2006 Grand Prix Preview
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by user Alex Holowczak
The
Amateur snooker is normally a Round Robin system, but the Grand Prix will feature a Group Stage.
The new format means that the top 16 and the 32 qualifiers will split into 8 groups of 6. The top 2 in each group will advance to the Last 16.
The idea was to make the last 16 a fairer reflection, by giving a top 16 player a total of 5 best-of-five matches to play (totalling 25 frames). This would be an improvement on the 9 frames that matches used to be.
However, I think it will lead to many dead games, and a best-of-5 in a ranking event is ludicrous. To give an indication of the reduction, most matches in other knockout events are 9 frames, and the World Championship would roughly double the 9 frames early on to make 19.
Not only that, but it makes my job of putting the results on the wiki that much harder!
It is going to be an interesting system, and the crowd will see a lot of players playing on each day.
The Grand Prix is also moving to Scotland for the first time, to give Scotland a ranking event after the collapse of the Scottish Open. The Aberdeen venue is set to host the event.
This is usually the opening event of a season, but it has been bumped down to the second event with the promotion of the Northern Ireland Trophy to Belfast in August.
There are many Scottish heroes for the home fans to cheer on:
- Defending Grand Prix Champion - John Higgins
- World Champion - Graeme Dott
- World Number 1 - Stephen Hendry
All three are past or present World Champions.
Those three will be in contention, but there are others that can come to the party.
- Ken Doherty - Won the Irish Professional Championship last week
- DIng Junhui - Reached the Northern Ireland Final
- Ronnie O'Sullivan - Beat Ding in Northern Ireland
- Mark Williams - Won Pot Black in September
It will be the first event since the death of Paul Hunter, and as yet it is unclear about what will be done to commemorate him at this event.
My favourite: I think the new format rewards consistency, which could play into Dott's hands. However, I think Hendry would be fired up on home soil. Ultimately, I would go with Ding Junhui to win after his promising start in Belfast.
