Snooker Shoot Out Enjoys Successful Start

Snooker’s latest innovation took place last weekend at the Circus Arena in Blackpool and apart from the investigation currently going on into some dodgy snooker betting patters that emerged before the Jimmy Michie and Marcus Campbell match, and the fact that the final was contested between two outsiders, the tournament appeared to be extremely successful. The rules of the tournament are thus:

SHOOTOUR RULES ON THE BAIZE

Each match is just one frame of 10 minutes.

Whoever is in front after 10 minutes is the winner.

Shot clock: 20 seconds for first five minutes, 15 seconds for last five minutes.

Players have to pot a ball or hit the cushion.

If Players foul, there is no missed shot, but opponent can place white ball anywhere on the table.

Typically Sky Sports who helped pioneer the format took responsibility to promote the tournament, which meant the annoying little interviews, conducted by an equally annoying little presenter after each game that seemed to be aimed more at propagandising the tournament with each player confirming of how much they loved the format.

Sky also used the glamorous escort girls to guide the players to their chairs and introduced a dreadful robotic, fairground voice to announce the Shot Clock changes and winner and loser at the end of each match. The players, referees and the Sky Sports team were encouraged to interact with the crowd, who were also given suitable encourage to count down the clock at the end of the ten minutes.

All 64 of the top players in the world played the event, which was fantastic for ticket sales, however, none of the top players made the final which was won by Nigel Bond, ranked well down the order at number 37. Once a runner up at the Crucible, Bond defeated the little known Robert Milkins in the final which gave him the top prize of £32,000. Biggest cheer of the weekend however was reserved for the ‘Rocket’ O’Sullivan who became the first player to record a century break in the tournament. His 113 was scored against Marco Fu in the first round. O’Sullivan, sadly for his many fans was eliminated by Milkins in the semi final.

Overall the tournament offered a new exciting innovative format which will be enjoyed by plenty but not necessarily by snooker traditionalists. That said, Sky employed legendary snooker commentator Clive Everton, to do the talking for the TV audience and he admitted at one point to never having enjoyed a snooker tournament so much. Moreover, former world champions, Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry both thoroughly enjoyed themselves but Hendry in particular commented beforehand that it is the type of format that could be won by any single one of the players and how right his words proved to be.