Who will delight us during the new snooker season

It`s almost that time of the year...

We have a new season in front of us and it was about time to have our "suspicions" confirmed (aka. the wildcards) and to see how the players will enter into another year of snooker at full speed (aka. the place in the ranking system)


No more than 100 players will delight us during the 2011/2012 snooker season with their artistic way of approaching the sport and their tremendous cue action and I dare in saying that if the previous season turned out to be great, the brand new one has good chances to be ... wonderful. It’s just a hunch, call me crazy, but what can I do? My snooker nose and my love for this sport indicate that we shall witness stunning snooker in the following year.


But let’s get a look at the wildcards, shall we?

Luca Brecel

Luca Brecel (place 100), one of the youngsters that dares to think he will conquer the snooker world someday and … he probably will. The boy comes from Belgium, he’s 16 years old and I was fortunate enough as to see him win the European Championship back in 2010. He seems to be one of the boldest players on tour, considering his age and I’m sure he’s going to move some mountains by playing along with the greatest names in snooker.


Another player that got a wildcard is Yu Delu (place 97), a terrific snooker player from China. With a very easy name to remember and quite easy to write, I’m sure that the media will find it worth to write about him. And more since the lad (he’s only 23 years old) will give them plenty of reason to be mentioned in the newspapers ;-) He’s made a very good impression in tournaments like China Open, the Shanghai Masters and his performance in the PTC`s was also a pretty good one.

The one and only James Wattana

James Wattana (place 98) doesn’t need an introduction for we all know how good this Thai player can be when he puts his mind to it. He succeeded in having a great run in this year’s World Championship qualifiers, he hit the highest break in this section and although he hasn’t win a ranking event in some time now (the last one was in 1995 - the Thailand Open) he is one of the finest players that Thailand can offer to snooker at the moment. I’m sure he’s served as inspiration for players such as "Double T" (aka. Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon) or Noppon Saengkham.


Last, but not least is the Indian player Lucky Vatnani (place 99). Some of you may recall him, some of you may not, but I assure you he is a very talented young man who’s won the AP State Snooker (U-21) for six times and took part in four PTC events last year, although he failed to pass the second round more than once.

The Q School is picking 12 players for the main tour

A quick stop at the Q School (Event One is over) tells us that we are in possession of the first four players to get a spot in the main tour, their names being: David Grace (place 85), Adam Wicheard (place 86), Robin Hull (place 87) and Andrew Norman (place 88). Eight more to come ;-)


According to the World Snooker official website the line-up is also consisting of the following names:


International and National Governing Body qualifiers

The eight players from PTC Order of Merit


And of course the best of the best, la crème du la crème:

La creme du la creme :-)

World rankings top 64: