Today is my first day at the Pink Ribbon tournament in Gloucester as the professionals including world champion John Higgins make their maiden appearances in the 2011 competition. Click below for a few stories as the evening progresses or follow me on Twitter for more. A full photo gallery will follow later in the weekend…
Arriving at the venue fashionably late following the drive down from Hull, I made it just in time to see the ‘pink bus’ arrive at the venue with world champion John Higgins who was set to make his debut at the Academy at 5pm against amateur player Stephen Ellis.
Quickly bumping into old friends from the Crucible (was that really a month ago?), we eventually headed on up to watch Twitter favourite Ben Harrison in action during what proved to be a fairly one sided match. It was hard to really judge Ben on that match but it was good to see him in action for the first time and take a few photos.
Ben and his opponent learn that potential opponent John Higgins had dropped his opening frame
Ben will now meet John Higgins in the next round who despite dropping the opening frame of his first match today was able to turn things around and emerge a 4-1 winner. It was somewhat strange to see John playing in the customary pink polo here and while he was understandably not playing to the same standard that he was at the Crucible, it was good to see him supporting the event.
Meanwhile there has been much hilarity in the press room as Roland from Snooker Island has interviewed talented young ladies player Hannah Jones and her father Mark, as well as posing for photos with both and current ladies number one Reanne Evans. What followed was a rather unique attempt from Mark to raise the profile of the ladies game even further by hoisting Reanne up into the air. Literally!
Reanne Evans weighs up her next shot
Generally speaking the matches today from what I have seen have largely gone to form, the likes of Ryan Day, Stephen Maguire and Joe Perry progressing, although there are so many matches going on it is hard to keep track of everything.
To view the results as they are confirmed please click here.