Game on for Paul Hunter English Open

Game on!

Some time ago I was telling you about the Paul Hunter English Open competition. This is not a ranking event, but still it means a lot for the world of snooker. It is an English Association of Snooker and Billiards event and has this beautiful name since 2007, when the officials from the EASB asked Paul Hunter’s family for permission to rename the English Open tournament. For those of you less acquainted with the Paul Hunter subject, you should know that he was one of the greatest snooker player that every lived on this planet. A warm presence, a very charismatic and tremendous player, a family guy and a beautiful soul. He was taken away from us by this dreadful disease called cancer when he was only 28. Still, until that age, Paul won one British Open, 2 Welsh Open and three Masters to make a name in the snooker business. He left behind a young family, tearful fans and a snooker world that’s been empty since.
But snooker cherishes and respects its legends, that’s why two great tournaments were named after him: the Paul Hunter Classic (EPTC 1) and the current Paul Hunter English Open.


During 11-14th October the qualifying rounds were held at the Northern Snooker Centre from Leeds, and although there weren’t too many players to put their names on the list, more the 100 came to play great snooker. The organizers were very careful as to schedule this competition not to clash with the PTC/EPTCs series of tournaments, but still the maximum number of participants (128) was not reached.


The qualifying rounds were played on a "round-robin" format with "the best of 5" rule. There were 20 groups (A-T), formed by 5 or 6 player each. The top three players from each group would qualify for the official competition due to take place 18-20th October at the same venue. Also, the best three players from the qualifying rounds will get a bye and reach "the last 32" round.
And here are the ones who booked themselves a place into the PHEO:

             Group A                             Group B                       Group C                            Group D
1.Jimmy Robertson        1. Daniel Wells              1. Robbie Williams          1. Lim Chun Kiat
2.Alex Taubman            2. Sam Harvey               2. Darren Burns              2. Kamran Ashraf
3.Nick Jennings             3.Declan Bristow           3. James Brown              3. Robert Valiant

            Group E                             Group F                        Group G                            Group H
1. Aditya Mehta            1. Jamie Barret               1. David Grace                1. Adam Duffy            
2. Michael Rhodes        2. Peter Lines                 2. Andrew Norman          2. Sanderson Lam
3. Jeff Cundy                3. Oliver Lines                3. Dane Hall                     3. Shahrukh Nasir


           Group I                               Group J                          Group K                         Group L
1. Matt Couch                1. Richard Beckham       1. Stephen Craigie           1. John Astley
2. Jake Nicholson           2. David Portman           2. Phil O`Kane                2. Scott Raper
3.Nikolas Charalambous 3. Ryan Mears           3. Johnathan Bagley         3. Brian Robertson

          Group M                            Group N                       Group O                           Group P
1. Stuart Carrington        1. Shaun Wilkes            1. James Silverwood        1. Chris Norbury
2. Ian Barry Stark          2. Joel Walker               2. Tom Maxfield              2. Jack Orrell
3. Danny Claxton           3. Lucky Vatnani           3. Kuldesh Johal              3. Aston Lloyd

        Group Q                             Group R                         Group S                            Group T
1. Ian Burns                  1. Craig Steadman          1. Kyren Wilson             1. James Leadbetter
2. Craig Barber             2. Thomas Saddington    2. Andy Lee                   2. David Craggs
3. Lee Shanker             3. John Hartley               3. David Birley                3. Gareth Green

You can check the scores for the qualifying rounds here.
So, three who were given the bye for the "last 32" round are : Daniel Wells (with a winning average of 2,8), James Silverwood (with a winning average of 2,8) and David Grace (with a winning average of 2,6).

The list of century breaks looks something like this: Kyren Wilson (101,105), Stuart Carrington (102), Shaun Wilkes (102), Jamie Barret (107,115), Daniel Wells (109,135), Craig Steadman (114), Peter Lines (114), James Leadbetter (117), James Silverwood (117), Michael Rhodes (119cl), James Brown (120), Aditya Mehta (124,126) and Chris Norbury (132).


So, as I was saying before the PHEO tournament started on October 18 and will end on October 20. The last 64 round will be played on "the best of 7" rule, the last 32 round and next to follow (including the semi-finals will be played on a "best of 9 rule" and the final on a "best of 9" rule.
The matches list and the afferent scores cand be followed here, as for the prize money you can check the article "Snooker in October".


Let`s wish good luck to all the players and we shall see eachother at the end of this beautiful competiton for the lastest "gossip" :-P