While the 2014/15 snooker season might only have concluded three days ago, today I have published the first look at how next season’s tour survival race is currently shaping up, with the provisional end of 2015/16 ranking list.
Of course, it is a very early stage, indeed we do not even know who all of the tour players are yet for next season, with Q School set to get underway next week in Burton, but still I always find it fascinating to take a look at the list and try to identify a few themes from it.
The list in effect is simply money earned from the 2014/15 season alone, with those players who will be going back to zero points having earned a fresh two-year tour card being moved to the bottom.
You can already see which players are well placed to climb the ranking list, for example Robin Hull and Joe Swail having narrowly made it up into the top 64 at the end of last season, now have a solid platform from which to build, rather than seeing their totals reset to zero after two years.
For some others though, including the likes of Anthony Hamilton and Peter Lines, improved campaigns will be needed next time around if they are to retain their top 64 status.
In terms of the latest projected seedings list, a new list for the first cut-off next season will be published following confirmation from World Snooker of which points will be moved at each cut-off.