but Lines was the first to move one away from qualification as he claimed the fifth to move 3-2 ahead.
Having suffered disappointment in the past being close to returning to the iconic Sheffield venue, Burden stayed resolute, taking the match into a deserved deciding frame where he sank brown, blue and pink – after Lines had missed the brown – to book a place in the main draw.
Victory for Burden means an emotional return to the Crucible Theatre for the first time in what will be over a quarter of a century. His previous appearance in 1998 was a memorable one, where he made two centuries on debut before narrowly losing 10-8 to Tony Drago – another player in this year’s seniors main draw.
Burden is the third qualifying event winner this season after successes for Ben Hancorn and Gerard Greene.
World Seniors Snooker Tour wants to reward their players dedication.
This was shared on social media a couple of days ago:
World Seniors Snooker are today pleased to announce a Golden Ticket place for tour card holders in their 2023 World Championships. After the last qualifier, on 12th March, the top 16 will be invited to contest a play-off weekend on the 22nd and 23rd April for a Golden Ticket
There are still three events to go before the World Championship
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!
The WPBSA World Seniors Tour 