While the invitational Shoot Out tournament may not be to everybody’s taste, tomorrow sees the start of the 2013 edition of the event on Sky Sports, as Barry Hawkins returns to defend the title that he won a year ago in Blackpool.
Click below for a summary of the rules (amended for this year), as well as a form guide as to the players, based on previous Shoot Out performances…
- Click here to view the last 64 draw
- Click here to view the match schedule
- Click here to view the TV schedule
Following its successful début staging in 2011, the Shoot Out took a bit of a battering in 2012, as the vast majority of matches proved to be relatively uneventful, no doubt due to the players having learned lessons from the previous year and how to use the format to their advantage.
In an effort therefore to change that and spice the tournament up, World Snooker have decided to reduce the shot clock to 15 seconds, coming down to just 10 after five minutes of play. A summary of the rules is as follows:
All matches up to and including the final will be one frame. All matches will be a maximum of 10 minutes in duration with a shot clock; the first 5 minutes at 15 seconds, and the remaining 5 minutes at 10 seconds. The other rules are:
• All fouls to result in opposing player having the ball in hand. Clock starts when player takes cueball.
• Players must hit a cushion or pot a ball on every shot
• Players ‘lag’ for who breaks (winner decides)
• Blue ball shoot out in event that points are tied in frame (winner of lag decides who goes first). Cueball placed in D.
Will it have the desired effect? I can see why the organisers have taken the decision to change the format, certainly after last year, there had to be some sort of change in an attempt to make the event more exciting.
Ultimately whether this is the right one will depend on how seriously one takes the tournament in the first place. Regular readers will know that I am very much ‘anti-shot clocks’ generally and if such a format were ever to be awarded ranking points, then the tone of this post would be very different. But the event is an invitational one and from my point of view, watching it as a chance to see a few different faces on television, in a less pressurised situation, I do not particularly see the harm in it.
That said, how entertaining is seeing the world’s best players sprint around the table to play shots in ten seconds going to be? From a snooker point of view, I suspect not very and it is not going to be one for the purists, but it certainly promises to be different.
So who is going to win? It could almost be anybody and certainly current form goes straight out of the window, given the unique format of the tournament.
Still, as a point of interest, see below for the respective records of everyone involved this year, based on their performances in 2011 and 2012…
Joe Perry
- 2011 – R32
- 2012 – R64
Michael White
- 2012 – R64
Mark Williams
- 2011 – R64
- 2012 – R32
Mike Dunn
- 2011 – QF
- 2012 – R32
Adam Duffy
- Début
Jack Lisowski
- 2012 – R64
Tom Ford
- 2011 – R32
- 2012 – SF
Mark Allen
- 2011 – R64
- 2012 – R16
Dave Gilbert
- Début
Ricky Walden
- 2011 – R64
- 2012 – R32
Mark Davis
- 2011 – R32
- 2012 – QF
Yu Delu
- Début
Aditya Mehta
- Début
Mark Joyce
- 2012 – R32
Marcus Campbell
- 2011 – SF
- 2012 – R32
Matthew Stevens
- 2011 – R64
- 2012 – R32
Stuart Bingham
- 2011 – R16
- 2012 – R32
Anthony Hamilton
- 2011 – R16
- 2012 – R32
Jamie Jones
- 2012 – R16
Mark King
- 2011 – QF
- 2012 – R64
Alan McManus
- 2011 – R32
- 2012 – R64
Fergal O’Brien
- 2011 – R16
- 2012 – R32
Robert Milkins
- 2011 – Finalist
- 2012 – R16
Ali Carter
- 2011 – R32
- 2012 – R64
Steve Davis
- 2011 – R32
- 2012 – R64
Barry Hawkins
- 2011 – R64
- 2012 – Winner
Peter Ebdon
- 2011 – R64
- 2012 – R64
Dominic Dale
- 2011 – R32
- 2012 – QF
Jamie Burnett
- 2011 – R64
- 2012 – R64
Michael Holt
- 2011 – R64
- 2012 – R64
Mark Selby
- 2011 – R16
- 2012 – R32
Ken Doherty
- 2011 – R16
- 2012 – R32
Paul Davison
- Début
Ben Woollaston
- 2012 – R64
Tian Pengfei
- Début
Jimmy Robertson
- 2011 – R64
- 2012 – R64
Kurt Maflin
- Début
Jamie Cope
- 2011 – R64
- 2012 – R64
Martin Gould
- 2011 – R64
- 2012 – QF
Rory McLeod
- 2011 – R16
- 2012 – R64
Graeme Dott
- 2011 – R32
- 2012 – Finalist
Matt Selt
- 2011 – R64
- 2012 – R32
Dave Harold
- 2011 – R64
- 2012 – SF
Rod Lawler
- 2011 – R32
- 2012 – R64
Gerard Greene
- 2011 – R64
- 2012 – R16
Alfie Burden
- 2011 – R32
- 2012 – R32
Peter Lines
- 2011 – R16
- 2012 – R64
John Higgins
- 2011 – R32
- 2012 – R32
Shaun Murphy
- 2011 – R64
- 2012 – R64
Liu Chuang
- 2012 – R64
Liang Wenbo
- 2012 – R16
Stephen Maguire
- 2011 – R64
- 2012 – R16
Andy Hicks
- 2011 – R64
- 2012 – R64
Andrew Higginson
- 2011 – R32
- 2012 – R64
Jimmy White
- 2011 – R64
- 2012 – R64
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
- Début
Anthony McGill
- 2011 – R64
- 2012 – R64
Barry Pinches
- 2011 – R64
- 2012 – QF
Nigel Bond
- 2011 – Winner
- 2012 – R64
Cao Yupeng
- Début
Xiao Guodong
- 2012 – R64
Ryan Day
- 2011 – R16
- 2012 – R16
Ding Junhui
- 2011 – R64
- 2012 – R64
Robbie Williams
- Début