World Snooker Unveils 2011/12 calendar

It may only be November but World Snooker have today unveiled the provisional calendar for the 2011/12 season which includes a variety of new events including a World Cup and two further ranking events…

Provisional calendar to date:

June 2011
10-12 PTC1
24-26 PTC2

July 2011
29 July – 3 July China Invitational – China
5-10 July – Wuxi Classic – China
11-17 – World Cup – Thailand
22-24 – PTC3

August 2011
1-4 August – Shanghai Masters Qualifiers – Academy Sheffield
7-10 August – World Open Qualifiers – Academy Sheffield
13-15 August – PTC4
18 August – Premier League
19-21 August – PTC5
25 August – Premier League
25-28 August – PTC6 (Paul Hunter Classic) – Germany
30 August – 2 September – Qualifiers (spare slot)

September 2011
1 September – Premier League
8 September – Premier League
9-11 September – PTC7
15-18 September – Brazilian Masters – Transamerica Expo Centre, Sao Paulo, Brazil
22 September – Premier League
26 September – 2 October – Shanghai Masters – Shanghai, China

October 2011
4-9 October – World Open
13 October – Premier League
14-16 October – PTC8
20 October – Premier League
24-30 October – Ranking Event

November 2011
3 November – Premier League
4-6 November – Seniors
10 November – Premier League
11-13 November – PTC9
17 November – Premier League
18-20 November – PTC10
22-30 November – UK Championship Qualifiers
26-27 November – Premier League Finals

December 2011
3-11 December – UK Championship
14-16 December – PTC11

January 2012
3-6 January – German Masters Qualifiers – Academy Sheffield
8-15 January – The Masters
16-19 January – Spare qualifiers slot for March
16-19 January – Championship League
20-22 January – PTC12
23-26 January – Championship League
27-29 January – Sky shoot Out

February 2012
1-5 February – German Masters
7-10 February – Welsh Open qualifiers – Academy Sheffield
13-19 February – Welsh Open
21-24 February – China Open qualifiers – Academy, Sheffield
27 February – 1 March – Championship League

March 2012
2-13 March – World Championship Qualifiers – Academy Sheffield
5-8 March – Championship League
15-18 March – PTC Finals
19-22 March – Championship League
26 March – 1 April – Ranking Event

April 2012
2-8 April – China Open, Beijing China
9-12 April – Championship League
21 April – 7 May – World Championship – Crucible, Sheffield

 

As you can see, the calendar is unusually hectic, with two new unspecified ranking events pencilled in as well as the long-awaited return of the World Cup in July and the previously announced Brazilian Masters invitational event in August.

What are the other more subtle changes? The PTC events are slightly more spread out than they were this season but with just one of the 12 regular events moving into 2012, the difference is not as great as might have been expected. Part of the reason for this is of course due to the congestion caused by the Championship League, as well as the additional and as yet unspecified ranking event set to take place in March. Eventually with the calendar growing I would quite like to see Championship League events and PTC events overlap, giving players the choice as to which to compete in but the calendar is still not quite big enough for that just yet.

Elsewhere it is good to see another ranking event scheduled for the end of October, plugging the gaping gap between the World Open and the UK Championship somewhat.

How about omissions? One that springs to mind is that of Power Snooker, although with the first event only just staged and the calendar far from finalised, I would expect that to be slotted in somewhere. It is also noticeable that there appears to be no concrete date in place yet for the 6-Red World Championship, either in Killarney or Bangkok. Like Power Snooker however, this is not a World Snooker event as such and will presumably be inserted into the calendar at a later date.

One interesting point to note, both the UK and World Championship qualifiers have an asterisk next to their name on WorldSnooker.com, indicating that they are subject to format review.