UK Championship Format Changed

Today it was announced by World Snooker that the format for the matches at the UK Championship and it's qualfiiers would be reduced. All qualifying matches at the South West Snooker Academy and up to and including the quarter finals at the Barbican, York will be best of 11 frames with the semi's at 17 and the final at 19 frames.

Some snooker fans may not like these changes as now the World Championship is the only format that is best of 19's at the start, but I believe this is the way forward. When I visited the UK Championship last year at the International Centre, Telford it was confusing at times to keep track of all four matches going on and now thanks to these changes the fans watching at home will be able to see every match that is broadcast which is always a good thing.

Even better because of these changes if a player qualifies for the last 32 stage at the Barbican Centre then it means it guarentees that he will be on a televised table which would be great for a young/inexperienced player to get the extra exposure and increases their chances of getting more sponsors and invitations for exhibitons and the like.

Maybe by shortening the format of the UK Championship they could change the format of another tournament? If it was up to me I think changing the Shanghai Masters to possibly a best of 15/17/19 at the venue stage would be a good idea as apart from the location of the tournament, there is very little to identify it differently from the China Open as they are both best of 9's in the early stages.

At least for the first time this year the fans will be able to watch the UK Championship qualifiers live and up-close. It will be held at the South West Snooker Academy in Gloucester between the 6th-9th of November and i'm sure that the fans will respond positively to it.

Source: World Snooker