The line-up for the 2010 PartyCasino.com Premier League has been announced this evening and eyebrows will be raised as Scottish duo John Higgins and Stephen Hendry are notable exceptions from the event…
The magnificent seven are as follows:
And the calendar is as follows:
Week 1 – September 2 – Southampton Guidhall
Shaun Murphy v Ding Junhui, Ronnie O’Sullivan v Marco Fu
Week 2 – September 16 – Plymouth Pavilions
Mark Selby v Mark Williams, Ronnie O’Sullivan v Ding Junhui
Week 3 – September 30 – Preston Guild Hall
Marco Fu v Shaun Murphy, Ding Junhui v Mark Williams, Neil Robertson v Mark Selby
Week 4 – October 7 – Brentwood Leisure Centre, Essex
Mark Selby v Ding Junhui, Ronnie O’Sullivan v Shaun Murphy
Week 5 – October 14 – Inverness Leisure Centre
Mark Selby v Marco Fu, Neil Robertson v Mark Williams
Week 6 – October 21 – Spiceball Leisure Centre, Banbury, Oxfordshire
Neil Robertson v Ding Junhui, Marco Fu v Mark Williams
Week 7 – October 28 – Penrith Leisure Centre
Marco Fu v Ding Junhui, Ronnie O’Sullivan v Mark Williams
Week 8 – November 4 – Hutton Moor Leisure Centre
Marco Fu v Neil Robertson, Shaun Murphy v Mark Selby
Week 9 – Nov 11 – Grimsby Auditorium
Shaun Murphy v Mark Williams, Ronnie O’Sullivan v Neil Robertson
Week 10 – November 18 – Venue Cymru, Llandudno, Wales
Ronnie O’Sullivan v Mark Selby, Shaun Murphy v Neil Robertson
Semi-finals Nov 27 Potters Leisure Resort, Hopton on Sea, Norfolk
1st v 4th
2nd v 3rd
Final – Nov 28 – Potters Leisure Resort, Hopton on Sea, Norfolk
Winner of semi-final one v winner of semi-final two
So as you can see, the most glaring absentee is world number one John Higgins who remains suspended pending the outcome of the ongoing investigations in relation to the News of the World revelations during the World Championship. Given that suspension his exclusion does not come as a total surprise, but with the Premier League still over two months away I am slightly surprised that the decision has been made to exclude him quite so soon. Does this suggest that the investigation could take a good while yet or is it simply a commercial decision? The marketing for the tournament will begin long before September and spectators booking tickets will want to know who they will be watching.
The other absentee is Stephen Hendry who like Steve Davis and Jimmy White before him has found that popularity and status is not enough to secure his entry into the tournament ahead of players who are winning tournaments. It is a shame that he will not be taking part but in reality it is hard to argue that he should be there ahead of the likes of Mark Selby and Mark Williams who following their triumphs in the Masters and the China Open tournaments have been given the nod.
Otherwise the field is fairly predictable, indeed the likes of defending champion Shaun Murphy and Championship League winner Marco Fu were already assured of their places. As far as the venues are concerned it is good to see some new ones on there, though I expect that the only one I will be able to get to will again be the event at the Grimsby Auditorium in November.
You can view the above details over at the Matchroom Sport website here.