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You are in: Special Events: 2000: UK Championship Snooker |
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Tuesday, 21 November, 2000, 21:01 GMT
Everton on the foreign brigade
Clive Everton believes British domination may end soon
BBC Sport's Clive Everton looks at the reasons why British players have dominated the game for so long but says that foreign players are at last coming through.
Snooker is the one sport in which Britain, at the top or in depth, is too good for the rest of the world. It always has been. This dominance, though, has been perpetuated by successive qualifying systems for the world ranking circuit. Very few overseas players, fed up and far from home, distinguished themselves in the qualifying competitions, which used to take all summer in Blackpool. When overseas qualifying was introduced, the window of opportunity remained small. Last summer, only four newcomers for the 160-man circuit were allowed from Asia, one from the Americas, one from Oceania and two from mainland Europe.
The Bristol based world governing body, the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, whose board consists entirely of Brits, has not regarded more cosmopolitan fields as a high priority. A step was recently made in the right direction by inviting both Thailand and China/Hong Kong to join England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland in January's Nations Cup in Reading. Malta beat Belgium in a play-off for the remaining place. It was unfortunate that two of the Asian qualifiers for the tour could not take up their entitlement at the start of the season. Closed shop China's Da Hai Lin would not travel because his wife was pregnant; Pakistan's Farhan Mirza was diagnosed with tuberculosis on landing at Heathrow. Playing in his own country in the International Snooker and Billiard Championship - for which there were entries from 33 national associations from Finland to Mongolia - Lin showed his quality by making three centuries in three frames in reaching the quarter-finals. But generally, Asians tend to be slow to settle to their best in Britain amidst unfamiliar surroundings, culture and not least, food. The circuit's small clan of Thais practised together in Wellingborough but Thailand's number one James Wattana, who once stood third in the rankings, has faded to 28. Hong Kong's Marco Fu is now the top Asian and at 15th the only player from outside the British Isles inside the top 16.
The volatile Quinton Hand, who has arrived in Bournemouth for the Liverpool Victoria UK Championships with a broken foot, an injury sustained in a parachute jump, is at 33rd, Australia's top ranked player.
Tony Drago, Malta's best player, was once in the top 16 but now stands 26. Tuesday's third round action in Bournemouth, provided a rarity, a contest between two players from mainland Europe - Iceland's Krisjan Helgason, beating Belgium's Bjorn Haneveer 6-5 in what the experienced Alain Chamberlain described as "one of the best matches I've ever refereed.". Haneveer had breaks of 80 and 130 in leading 4-0, Helgason had runs of 60, 59, 56 and 61 in leading 5-4. Haneveer snatched the 10th on the black with a 41 clearance but Helgason took the decide 80-0. Such a standard underlined the fact that there are many quality overseas players who cannot develop to their true potential without regular chances to compete at top level. If the system changes, there might be a significant challenge to Britain's dominance and certainly an upsurge in international interest. The British press, so practised in nostalgic lamentation in sports as diverse as tennis and football, could perhaps start turning their attention to our lost past in snooker. It is in fact, a dominance that has been preserved not by a closed shop, but by one which, in practice, is not very open.
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20 Nov 00 | UK Championship Snooker
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