The Blackpool Tower hosted the first World Snooker Shoot Out as £32,000 were up for grabs in the one frame knock out competition. The ten minute matches of six rounds were broadcasted from the circus arena on Sky Sports 1 and 2 between 28th Jan through to the final on the 30th Jan.

Friday night featured 16 of the last 64 matches, with the remaining to be played on saturday afternoon. The live event kicked off with a solo snooker table in play offering 360 degrees views for the Blackpool audience. As this was a new format event, neither the players or audience were expecting to hear a booming American voice-over (in the style of a cinema preview) roar “Let The Shootout Begin!”. The player to break off was decided by lagging, traditionally used in Pool. Side-by-side the players tried to send their cue ball down the length of the table and back. Whoever got closest to the bulk cushion could decide to start or place their opponent in first. The style of play was comparable with a faster, limiting version of a Premier League match. The Sky commentators were undecided if a players quick thinking strategy or speed would advance them to the next round. It turned out to be a little of both combined with having a relaxed attitude. Michael Holt’s jovial approach backfired when Stephen Lee took a more serious demeanor and won 62-34. On the flipside, Dominic Dale used all the discussed methods(Speed, Strategy, and Attitude,) to take out current Masters champion, Ding Junhui, 71-15.

Ronnie O’Sullivan was the player who achieved the highest break of the night when he made a 113 break, whitewashing Marco Fu. Following the win, O’Sullivan commented

“It was loud out there and they were getting excited about the break. The one frame is an exciting format, anything can happen and I look forward to the next match.”

Other highlights included crowd favorite Jimmy White losing 28-62 to Ali Carter; The advancing of Robert Milkins, Tom Ford, Mark King, and John Higgins due to impressive high scoring; A crowd member shouting during Steve Davis vs Peter Ebdon “This has got Nil-Nil written all over it”; and MC Andy Goldstein apologize after O’Sullivan used a mild four letter word during live post-match interview.

Saturday afternoon showed the rest of the first round matches and a live draw at 6pm for the second round. It was an evening of surprises as several players stole away wins from those with seemingly enough points to advance into the last 16. Tony Drago received a by into round 2 after Liang Wenbo had to withdraw. The notorious fast style of Drago did not give Rory Mcleod a chance to score at first. Time was ticking down but Mcleod began to catch Drago’s point lead and it became a race for both players to pot the last black to win. The crowd waved their posters like mad as nearly everyone was rooting for Drago. Mcleod finally played a shot in desperation that wacked around the cushions and went into the bottom right pocket. Goldstein praised Mcleod’s 61-57 win as “most exciting frame I ever seen” on Twitter. Little did Goldstein know that thirty minutes later, Neil Robertson was going to produce a show stealing result. Robertson looked certain to lose. He was trailing Alan McManus by 36 points and hurried about with under 90 sections left on the clock. As he struck the black ball at :01 seconds remaining in play, it pocketed at overtime. McManus was left puzzled as Robertson began celebrating his mind blowing 50-49 victory. The rules of Shoot Out were clarified by referee Paul Collier; the last ball could count as long as it was hit within time.

Additional results- Mike Dunn 66-59 Alfie Burden; Peter Lines 54-47 John Higgins; Mark King 112-Nil Steve Davis; Ronnie O’Sullivan 93-34 Rod Lawler; Fergal O’Brien 57-48 Ali Carter; Mark Selby 89-6 Stuart Pettman.

Another live draw for round three started Sunday afternoon off with oohs and ahs. O’Sullivan got paired with Selby, and Current World champion Robertson drew the 1997 World Champion Ken Doherty. O’Sullivan refused to pot black while clearing 129-nil with the highest break of the tournament to dispose of Selby. Robertson dazzled in long potting and took away Doherty opportunies with a 63-13 result. Mark King had first and second round shutout results, but he gave up only 5 points to Fergal O’Brien after winning with 61 points to secure a place in the evenings’ quarter finals.

In the quarter finals, the three aforementioned top sixteen players were left to face lower ranking favorites Nigel Bond, Marcus Campbell, Judd Trump, and Robert Milkins.

Robertson missed a red on 33 points when Campbell opened with a 47. After losing position on a yellow the match was ultimately Campbell’s who potted yellow for the 57-49 win. Trump couldn’t match the efforts of Robert Milkins’ 49 break, losing 27-50.

An in/off from Mike Dunn allowed O’Sullivan to be reminded by the audience he had the ball in hand to play and took off from there with another high break of 90(94-14 win). Mark King didn’t know what hit him as Nigel Bond came up from behind 14-23 to enter the semi-final with a hurried 29-23 victory.

Bond, the 1996 British Open winner, got to the Shoot Out final after Campbell missed a crucial brown and Bond continued on with breaks of 28 and 11 for 55-14 when time ended. O’Sullivan had a 10 point lead over Milkins but missed a red. Milkins got his chance to the final with a break of 56 and O’Sullivan couldn’t pull back the match, losing 35-72.

The final winner was Nigel Bond, displaying the quick and cool action from previous matches. A break of 38 saw him beat Milkins, 58-24. He felt he had luck on his side but admitted he played well to WorldSnooker.com “It’s been great fun this weekend and hopefully it’s got snooker buzzing again” he said. The event was memorable enough to see that Snooker Shoot Out has great potential.

By Meredith Floate

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