As we approach the end of snooker’s summer break, I noticed over the weekend that World Snooker have quietly filled in a few more blanks in respect of the calendar for the 2014/15 season, which are now reflected in my calendar page here…
As was announced last week, the Asian Tour 2 event that had been scheduled to take place ahead of the 6 Reds World Championship has been dropped from the calendar, with no indication that the event will be replaced during the season.
A more understated change that I first heard about whilst at the Crucible is that this year’s Indian Open will move from New Delhi to Mumbai, while it has been confirmed that the Welsh Open will move from Newport to Cardiff, as has been anticipated for some time now.
In terms of the qualifiers, the Barnsley Metrodome would appear to be the venue of choice for the majority of events this season, with the Shanghai Masters, Indian Open, International Championship and now China Open qualifiers set to be held there during the course of the season.
Despite some wild rumours that the World Championship qualifiers might be heading to China however, it has also been confirmed that for a second successive year, the qualifiers for the tournament will be held at the Ponds Forge Leisure Centre in Sheffield.
So what remains to be confirmed? The most obvious tournament is the World Open, which in recent years has been held in China on Hainan Island under the Haikou World Open moniker, but for now remains simply as ‘World Open tbc’ on the official calendar. Elsewhere, a couple of Asian Tour events also remain to be confirmed, as does December’s ET5 event.
How do you think the calendar is shaping up?