PTC Grand Finals 2012 - On our way to Galway

Going to Ireland

Give me a 'P'! Give me a 'T'! Give me a 'C'! PTC!!! Now let me hear you all scream 'Ireland'! Oh, well you get the drill. We are heading to Ireland's Galway for the second edition of the PTC Grand Finals.

It's been like forever since the last snooker event, at least that how it feels to me, but blimey the Haikou World Open finished nine days ago, so I guess this is just me missing snooker. 

Not to worry though, because for the next five days me, as well as all of you who are dearly in love with snooker are going to see a lot of snooker on our TVs, or if you've already got a ticket, you will see it LIVE from the audience at Bailey Allen Hall.

The top 24 players from PTC Order of Merit have already landed in Galway and are ready to point their cues at each other in order to conquer the PTC Grand Finals crown, which was won by Shaun Murphy last year. However, the defending champion is not going to be able to fight for keeping his beloved crown, since he sadly didn't qualify for the event. A bit of a weird situation, but this is no regular event.

Shaun Murphy won't be able to defend his vase

Throughout the season the players had no less than 12 chances to get as much money as possible from playing in the PTC series, the ones that got a place in the Top 24 now being able to play the ultimate battle for a top prize money of £70,000. 

Another important rule was that each contestant would play in at least three PTCs and three EPTCs from the series, which wasn't a problem, most of the players that made it to Galway making their cue action known in almost all the events.

This year the tournament has a new sponsor, a name that's very popular amongst the ones that like to place sports bets - Betfair - . The chairman of World Snooker Ltd. Barry Hearn showing himself happy with the “acquisition”:

"We are very pleased to bring on board Betfair, the world's biggest international online sports betting company, as title sponsor for this prestigious tournament. Betfair is a fantastic company to be working with and I'm sure they will enjoy five days of top quality snooker."

So with a perfect line-up, a new sponsor and a cosy place to play snooker, the 2012 PTC Grand Finals is officially ready to kick off.

The first day is seeing no less than six matches, amongst the names featured being the PTC 11 champion Tom Ford who is taking on PTC 4 runner-up Mark Davis, PTC 10 runner-up Dom Dale facing the furious Chinese Xiao Guodong, while PTC 11 runner-up Martin Gould is playing against the runner-up of the recently ended Haikou World Open, Stephen Lee, only to see the day ended with a "runner-up" clash between Ricky Walden (PTC 6) and Matthew Stevens (PTC 7).

Day One match schedule:

10am
5 Barry Hawkins v. Jack Lisowski
7 Mark Davis v. Tom Ford
1 Xiao Guodong v. Dominic Dale
4 Martin Gould v. Stephen Lee

7.30pm
8 Ricky Walden v. Matthew Stevens
6 Fergal O'Brien v. Joe Perry
*all hours are Ireland's time

And now the bad news: we won't have LIVE coverage from EuroSport for the first day. Yeah, go figure! Not to worry, though for thank God we have www.sportlemon.tv that's should to show us some coverage throughout the day (not 100 per cent sure though), so be sure to keep an eye on it, ok?