1.
Preston Guild Hall
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Preston Guild Hall is an entertainment venue in Preston, Lancashire, England. It was built to replace the towns Public Hall, intended to be ready for the Preston Guild of 1972, the complex has two performance venues, the Grand Hall which holds 2,034 people and the Charter Theatre which holds 780 people. There is direct access, via subway and bridge, from the adjacent Preston bus station. Artists that have performed at the venue include Led Zeppelin, David Bowie and it also hosted the UK Snooker Championship for many years. Until July 2014, it was owned by Preston City Council and it was then sold to local businessman Simon Rigby, who has promised to spend £1m to renovate the venue
2.
Preston, Lancashire
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Preston /ˈprɛstən/ is a city and the administrative centre of Lancashire, England. The district obtained city status in 2002, becoming Englands 50th city in the 50th year of Queen Elizabeth IIs reign, Preston has a population of 114,300, the City of Preston district 132,000 and the Preston Built-up Area 313,322. The Preston Travel To Work Area, in 2011, had a population of 420,661 compared to 354,000 in the previous census. Preston and its area have provided evidence of ancient Roman activity. The Angles established Preston, its name is derived from the Old English meaning priests settlement, in the Middle Ages, Preston was a parish and township in the hundred of Amounderness and was granted a Guild Merchant charter in 1179, giving it the status of a market town. Textiles have been produced since the century when locally produced wool was woven in peoples houses. Flemish weavers who settled in the area in the 14th century helped develop the industry, in the early-18th century, Edmund Calamy described Preston as a pretty town with an abundance of gentry in it, commonly called Proud Preston. Sir Richard Arkwright, inventor of the frame, was born in the town. The most rapid period of growth and development coincided with the industrialisation and expansion of textile manufacturing, Preston was a boomtown of the Industrial Revolution, becoming a densely populated engineering centre, with large industrial plants. Preston is recorded in the Domesday Book as Prestune in 1086, various other spellings occur in early documents, Prestonam, Prestone, Prestona, Presteton, and Prestun. The modern spelling occurs in 1094,1176,1196,1212 and 1332, the towns name is derived from Old English Presta and Tun, the Tun of the Presta. During the Roman period, Roman roads passed close to what is now the centre of Preston. For example, the road from Luguvalium to Mamucium crossed the River Ribble at Walton-le-Dale, 3⁄4 mile southeast of the centre of Preston, at Withy Trees,1 1⁄2 miles north of Preston, the road crossed another Roman road from Bremetennacum to the coast. An explanation of the origin of the name is that the Priests Town refers to a set up by St Wilfrid near the Ribbles lowest ford. This idea is supported by the similarity of the Paschal lamb on Prestons crest with that on St Wilfrids, when first mentioned in the 1086 Domesday Book, Preston was already the most important town in Amounderness. When assessed for tax purposes in 1218 –19 it was the wealthiest town in the whole county and it is the only Guild still celebrated in the UK. Before 1328 a celebration had been held on an irregular basis, after this, there were breaks in the pattern for various reasons, but an unbroken series were held from 1542 to 1922. A full 400 year sequence was frustrated by the cancellation of the 1942 Guild due to World War II, the expression every Preston Guild, meaning very infrequently, has passed into fairly common use, especially in Lancashire
3.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
4.
Pound sterling
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It is subdivided into 100 pence. A number of nations that do not use sterling also have called the pound. At various times, the sterling was commodity money or bank notes backed by silver or gold. The pound sterling is the worlds oldest currency still in use, the British Crown dependencies of Guernsey and Jersey produce their own local issues of sterling, the Guernsey pound and the Jersey pound. The pound sterling is also used in the Isle of Man, Gibraltar, the Bank of England is the central bank for the pound sterling, issuing its own coins and banknotes, and regulating issuance of banknotes by private banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Sterling is the fourth most-traded currency in the exchange market, after the United States dollar, the euro. Together with those three currencies it forms the basket of currencies which calculate the value of IMF special drawing rights, Sterling is also the third most-held reserve currency in global reserves. The full, official name, pound sterling, is used mainly in formal contexts, otherwise the term pound is normally used. The abbreviations ster. or stg. are sometimes used, the term British pound is commonly used in less formal contexts, although it is not an official name of the currency. The pound sterling is also referred to as cable amongst forex traders, the origins of this term are attributed to the fact that in the 1800s, the dollar/pound sterling exchange rate was transmitted via transatlantic cable. Forex brokers are sometimes referred to as cable dealers, as another established source notes, the compound expression was then derived, silver coins known as sterlings were issued in the Saxon kingdoms,240 of them being minted from a pound of silver. Hence, large payments came to be reckoned in pounds of sterlings, in 1260, Henry III granted them a charter of protection. And because the Leagues money was not frequently debased like that of England, English traders stipulated to be paid in pounds of the Easterlings, and land for their Kontor, the Steelyard of London, which by the 1340s was also called Easterlings Hall, or Esterlingeshalle. For further discussion of the etymology of sterling, see sterling silver, the currency sign for the pound sign is £, which is usually written with a single cross-bar, though a version with a double cross-bar is also sometimes seen. The ISO4217 currency code is GBP, occasionally, the abbreviation UKP is used but this is non-standard because the ISO3166 country code for the United Kingdom is GB. The Crown dependencies use their own codes, GGP, JEP, stocks are often traded in pence, so traders may refer to pence sterling, GBX, when listing stock prices. A common slang term for the pound sterling or pound is quid, since decimalisation in 1971, the pound has been divided into 100 pence. The symbol for the penny is p, hence an amount such as 50p properly pronounced fifty pence is more colloquially, quite often, pronounced fifty pee /fɪfti, pi and this also helped to distinguish between new and old pence amounts during the changeover to the decimal system
5.
Ronnie O'Sullivan
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Ronald Antonio OSullivan, OBE is an English professional snooker and pool player. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the sports history and he is noted for his rapid playing style, mercurial temperament, and his ambivalent relationship with the sport, from which he has taken prolonged sabbaticals and repeatedly threatened to retire. Ronnie is based at the Legends Snooker Academy in Leytonstone, England, a childhood snooker prodigy, OSullivan made his first century break at age 10, and his first maximum break at age 15. He turned professional in 1992, at the age of 16 and he is also the youngest player to have won the Masters, having captured his first title in 1995 at the age of 19 years and 69 days. His record in Triple Crown events now stands at five World Championship, a record seven Masters, OSullivan has held the world number one ranking on multiple occasions, most recently during the 2009/2010 season. His other achievements include ten Premier League titles and winning the Nations Cup with England in 2000, known as a prolific break-builder, OSullivan holds the record for the most competitive century breaks with 868. OSullivans achievements in snooker began at an early age and he made his first century break at the age of 10, completed his first total clearance at age 12, and became British Under-16 Champion at age 13. He made his debut in The Thames Snooker Classic when he was 14. He compiled his first maximum break in the final of the 1991 British Amateur Championships at age 15 and he turned professional in 1992, aged 16. OSullivan began the 1992/1993 season by winning 74 of his first 76 professional matches, including a streak of 38 successive victories. At the qualifying stage of the Grand Prix he defeated Jason Curtis 5–0 in a time of 43 minutes 36 seconds, after this Alan Hughes gave him the nickname The Rocket. In September 1992, at the age of 16, he became the youngest player ever to qualify for the World Championship. He made his Crucible debut on 18 April 1993 at the age of 17 years and 134 days and he lost 7–10 to Alan McManus in the first round. OSullivan was named the WPBSAs Young Player of the Year for 1993, in the 1993/1994 season OSullivan defeated Hendry 10–6 in the final of the UK Championship to win his first ranking title. At the age of 17 years and 358 days he became the youngest ever winner of a ranking tournament. He faced Hendry again in the final of the European Open and he won his second ranking title at the British Open by defeating James Wattana 9–4 in the final. He reached the round of the World Championship but lost 3–13 against John Parrott. Having started the season ranked number 57 in the world, he ended it ranked number 9 and he captured his first Masters title by defeating John Higgins 9–3 in the final, becoming the youngest player ever to win the tournament at the age of 19 years and 69 days
6.
Snooker
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Snooker is a cue sport which originated in India in the latter half of the 19th century. It is played on a covered with a green cloth, or baize, with pockets at each of the four corners. Using a cue and 22 coloured balls, players must strike the ball to pot the remaining balls in the correct sequence. An individual game, or frame, is won by the player who scores the most points, a match is won when a player wins a predetermined number of frames. In the 1870s, billiards was a sport played by members of the British Army stationed in India. Snooker gained its own identity in 1884 when officer Sir Neville Chamberlain, while stationed in Ooty, devised a set of rules that combined pyramid, the word snooker was a long used military term used to describe inexperienced or first year personnel. The game grew in popularity in England, cemented by the formation of the Billiards Association and it is now governed by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. The World Snooker Championship has taken place since 1927, with Joe Davis becoming a key figure in the growth of the sport with 15 championship wins from 1927 to 1946. Top professional players now compete regularly around the world and attain multi-million-pound career earnings, the sport has become increasingly popular in China. The origin of snooker dates back to the half of the nineteenth century. In the 1870s, billiards was a popular activity amongst British Army officers stationed in India, one such variation originated at the officers mess of the 11th Devonshire Regiment in Jabalpur in 1875, which combined the rules of two pocket billiards games, pyramid and life pool. The former was played with fifteen red balls and one positioned in a triangle, while the latter involved the potting of designated coloured balls. The name instantly stuck with the players, in 1887, snooker was given its first definite reference in England in a copy of Sporting Life which caused a growth in popularity. Chamberlain came out as the inventor in a letter to The Field published on 19 March 1938,63 years after the fact. To accommodate the growing interest, smaller and more open snooker-specific clubs were formed, in 1919, the Billiards Association and the Billiards Control Board merged to form the Billiards Association and Control Club and a new, standard set of rules for snooker first became official. Davis won every championship until 1946 when he retired. The game went into a decline through the 1950s and 1960s with little interest generated outside of those who played, in 1959, Davis introduced a variation of the game, known as snooker plus to try to improve the games popularity by adding two extra colours. The TV series became a success and was for a time the second most popular show on BBC Two
7.
Venue Cymru
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Venue Cymru is a theatre, conference centre and arena in Llandudno, Conwy county borough, North Wales. Formerly known as the Aberconwy Centre and the North Wales Theatre and Conference Centre, is now an arts, conference. Venue Cymru has a theatre, conference centre, and arena, the site lies at the edge of Tyn-y-ffrith, the house in the sheep pasture. The first theatre at the site was the Victoria Palace, which opened in July 1894 and it was intended to be a temporary building, and it was designed as a 1, 150-seat concert hall for Jules Rivière and his 42-musician orchestra. Rivière had previously performed at the Pier Pavilion before he fell out with the Llandudno Pier Company, Victoria Palace attracted eminent visiting soloists including Sir Charles and Lady Hallé who in 1894 gave a piano and violin recital with Rivières orchestra. The Victoria Palace was the first part of a project that would have seen the construction of a pier. The theatre was renamed to Rivières Concert Hall. In 1900 it was renamed to the Llandudno Opera House and it hosted the Carl Rosa Opera Company. It was renamed to the Hippodrome, and was used as a roller-skating rink, the theatre was purchased by Will Catlin on 3 June 1916. It was renamed as the Arcadia, the theatre had 1,147 seats, and was one of six theatres in Llandudno to last for many years. It was the home of Catlins Peirrots and Catlins Showtime, ken Dodd was a regular performer. The Arcadia provided 1,147 seats in the auditorium and was the last of Llandudno’s many theatres and it was the home of Will Catlins Pierrots, which eventually became presented as Catlins Follies with an all star cast. Catlins Follies survived the death in 1953 of Will Catlin. The shows continued until 1968, when Llandudno Urban Council purchased the theatre, the Arcadia continued as a summer theatre under local authority ownership until 1993. It closed on 22 June 1994, and was derelict for the next decade, the Aberconwy Centre opened to the west of the Arcadia theatre in 1982. The conference venue had space for over 1,000 conference attendees and it also featured squash courts, sun beds and badminton courts. The Centre was redeveloped in 1994, and it was renamed to the North Wales Theatre and it hosted a 1, 500-seat auditorium/theatre, as well as a 700 square metres conference hall with capacity for 800 seated, or 1,000 standing, people. In July 2005 the Arcadia theatre was demolished to make way for an atrium and meeting and conference rooms adjoining with the North Wales Theatre, the building was also extended to the west
8.
Llandudno
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Llandudno is a seaside resort, town and community in Conwy County Borough, Wales, located on the Creuddyn peninsula, which protrudes into the Irish Sea. In the 2011 UK census, the community, which includes Penrhyn Bay, the towns name is derived from its patron saint, Saint Tudno. Llandudno, Queen of the Welsh Resorts, a title first applied as early as 1864, is now the largest seaside resort in Wales, historically a part of Caernarfonshire, Llandudno was formerly in the district of Aberconwy within Gwynedd. The origins in recorded history are with the Manor of Gogarth conveyed by King Edward I to Annan, the manor comprised three townships, Y Gogarth in the south-west, Y Cyngreawdr in the north and Yr Wyddfid in the south-east. Home to several herds of wild Kashmiri goats originally descended from several goats given by Queen Victoria to Lord Mostyn. The summit of the Great Orme stands at 679 feet, the Summit Hotel, now a tourist attraction, was once the home of world middleweight champion boxer Randolph Turpin. A haven for flora and fauna with some species such as peregrine falcons. This great limestone headland has many attractions including the Great Orme Tramway, by 1847 the town had grown to a thousand people, served by the new church of St George, built in 1840. The great majority of the men worked in the mines, with others employed in fishing. In 1848, Owen Williams, an architect and surveyor from Liverpool and these were enthusiastically pursued by Lord Mostyn. The influence of the Mostyn Estate and its agents over the years was paramount in the development of Llandudno, especially after the appointment of George Felton as surveyor, between 1857 and 1877 much of central Llandudno was developed under Feltons supervision. Felton also undertook architectural design work, including the design and execution of Holy Trinity Church in Mostyn Street, the town is just off the North Wales Coast railway line which was opened as the Chester and Holyhead Railway in 1848. It became part of the London and North Western Railway in 1859, Llandudno was specifically built as a mid-Victorian era holiday destination and is served by a branch railway line opened in 1858 from Llandudno Junction with stations at Deganwy and Llandudno. Great Orme Tramway The Llandudno and Colwyn Bay Electric Railway operated a tramway service between Llandudno and Rhos-on-Sea from 1907 and extended to Colwyn Bay in 1908. Modern Llandudno takes its name from the ancient parish of Saint Tudno but also encompasses several neighbouring townships and districts including Craig-y-Don, Llanrhos, also nearby is the small town and marina of Deganwy and these last four are in the traditional parish of Llanrhos. The ancient geographical boundaries of the Llandudno area are complex, today, Deganwy and Llandudno Junction are part of the town community of Conwy even though they are across the river and only linked to Conwy by a causeway and bridge. A beach of sand, shingle and rock curves two miles between the headlands of the Great Orme and the Little Orme, for most of the length of Llandudnos North Shore there is a wide curving Victorian promenade. The road, collectively known as The Parade, has a different name for each block and it is on these parades, near the centre of the bay is the Venue Cymru
9.
Wales
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Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, and it had a population in 2011 of 3,063,456 and has a total area of 20,779 km2. Wales has over 1,680 miles of coastline and is mountainous, with its higher peaks in the north and central areas, including Snowdon. The country lies within the temperate zone and has a changeable. Welsh national identity emerged among the Celtic Britons after the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the 5th century, Llywelyn ap Gruffudds death in 1282 marked the completion of Edward I of Englands conquest of Wales, though Owain Glyndŵr briefly restored independence to Wales in the early 15th century. The whole of Wales was annexed by England and incorporated within the English legal system under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542, distinctive Welsh politics developed in the 19th century. Welsh Liberalism, exemplified in the early 20th century by Lloyd George, was displaced by the growth of socialism, Welsh national feeling grew over the century, Plaid Cymru was formed in 1925 and the Welsh Language Society in 1962. Established under the Government of Wales Act 1998, the National Assembly for Wales holds responsibility for a range of devolved policy matters, two-thirds of the population live in south Wales, mainly in and around Cardiff, Swansea and Newport, and in the nearby valleys. Now that the countrys traditional extractive and heavy industries have gone or are in decline, Wales economy depends on the sector, light and service industries. Wales 2010 gross value added was £45.5 billion, over 560,000 Welsh language speakers live in Wales, and the language is spoken by a majority of the population in parts of the north and west. From the late 19th century onwards, Wales acquired its popular image as the land of song, Rugby union is seen as a symbol of Welsh identity and an expression of national consciousness. The Old English-speaking Anglo-Saxons came to use the term Wælisc when referring to the Celtic Britons in particular, the modern names for some Continental European lands and peoples have a similar etymology. The modern Welsh name for themselves is Cymry, and Cymru is the Welsh name for Wales and these words are descended from the Brythonic word combrogi, meaning fellow-countrymen. The use of the word Cymry as a self-designation derives from the location in the post-Roman Era of the Welsh people in modern Wales as well as in northern England and southern Scotland. It emphasised that the Welsh in modern Wales and in the Hen Ogledd were one people, in particular, the term was not applied to the Cornish or the Breton peoples, who are of similar heritage, culture, and language to the Welsh. The word came into use as a self-description probably before the 7th century and it is attested in a praise poem to Cadwallon ap Cadfan c. 633. Thereafter Cymry prevailed as a reference to the Welsh, until c.1560 the word was spelt Kymry or Cymry, regardless of whether it referred to the people or their homeland. The Latinised forms of names, Cambrian, Cambric and Cambria, survive as lesser-used alternative names for Wales, Welsh
10.
World Open (snooker)
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The World Open was a professional ranking snooker tournament. It had previously known as the Professional Players Tournament, the LG Cup. During 2006 and 2007, it was played in a unique format, more similar to association football. The knock-out format returned in 2008 with an FA Cup-style draw, the random draw was abandoned after the 2010 edition. The last champion was Ali Carter, the tournament was created in 1982 as the Professional Players Tournament by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, in order to provide another ranking event. Ray Reardon beat Jimmy White by 10 frames to 5 in the final to win the first prize of £5,000, in 1984 Rothmans started sponsoring the tournament, changing its name to the Grand Prix, and moved its venue to the Hexagon Theatre in Reading. The tournament has had various sponsors and venues since, previous sponsors include LG Electronics, who took over in 2001 and changed the tournaments name to the LG Cup. After LG withdrew their sponsorship, the Grand Prix name was revived for 2004 and was sponsored by totesport, between 2006 and 2008 the event was sponsored by Royal London Watches. The tournament was played at the Guild hall in 1998, at the start of the snooker season, prize money for 2005 totalled £400,000, with the winner receiving £60,000. In its original form, the tournament had a flatter structure than most tournaments, with the top 32 players all coming in at the last 64 stage. These facts made it common to see surprise results than in most other tournaments, with players such as Dominic Dale, Marco Fu, Euan Henderson. A player from outside the top 16 has reached the final roughly half the times the contest has been played, few of those have become consistent stars, although Stephen Hendry and John Higgins took their first ranking titles in the event. In addition, over the years, many top 16 players were eliminated in the stages of the contest. The event moved to Scotland at the A. E. C. C. in Aberdeen for 2006, Players were split into groups and played every other player in their group once. The top 2 players progressed, the last 16 and onwards were played as a straight knock-out and this resulted in several surprise results. The format was tweaked for 2007, after complaints that the system was too random. Matches increased in length from best-of-5 to best-of-7, to give the player more chance to win. The main tie-breaker for players level on wins was changed, with frame difference now taking precedence over results between the players who are level on points
11.
Judd Trump
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Judd Trump is an English professional snooker player from Bristol and former world number one. He enjoyed considerable success in tournaments before turning professional in 2005. On 3 April 2011, Trump won his first ranking title, following this success in China, he reached the final of the 2011 World Snooker Championship where he was defeated by John Higgins. He then went on to win the 2011 UK Championship where he defeated Mark Allen 10–8 in the final, in November 2012, Trump won the inaugural International Championship and in doing so became world number one, a position he held for five weeks. On 18 February 2013, he reclaimed the top spot, in July 2014, Trump won his 4th ranking title at the Australian Goldfields Open after defeating Neil Robertson 9–5. He won the inaugural 2015 World Grand Prix beating Ronnie OSullivan 10–7 in the final, in October 2016, he again defeated OSullivan 9–8 to claim the European Masters title. Trump practises alongside Jack Lisowski and Liang Wenbo at the Grove Snooker Academy in Romford, a prolific break-builder, Trump has compiled more than 450 century breaks during his career. He is currently ranked at no.2, Trump was English Under-13 and Under-15 champion, and reached the World Under-21 Championship semi-finals at the age of 14. At the same age, he became the youngest player ever to make a competitive 147, in the 2005/06 season he joined the professional tour, and at the Welsh Open became the youngest player ever to qualify for the final stages of a ranking tournament. He reached the same stage for the China Open, losing 4–5 to Michael Holt, although this was designated the final qualifying round and was actually played in Prestatyn. Trump played the 2005 champion and 6th seed, Shaun Murphy, in the first round, Trump did not build on this form in the 2007/08 season, only reaching the last 32 of the Welsh Open by beating Joe Swail. He missed out on the World Championship after a 9–10 loss to Swail, things changed for the 2008/09 season when Trump reached the venue stages of the first four events. At the Grand Prix he benefited from Graeme Dotts withdrawal before defeating Joe Perry 5–2 in the last 16, despite admitting to not playing well and Perry feeling that he had outplayed Trump. Then came the biggest win of his career so far, defeating Ronnie OSullivan 5–4 to reach the semi-final and he beat double world champion Mark Williams to qualify for the 2008 Bahrain Championship. He won a tournament to gain entry into the 2009 Masters Tournament as the only qualifier. He failed to qualify for the World Championship, losing 8–10 to Stephen Lee having led 6–3, Lee considered this match to be a local derby, as he is from nearby Trowbridge. He also noted that Trump had not followed the custom of apologising for fluked shots during the match, today he blew a 6–3 lead and hopefully that will stick with him. Trump ended the season in the Top 32 of the rankings for the first time and he was coached for a short time by Tony Chappel
12.
Shaun Murphy (snooker player)
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Shaun Murphy is an English professional snooker player, who won the 2005 World Championship. Nicknamed The Magician, Murphy is noted for his cue action. Born in Harlow and raised in Irthlingborough, Murphy turned professional in 1998 and his victory at the World Championship was considered a major surprise as he was only the third qualifier to lift the title. He has also won seven non-ranking tournaments, including the 2015 Masters, Murphy has won over £3 million in prize money and has compiled more than 400 century breaks in his professional career. His highest world ranking was number three, which he maintained for three seasons following 2007/2008, and he is ranked number four. Born in Harlow, England, Murphy began playing snooker at the age of eight after his parents bought him a table for Christmas. He made his first century break at the age of 10 and practised at the Rushden Snooker Centre, where such as Stephen Hendry, Mark Williams. At the age of 13, he secured a five-year £5, 000-a-year sponsorship deal with the Doc Martens shoe company and stated his ambitions of winning the World Championship and he turned professional in 1998 at the age of 15. Murphy was coached by Steve Prest until the 2006/2007 season, willie Thorne and Ray Reardon also gave him guidance, and when he was 15, he was given the latters old cue by his father. Murphy began his career on the UK Tour in 1998, at the time the professional tour. He was runner-up in the event on the UK tour for the 1997/1998 season and, for the 2000/2001 season, won the third and fourth events on the Challenge Tour. In 2000, he received the World Snooker Newcomer of the Year award and one of six Young Player of Distinction of the Year awards from the World Professional Billiards, in 2000, he won the English Open Championship. Murphy won his first professional tournament at the 2000 Benson & Hedges Championship, defeating Mark Davis 6–1 in the semi-final, and Stuart Bingham 9–7 in the final, recovering from 2–5 down. In the 2001 tournament, he showed promise in his first televised match, defeating world number 15, Marco Fu and he made his first maximum break in the 2001 Benson & Hedges Championship. Murphy first reached the stages of a ranking event at the 2002 World Championship, hosted at the Crucible Theatre. For the 2003/2004 season, Murphy was ranked number 64 and qualified for the stages of three ranking tournaments. In the LG Cup, Murphy defeated Steve Davis 5–4 in the second round, after the victory over Davis, Murphy said This is one of the greatest days in my snooker career. In the British Open, he defeated Dave Harold 5–1 in the first round, in the Players Championship—the new name of the Scottish Open—he lost 3–5 to eventual champion Jimmy White in the second round
13.
Stuart Bingham
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Stuart Bingham is an English professional snooker player and a former World Snooker Champion. As an amateur, he won the 1996 IBSF World Snooker Championship and he first entered the top 32 in the world rankings for the 2006/2007 season, and first reached the top 16 during the 2011/2012 season. Bingham won the first ranking title of his career at the 2011 Australian Goldfields Open and he followed this by winning the World Championship in 2015, which British media said completed an astonishing transition from journeyman to king of the Crucible. With that, he joined Ken Doherty as the players to have won world titles at both amateur and professional levels. He claimed a ranking title by winning the 2017 Welsh Open. Bingham has also been runner-up in three ranking events, the 2012 Wuxi Classic, the 2013 Welsh Open, and the 2016 World Grand Prix. He has also won the non-ranking 2012 Premier League Snooker and the 2015 Championship League, a prolific break-builder, he has compiled more than 300 century breaks during his career, including three maximum breaks. He also qualified for the tournament in 2002 by beating Nigel Bond, Bingham played Ken Doherty in the first round and almost made the fifth 147 break at the Crucible, but missed the final pink in an attempt that would have been worth £167,000. He went on to lose the match 8–10, in the 2004/2005 season his best runs were two last-sixteen runs in ranking events, including losing in a final frame decider to Ding Junhui in the China Open. In 2005/2006, he had one of his most consistent seasons and he reached the quarter-finals of the Grand Prix tournament, beating then world champion Shaun Murphy along the way. He got to the stage of the UK Championship, losing in a final frame decider to Joe Perry. He also won the tournament for the Masters, scoring a 147 break along the way. He then beat Steve Davis in the round, before losing to Peter Ebdon 4–6. He made a start to the 2007/08 season, reaching the quarter finals of the Shanghai Masters. After finishing 4th in his group in the Grand Prix he then lost his first match in the Northern Ireland Trophy, in the Maplin UK Championship he managed to reach the last 16, losing to Shaun Murphy 9–3, after victories over Fergal OBrien and Steve Davis again. He also reached the stage of the Welsh Open, beating Stephen Maguire 5–4, after being 3–0 down, in the last 32. 2008/2009 was a disappointment for Bingham, who lost his first match in four of the eight events. He was drawn against number 1 Ronnie OSullivan in the first round of the 2009 World Championship, Bingham reached the Quarter final stages of the 2010 UK Championship having defeated OSullivan 9–6 and then Marco Fu 9–2 in previous rounds before losing 9–7 to Northern Irelands Mark Allen
14.
Barry Hawkins
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Barry Hawkins is an English professional snooker player from Ditton in Kent. He has now spent twelve successive seasons ranked inside the top 32 and he reached his first ranking final and won his first ranking title at the 2012 Australian Goldfields Open. Hawkins has played in the stages of every World Championship since he made his Crucible Theatre debut in 2006. He lost in the first round on his first five appearances, Hawkins has since reached the semi-finals the following two years running. Before taking up snooker professionally he was an office clerk and he reached the Top 32 in the rankings in 2004/2005, having reached the semi-finals of 2005s Welsh Open, as well as the last sixteen of three other tournaments. In 2005/2006, he reached the semi-finals of the Grand Prix and the Welsh Open again and this cemented Hawkins place in the Top 16 of the rankings for the 2006/2007 season. At the World Championship in Sheffield, however, Hawkins faced former Champion Ken Doherty in the first round and he told the BBC that I just couldnt perform and I dont know why. Im gutted after such a season to have performed like that. The 2006/2007 season saw Hawkins disappointed following two strong seasons and he had one foot in his first final against Jamie Cope in the semi final, but Cope was able to obtain the snookers he needed to stay in the match and went on to win 6–5. A first-round defeat by Fergal OBrien at the World Championship cost him his Top 16 place, early in the 2007/2008 season, Hawkins won the qualifying tournament for the 2008 SAGA Insurance Masters, beating Kurt Maflin. He won five matches, also beating top-32 players Nigel Bond. He also reached the last 16 at the Grand Prix, UK Championship and he then won at least his opening match in the next four ranking events, reaching the provisional top 16. From 2006–2010, Hawkinss record at the World Championship was unsuccessful, as well as the aforementioned one-sided defeat by Doherty, Hawkins narrowly lost in the first round the following two years as well, to Fergal OBrien and Ali Carter respectively. Coincidentally, on both occasions Hawkins lost by very close 10–9 defeats, having recovered from 9–6 behind each time, in 2009 Hawkins missed out on a chance to take his match with former champion Graeme Dott to a deciding frame, and lost 10–8. The following year, Hawkins led defending champion John Higgins 5–3 before Higgins won seven of the eight frames to progress. Hawkins played well at the World Open in defeating Mark Selby as well as former World Champion Ken Doherty before losing 3–2 to Mark Williams, Hawkins qualified for the World Championship for the sixth year running, where he was drawn against Stephen Maguire in the first round. Having never won a match at the Crucible before, Hawkins led Maguire 4–0, 5–1, 6–2 and 8–4 before seeing Maguire level the match at 8–8, however, Hawkins held his nerve in the deciding frame to finally end his losing run at the World Championship. In the second round, Hawkins was defeated 13–12 by world No.11 Mark Allen, Hawkins reached the PTC Finals in the 2011/2012 season largely thanks to semi-final runs in Event 3 and Event 5
15.
Ryan Day
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Ryan Day is a Welsh professional snooker player. As a prolific break-builder, he has compiled more than 250 century breaks during his career, Day was born in Pontycymer, Bridgend, and began his professional career by playing UK Tour in 1998, at the time the second-level professional tour. He is named Young Player of Distinction of the season 2000/2001 by the World Professional Billiards and he won the 2001 Benson & Hedges Championship. With this win, he qualified for the 2002 Masters, where he defeated Dave Harold and he also won the WPBSA Challenge Tour in the 2001/2002 season and was named WPBSA Newcomer of the Year in 2002. Due to problems with his liver in 2003, his results suffered badly, Higgins went on to win the frame and the next two for the match. As some consolation, Higgins commented that Day was going to be a top player for years to come. Day reached the quarter-finals of his tournament, the 2005 Welsh Open defeating Allister Carter. He finished this season ranked 33, but as Quinten Hann did not participate in any events, Day was always among the top 32 seeds, meaning one less qualifying match than he would otherwise have faced. Back at the Crucible in 2006, he beat Joe Perry 10–3 in the first round and he narrowly missed reaching the top 16 of the rankings as a result. The 2006/2007 season was the most successful of his career to date, Day reached the quarter-finals of the 2006 Northern Ireland Trophy and was runner up in the 2007 Malta Cup, losing 4–9 to Shaun Murphy. That years performance saw him ranked 16 in the world for the 2007/2008 season, as a member of the Top 16, he automatically qualified for tournaments. His consistent performances took him up to 8th place in the rankings, Day reached the final of the 2008 Grand Prix where he lost to John Higgins, defeating Ricky Walden, Mark Selby, Jamie Cope and Ali Carter. The year ended on a note when he lost in the first round at the UK Championship to Matthew Stevens. He again reached the World Championship quarter-finals in 2009, before losing 11–13 to Mark Allen, however, he continued to move up the rankings, climbing 2 places to number 6, the highest ranked player not to have won a ranking event. A disappointing 2009/2010 season in which he reached only one quarter-final and this continued into the next season where he made a number of early exits which meant that at the first revision under the new ranking system he dropped out the top 16, down to number 20. Day qualified for five of the eight ranking tournaments during the 2011/2012 season and his best performance came at the end of the season in the biggest event on the tournament calendar, the World Championship. He came back from 3–7 down in his match against Gerard Greene to win 10–8, to set up a first round match with Chinas number 1. Day produced another comeback, this time from trailing 6–9 to win the last 4 frames, there he beat fellow qualifier Cao Yupeng 13–7 and held a 5–2 lead in the early stages of his quarter-final match against compatriot Matthew Stevens
16.
China
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China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
17.
Ding Junhui
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Ding Junhui is a Chinese professional snooker player and the most successful Asian player in the history of the sport. Ding turned professional in 2003, at the age of 16 and he achieved his first major professional successes in 2005 when he won the China Open and the UK Championship. After his win at the 2006 Northern Ireland Trophy, Ding became the player after Ronnie OSullivan. He has so far won a total of 12 major ranking titles, in the 2013/2014 season, Ding equalled Stephen Hendrys record of winning five ranking titles in a single season. He became the first Asian player to reach the final of the World Championship, known as a prolific break-builder, Ding has compiled more than 400 century breaks in his career including six maximum breaks in professional play. He remains the only Asian player to be ranked number one. Away from snooker, Ding enrolled at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2006 to study Business Administration and he is a resident of England during the snooker season and practises at the World Snooker Academy in Sheffield. Born in Yixing, Jiangsu in China, Ding began playing snooker at 8 years old after his father, when his father went for a toilet break, Ding took the cue and played with the professional. Upon his fathers return, Ding had won the game, following that moment, Dings parents supported his playing skills. The family then moved to Dongguan, Guangdong, and Ding stopped his education at age 11 to practice snooker for 8 hours each day, in the same year, Ding became the number one ranked player in China. His performance favourably impressed many commentators, who rated him a likely future World Champion. In April 2005, he celebrated his 18th birthday by reaching the final of the China Open in Beijing, along the way defeating world top-16 ranked players Peter Ebdon, Marco Fu and Ken Doherty. In the final, Ding beat then world number 3 Stephen Hendry by 9–5 to score his first ranking tournament win, the match was watched by 110 million people on Chinas national sports channel CCTV-5, the largest television audience recorded for a snooker match. In December 2005, Ding beat Jimmy White, Paul Hunter, in the final, he beat Steve Davis by 10–6 to become the first player from outside the UK to win the tournament. Following this victory, Dings provisional world ranking rose from 62 at the start of the season to 60, at the end of the season, he was ranked number 27. At the 2006 China Open, Ding lost 6–2 in the semi-finals to eventual winner Mark Williams, Dings win in Ireland pushed his provisional ranking up to number 5. In December 2006, Ding won three Gold medals at the 2006 Asian Games, winning the Single, Double and Team Snooker competitions. In the following week, he reached, as the champion, the quarter-finals of the 2006 UK Championship
18.
Paul Hunter Classic
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The Paul Hunter Classic is a ranking snooker tournament. From 2010-15 it was part of the Players Tour Championship, mark Selby is the reigning champion. The tournament started in 2004 as the Grand Prix Fürth and was staged in Fürth, after two years as the Fürth German Open, it was renamed the Paul Hunter Classic in 2007 in memory of the late player Paul Hunter. In 2010 it became part of the Players Tour Championship, there have been three official maximum breaks in the history of the tournament. The first was made by Ronnie OSullivan in 2011 against Adam Duffy, the second was compiled by Ken Doherty in 2012 against Julian Treiber. The last was made in 2014 by Aditya Mehta against Stephen Maguire, Mehta became the first Indian player to compile an official 147. Active players are shown in bold, German Masters, ranking tournament in Berlin FFB Open, minor-ranking tournament in Fürstenfeldbruck
19.
UK Championship
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The UK Championship, known as the Betway UK Championship for sponsorship reasons, is a professional mens ranking snooker tournament. It is the second biggest-ranking tournament, after the World Championship and is one of the Triple Crown events, Mark Selby is the reigning champion. The UK Championship was first held in 1977 in Tower Circus, Blackpool as the United Kingdom Professional Snooker Championship, Patsy Fagan won the inaugural tournament by defeating Doug Mountjoy by 12 frames to 9 in the final and won the first prize of £2000. The following year the event moved to the Guild Hall, Preston, the rules were changed in 1984 when the tournament was granted ranking status and all professionals were allowed to enter. Since then, it has carried more ranking points than any tournament other than the World Championship, the tournament has seen many memorable finals. In 1977 and 1979, it provided Patsy Fagan and John Virgo with their first, in 1980, it was Steve Daviss first of his 73 professional tournament wins. In 1983, Alex Higgins beat Davis 16–15 after having trailed 7–0 at the end of the first session, in 1985, Willie Thorne led Davis 13–10 at the start of the evening session, only to miss a simple blue off its spot and lose 16–14. The victory regenerated Daviss confidence after his devastating World Championship loss, Thorne, on the other hand, hendrys 16–15 win the following year, over Davis again, spoke to his unique qualities of nerve. Doherty has appeared in two memorable finals. In 1993, Ronnie OSullivan became the winner of the tournament aged just 17. Eight years later, in 2001, he delivered the finals best winning margin since it had become the best of 19 frames in the 1993 tournament, three years later, in 2004, Stephen Maguire repeated the feat against David Gray. Doherty almost won the tournament in the 2002 final against Mark Williams, the 2005 tournament saw Davis, aged 48, reached his first ranking tournament final for almost two years and make his highest break in tournament play for 23 years. In a match featured the widest age gap between finalists in professional tournament history, he lost 6–10 to the 18-year-old Ding Junhui. The following year, Peter Ebdon won the title and, in doing so, became the first, the event offered £500,000 prize money, with the winner receiving £70,000. In 2007, the tournament was won by Ronnie OSullivan for the time, again with some ease. The tournament was notable for the longest televised frame between Marco Fu and Mark Selby and Ronnie OSullivans maximum 147 break in the deciding frame of the semi-final. The 2009 final saw the world champion John Higgins lose to Ding Junhui, after he missed the brown. The 2010 final turned out to be another dramatic match, instantly described by commentators as an all-time classic
20.
Scottish Open (snooker)
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The Scottish Open is a ranking professional snooker tournament held in Scotland. The tournament had many changes in its history, as the tournament was formerly called International Open, Goya Matchroom Trophy. Apart from a hiatus in the 1990/1991 and 1991/1992 seasons, the tournament remained a ranking event until 2003/2004, in the 2012/2013 season the tournament was added back to the calendar as part of the Players Tour Championship minor-ranking series. The last champion was Marco Fu, the tournament began in 1981 as the International Open at the Assembly Rooms in Derby, and became the following year the second ranking event after the World Championship. The event moved to the Eldon Square in Newcastle upon Tyne, until 1984 the event was sponsored by Jameson Whiskey. In 1985 the event moved to the Trentham Gardens in Stoke-on-Trent and was renamed to the Goya Matchroom Trophy due to sponsorship from Matchroom, the International Open name returned the following year and the sponsorship was overtaken by BCE and Fidelity Unit Trusts. After 1989 the event went on a two-year hiatus, the event returned in the 1992/1993 season with the sponsorship of Sky Sports. The event was moved to the half of the season and was played at the Plymouth Pavilions. The event was moved again in 1994, this time to the Bournemouth International Centre, after an unsponsored year Sweater Shop took over for 1995 and 1996. In 1997 the event was moved to the Aberdeen Exhibition Centre, in 1998 the event was renamed to Scottish Open, and it was sponsored by Imperial Tobacco through their Regal brand, who also sponsored the Scottish Masters and Welsh Open. In 2003 the event was moved to Royal Highland Centre in Edinburgh, for the first time in twelve years no top 16 player reached the final. The event than was renamed to the Players Championship for 2004, the event was sponsored by Daily Record and held at the SECC in Glasgow. After the event Sky decided not to renew their contract, the event was added back to the calendar in the 2012/2013 season as minor-ranking tournament and was known as the Scottish Open. It was held at Ravenscraig as the event of the European Tour. In 2015 Barry Hearn announced that the tournament will return in the 2016/17 season, the event will be held in Glasgow and will be part of the Home Series events, which will feature tournaments in the other home nations and have a one million pound bonus. Steve Davis was the tournaments most prolific winner, with a record 6 wins from 8 finals and this included a 9–0 whitewash of Dennis Taylor in the 1981 final. There were three breaks in the history of the tournament, two at the 2000 event. Stephen Maguire at the first qualifying round against Phaitoon Phonbun and Ronnie OSullivan in the last 32 against Quinten Hann, in 2012 Kurt Maflin achieved a 147 in the last 32 against Stuart Carrington
21.
German Masters
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The German Masters is a professional ranking snooker tournament, which was first held in 1995. Anthony Hamilton is the reigning champion, the tournament started as the German Open and was a ranking tournament from 1995 to 1997. The event was held in Frankfurt, Osnabrück and Bingen am Rhein in its first three years, in 1998 the name of the tournament was changed to German Masters, and it became a non-ranking tournament. The event then was discontinued, but returned for the 2010/2011 season as a ranking tournament and it has been held at the Tempodrom in Berlin since the 2011 tournament. Paul Hunter Classic Sport in Berlin
22.
Welsh Open (snooker)
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The Welsh Open is a professional ranking snooker tournament. It replaced the Welsh Professional Championship, which started in 1980 and was open to Welsh players. Since the tournaments creation in 1992, Mark Williams has been the only Welsh player to win the championship, john Higgins and Ronnie OSullivan hold the record for the most wins, with four Welsh Open titles each. Stephen Hendry has won the tournament three times, stuart Bingham is the reigning champion. The tournament began as a tournament in 1992 initially in February after the Masters. The event was sponsored by Regal until 2003, but UK restrictions on tobacco advertising meant that it was without a sponsor until 2009. The tournament was sponsored by Totesport. com in 2010, by Wyldecrest Park Homes in 2011, by 888真人 in 2012, in 2017 the tournament will be sponsored by Coral. In 1996 at the age of 17 years and 111 days Paul Hunter reached the semi-finals, john Higgins and Ronnie OSullivan jointly hold the record for the most Welsh Open titles, both having won the event on 4 occasions. Like the Welsh Professional Championship, it was played at the Newport Centre in Newport and it was moved back to Newport in 2005, where it remained until 2014. In June 2014, it was announced that the 2015 event will be held at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff. The tournament currently takes place after the German Masters, and is broadcast by BBC Wales, Eurosport, CCTV, SMG, Now TV, there have been six maximum breaks in the history of the tournament. The first was made by Ronnie OSullivan in 1999 against James Wattana, the second was made at the qualifying stage of the 2000 event by Barry Pinches against Joe Johnson. The third was made by Andrew Higginson in 2007 against Ali Carter, the fourth 147 was made in 2011 by Hendry against Stephen Maguire. This was Hendrys 10th 147 break and with this he equalled the record for most maximums with Ronnie OSullivan and he also became the oldest player to compile a maximum break at the age of 42 years and 35 days. The fifth was made by OSullivan in 2014 against Ding Junhui and this was OSullivans 12th 147 break and with it he set the record for most maximums. The most recent maximum break was made by Ding Junhui at the quarter-finals of the 2016 tournament,2017 competitors are shown in bold
23.
Players Championship (snooker)
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The Players Championship is a professional ranking snooker tournament. Judd Trump is the reigning champion, the event was sponsored by PartyCasino. com. In 2012 the event moved to the Bailey Allen Hall in Galway, in 2013 the event was sponsored by Dafabet, and the competition was expanded to 32 players. The field consisted of the top 25 players from the UK/European Order of Merit, the top four players from the Asian Order of Merit, the seedings of the final was based on the combined list of both Order of Merits. In 2014 the event was renamed to Players Championship Grand Final and it moved to the Guild Hall in Preston, the qualifying criteria were also changed for the 2014 event. In the 2016/17 season, the Players Tour Championship was cancelled and it will now be played between the top 16 players on a one-year ranking list
24.
China Open (snooker)
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The China Open is a professional snooker tournament. It is one of a number of ranking tournaments and began in 1997, the reigning champion is Mark Selby. The first international tournament in China was the China International in September 1997. The following season the tournament became ranking and was held in March, then the name of the event was changed to China Open and was held in December, so there were two events in 1999. After the 2001 tournament the event was abandoned, the event was revived for the 2004/05 season. Local wild-card players were invited to play against the qualifiers, the three Chinese players on the tour were invited to play as wild-cards, rather than qualify the usual way. Ding Junhui was one of them, and he won the tournament, but as he entered as a wild-card, he didnt get the prize money nor ranking points
25.
World Snooker Championship
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The World Snooker Championship is the leading snooker tournament both in terms of prestige and prize money. The first championship was held in 1927 and was won by Joe Davis, Davis won the first 15 championships before retiring from the event, undefeated, after his 1946 success. In the 1950s snooker went into a period of decline and the championship was not held after 1952, in 1964 the championship was revived on a challenge basis and in 1969 the championship became a knock-out event again. Since 1977 it has played at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. The tournament is played over 17 days and ends on the first Monday in May. In the modern era, the best record is that of Stephen Hendry, Steve Davis and Ray Reardon both won six times while Ronnie OSullivan has won five titles. The current champion is Mark Selby, who has won the tournament twice, the first championship was held in 1927 and was called the Professional Snooker Championship. It was the first important professional snooker tournament although the English Amateur Championship has been contested since 1916, ten professionals entered including most of the leading billiards players. Matches were over 15 frames with the semi-finals over 23 frames, the first match played was between Melbourne Inman and Tom Newman at Thurstons Hall, Leicester Square in London. The snooker was played as an extra to the main event. The match started on Monday 29 November 1926 and one frame of snooker was played at the end of each session, Inman won 8–5, the match finishing on the Monday afternoon, a week after it started. One other match was played in connection with a billiards contest, with minimal prize money, players mainly made money from their share of the gate receipts. Because of this it was common for dead frames to be played after the result of the match had been decided, the final between Joe Davis and Tom Dennis was played over four days in early May at Camkins Hall in Birmingham. Davis won the first seven frames and led throughout, taking a winning 16–7 lead on the third day, the highest break of the tournament was 60, made by Albert Cope in his semi-final match against Davis, in a dead frame after Davis had won the match. Davis made a 57 break of the final, the 1928 Championship was played on a challenge basis, with the other 6 entries playing off for the right to challenge Joe Davis in the final. Davis met Fred Lawrence in the final, winning 16–13, the challenge system was dropped in 1929. Davis met Tom Dennis in the final, played in Denniss home town of Nottingham, Davis made a new record break of 61 on the way to a 17–12 victory. The same pair met in the 1930 final, played for the first time at Thurstons Hall in London, the final was extended to 49 frames played over 6 days
26.
Shanghai Masters (snooker)
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The Shanghai Masters, also known as the Bank of Communications OTO Shanghai Masters for sponsorship purposes, is a professional ranking snooker tournament. Ding Junhui is the reigning champion, the event was introduced in the 2007/2008 season and is the second ranking event to be held in China as a result of the growth of the sport in the country. Like the China Open, a wildcard round is included before the first round proper. The tournament currently takes place at the Shanghai Grand Stage, Shanghai in September and is the full ranking event of the season as of 2015. Highest ranked champion, Ronnie OSullivan - #1 Lowest ranked champion, Kyren Wilson - #54 Highest break,147 Jamie Cope John Higgins Stephen Maguire
27.
Champion of Champions (snooker)
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The Champion of Champions is a professional non-ranking snooker tournament. It was held in 1978 and 1980 and was revived in 2013 by Matchroom Sport. The reigning champion is John Higgins, the Champion of Champions features winners of World Snooker events over the preceding 12 months, with the field topped up, if necessary, from the current World Rankings. In 2015 the tournament had a fund of £300,000. The event was created in 1978 by boxing promoter Mike Barrett, the event was contested by four players at the Wembley Conference Centre in London, England. It was played two days with the semi-finals on the first day and the final on the second day. World Champion Ray Reardon beat the Masters winner Alex Higgins 11–9 in the final, brief highlights were shown on ITVs World of Sport on the following afternoon. The event was not held in 1979 but appeared again in 1980 at the New London Theatre in Drury Lane, London, ten players competed in the tournament, split into two groups. Each group played a round robin with the winners of the advancing to the final. Doug Mountjoy beat John Virgo 10–8 in the final, the tournament was then abandoned since the audiences had been poor and the event financially unsuccessful. The event was revived in 2013 by Matchroom Sport, replacing the Premier League Snooker on the calendar, the event is held in November at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry and contested by 16 of the worlds leading players. The event is broadcast live in the United Kingdom on ITV4, the 2013 and 2014 tournaments were both won by Ronnie OSullivan but he chose not to defend the title in 2015. In 2015, Neil Robertson defeated Mark Allen by 10-5 to claim his first title in this tournament, in 2016, John Higgins beat Ronnie OSullivan 10-7 in the final
28.
Masters (snooker)
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The Masters is a professional invitational snooker tournament. Held every year since 1975, it is the second longest running tournament behind the World Championship and it is one of the Triple Crown events, and although not a ranking event, it is regarded as one of the most prestigious tournaments on the circuit. The reigning champion is Ronnie OSullivan, the Masters began as an invitational event for 10 top players. The field was expanded to 12 competitors in 1981, and 16 in 1983, since 1984, the standard invitees have been the top 16 players in the world rankings, with the addition of two or three wild-card places in tournaments held between 1990 and 2010. Ronnie OSullivan holds the record for the most Masters titles, having won the tournament seven times, Stephen Hendry has won six titles. Alex Higgins, Mark Williams, and John Higgins have each won the title twice, three maximum breaks have been made in the history of the tournament, all by overseas players. Canadas Kirk Stevens made the first in 1984, Chinas Ding Junhui made the second in 2007, the tournament was held for the first time in 1975 at the West Centre Hotel in London, when ten leading players were invited. The event was sponsored by the cigarette company Benson & Hedges, John Spencer won the inaugural tournament by defeating Ray Reardon 9–8 in the final. The following year the event moved to the New London Theatre, in 1981 the number of players invited to compete was increased to 12, and then increased again to 16 in 1983. From 1984 onwards the top 16 players in the rankings were automatically invited to the tournament. In 1984 Kirk Stevens became the first player to make a break at the event against Jimmy White in the semi-final. In 1988 Mike Hallett became the first and to date only player to be whitewashed in a Masters final, Hallett reached his second final in four years in 1991, but lost 8–9 against Hendry, despite leading 7–0 and 8–2. This defeat effectively ended Halletts days as a force in the game. For the 1991 tournament, the Benson & Hedges Championship was introduced, the other continued to be granted by the governing body. In the 1997 final, Steve Davis defeated Ronnie OSullivan in a match disrupted by a streaker, Davis came back from 4–8 down to win the remaining six frames in a row, clinching the final at 10–8. The 1998 final went down to a black in the deciding frame. In the 2000 final Ken Doherty missed the black in a 147 attempt, the first time this had happened in competition. After the 2003 Masters, Benson & Hedges had to end their sponsorship of the event due to UK restrictions on advertising
29.
Championship League
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Championship League is a non-ranking snooker tournament, devised by Matchroom Sport. All tournaments have been held at the Crondon Park Golf Club since its debut in 2008, john Higgins is the reigning champion. The event was introduced in 2008 by Barry Hearn to provide additional competition,25 professionals take part, there is no audience and every match is broadcast via internet only. Players earn money for every frame won and there are prizes for being a semi-finalist, runner-up and winner of each group. From 2010 all matches are best of five, the competition runs over eight groups, each consisting of seven players. From the league stage of the first seven groups the top four qualify for a play-off, the bottom two players of each league are eliminated and the remaining four moves to the next group, where they are joined by three more players until the seventh group. The winners play in the group with the overall winner taking a place in that years Premier League Snooker until 2012. There have been four maximum breaks in the history of the tournament, shaun Murphy compiled the first at the 2014 event against Mark Davis in their league stage match of group two. Barry Hawkins achieved the second one-year later at the 2015 event against Stephen Maguire in their league match of group one. David Gilbert achieved the one at the 2015 event against Xiao Guodong in their league stage match of group seven. Mark Davis produced the fourth in the history in the 2017 event in the deciding frame of the Group Three playoff final against Neil Robertson
Ronnie O'Sullivan
Llandudno
Ding Junhui