Joe Swail is one of the players to be involved in a late-night finish this week
It has been an interesting tournament so far in Wales and one that like many others has adopted a roll-on, roll-off schedule of matches, but is this really the best way to structure ranking events?
The system used this Tuesday and Wednesday has seen the afternoon session start at 1pm, with three matches started at that time, all to be followed by another within the same session. Ideally these are then followed by the start of the 7pm evening session and another set of matches, but this can only be the case if the previous action draws to a relatively swift conclusion.
In Newport however we saw on Tuesday that both the matches involving Shaun Murphy and Stephen Hendry were long (though hardly marathon), affairs and by the time Peter Ebdon and Anthony Hamilton took to the table for their match, it was well past 8pm. In the end that match ended up finishing up at 0:55am, but with it ending at 5-2, it could have gone on until much later had there been a deciding frame involved.
Then on Wednesday it was a similar story as the afternoon matches on table two again overran left Joe Swail and Martin Gould waiting until nearly 8:30pm to get their match underway. Thankfully for those up at work the next morning the match came to a conclusion relatively early thanks to Joe Swail running out a 5-1 winner.
All in all it appears to be a situation that is not just a risk, but almost an inevitability as it is asking a lot to have two best of nine matches completed within six hours, including intervals and the time between matches. Of course it is possible that the matches may finish well within this time, but if two matches on the same table go the distance and we see a few tactical exchanges, then an overrun looks likely.
So what is the solution? The obvious answer would be to follow the example of the World Championship and have three sessions, one in the morning, one in the afternoon and one in the evening. The problem with this however is that the early starts might affect the crowds at the arena, indeed I believe this was the case at the Northern Ireland Trophy in 2006 and was the primary reason for the switch to the current system. Also the spectators will no doubt enjoy being able to see two matches for the price of their ticket and might feel that the value is not there just to see one match.
How about a few extra tables at the venue in order to get the matches done quicker? At the UK Championship there are four in operation due to the longer format in place so could this be an option at other events? Probably not would appear to be the answer as it would mean that less matches would gain TV exposure and there are of course practical limitations caused by the size of the venues.
Perhaps the ideal answer is really far simpler, just bring the start time for the afternoon session forward by an hour and so give the two matches an extra hour to be completed in.
Either way, hopefully in the future a more appropriate system can be found. While it could be a lot worse than it is at the moment, I can’t help but feel that it could be a bit better.
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2 comments
Monique
Twitter: rdy sometimes
February 19, 2009 at 10:25 pm (UTC 0)
Well I think this is putting some players at a disadvantage. The guys are only human. If you have to wait backstage for your match to begin and it’s really late on schedule it can play on your nerves. If it’s late – full stop – you can get unduly tired. If you play next day it’s even worse. The system is not fair.
dannyboy
February 19, 2009 at 11:29 pm (UTC 0)
The TV coverage was via Eurosport and although they appeared to have blanket coverage the Davis v O’Sullivan match started 10 mins after their coverage finished on Wednesday and the hour and a quarter when there was no TV coverage was at the point when the first four frames were completed. A roll on and off format is not only a nightmare from completing matches as stated above but also for TV coverage who cant plan ahead! Steve and Ronnie played out the best half of their match with no coverage except via the website – Im not paying even more when you already pay extra for the TV channels! BBC interactive is great but this only kicked in from the last 16 so really something has to be addressed to get the best matches covered! Get rid of roll on and off and go with a 12 noon, 4pm and 8pm start! Offer 2 for 1 for 12 noon and 4pm matches and position big stars accordingly. In golf the TV pullers are put in prime slots with half in the am slot and half in the pm slot. So Ronnie may get a day time slot and Jimmy or whoever gets an evening slot and so on! Once the last 16 matches take place you can change format. Really it is only for the last 32 matches and a couple of last 16!