The Premier League 2011 - on your mark, get set, go!

It's finally time to speed up a bit the snooker and what a better way to do that than with our beloved Premier League?! Well, beloved by some, truly hated by others ... but let's not get that affect our "snooker joy".


The PartyPoker.com Premier League caravan will make its first stop at Skegness, where all the snooker loopies that bought themselves a ticket will witness a new and corky tournament. As you all know from this year on, the Premier League's format has been changed (here you can find out more about it) so things, although a bit foggy at the beginning, will definitely steal the fans' hearts away at the end. Or, at least that's what the prescription said :-))


Of course that everyone is awaiting the big moment when the king of the Premier League, Ronnie O'Sullivan will play, but for now we shall have to be patient, because the first night will not feature his name. However, it will feature the name of a great friend of his, Jimmy White, who will take on the current world champion John Higgins, while Neil Robertson will face Matthew Stevens. However, on September 1st, the Rocket will have his first 2011 Premier League match, against Shaun Murphy (hm...feels like last year's final).

The new caravan is way faster than the old one

If you took the time to read the new rules, you already know that each night will look a bit like a mini-tournament, for we shall have two semis and a final. Points will be gain per frames won, so a player won't be able to collect more than six per night (the best of five rule will apply for each match), at the end of the 10 nights, the best four ranked players reaching the final stages, also known as the play-offs.

Snooker will be speed up the shot-clock being reduced from 25 to 20 seconds, while the eventual decider will have to be played for no longer than 10 minutes, with a limit of 20 seconds per shot during the first five minutes and one of 15 seconds per shot for the remaining time. This is something that the Premier League borrowed from its crazy sister-tournament "The Shoot-Out". :-P


So, lads and lasses, here is tomorrow's schedule for the first stop of the 2011 Premier League caravan:


From 7:30pm (UK time) on SkySports 1
the semis:


the final:


Of course that you can try the good old fromsport.com website (now called sportlemon.com) to catch the boys, so be sure to watch the first Premier League night out! ;-)