24-769: The Kay Suzanne Memorial Cup (formerly known as the Kay Suzanne Memorial Trophy ) was a professional minor- ranking snooker tournament, which was part of the Players Tour Championship . The tournament started in 2011 and was staged at the Capital Venue in Gloucester , England. Mark Allen was the last champion. The tournament was named in memory of Capital Venue owner Paul Mount's late sister, who had died of breast cancer. The players wore pink shirts to raise awareness of
48-426: A prize money list for the 2014–15 season , with prize money earnings in events carrying ranking status contributing to a players ranking. Classic (snooker) The Classic was a professional snooker tournament, which began in 1980 and ended in 1992. It was originally a non- ranking event, but became ranking in 1984. Steve Davis won the event six times and was the last champion. The tournament started as
72-472: A seeded player lose their first match they would receive only half the points allocated to the non-seeded losers in that round. The World Championship continued to award more points than the other events but under the "open era" system the allocations often varied between other events too, with the UK Championship traditionally having the second-highest tariff. The ranking point schedule was replaced by
96-484: A tie-break when players were on equal ranking points. When the game went open for the 1991–92 season , the ranking point allocations (devised by the WPBSA chairman on the back of a cigarette pack) were altered by several factors to accommodate the influx of new players. The tie-break system was dropped but the system remained basically the same with players awarded incrementally more points for each successive round; should
120-441: The 2010–11 season , the system was revised to incorporate ranking updates after every tournament—instead of once a season—in an effort to make the rankings more reflective of current form. The current system utilises a two-year "rolling" format where points from tournaments in the current season replace the points from corresponding tournaments of two seasons ago. The seedings for tournaments change from tournament to tournament:
144-468: The Masters , so as well as interest in who will be number one , there is typically a lot of interest in which players are likely to maintain or acquire "top 16 status". Players are awarded ranking points according to the round they reach in ranking tournaments —specially designated tournaments that carry ranking status. Every professional member of the WPBSA is assigned a ranking, whether they are active on
168-641: The Wilsons Classic in January 1980. It was an eight-man invitation event recorded by Granada Television . John Spencer defeated Alex Higgins 4–3 in the final to become the inaugural champion. The second event was held in December the same year, with Steve Davis defeating Dennis Taylor 4–1 in the final. In 1982 , the Russian automobile manufacturer Lada became the sponsor of the event and it
192-604: The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association . Each player's world ranking is based on their performances in designated ranking tournaments over the preceding two years. Until the 2009–10 season , rankings were updated once annually, following the World Snooker Championship . Since the 2010–11 season , rankings have been updated after every ranking tournament. The world rankings were formerly based on point tariffs set by
216-472: The "venue stage"—usually at different locations. In tournaments with a "tiered" format players come into events in different rounds based on their ranking, and in some cases the top players in the sport are seeded through to the venue stage and do not have to play a qualification match. In particular, the top 16 ranked players automatically qualify for the final stages of the World Championship and
240-538: The 1975–76 season and based on just World Championship results, awarded the winner five points, the runner-up four, semi-finalists three, and so on down to one point for players who lost in the last 16. The world rankings, introduced in the following year, used the same allocation. Subsequent tournaments that were assigned ranking status worked on the same system but with the World Championship from 1983 onwards carrying double points. The ranking point allocation
264-430: The battle for the number one spot, top 16 places, and tour qualification intensified. The introduction of the rolling rankings in 2010 facilitated updates to the seeding list throughout the season. Various "cut-off" points are selected at convenient stages during the season where the rankings are "frozen" and used as seedings for the next few tournaments, until the next revision. The original "Order of Merit", created for
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#1732801613447288-415: The circuit or not. Prior to the introduction of the world rankings, the previous year's winner and runner-up were allocated the top seedings in the World Championship, held annually. As more tournaments were added to the calendar and more players joined the circuit in the 1970s, it became increasingly necessary to seed the tournaments, precipitating the "Order of Merit" for the 1975–76 season . The system
312-451: The defending champion is allocated the top seed followed by the reigning world champion and the remaining seeds are taken from a "seeding list". When the official rankings were only calculated once a year the seedings for tournaments—with the exception of the top two seeds—followed the official rankings. Players and pundits closely tracked the ranking points earned during a season; the "provisional rankings" (which had no official status in
336-488: The disease. The Pink Ribbon tournament was also held at the venue under a similar premise. Snooker world rankings The snooker world rankings are the official system of ranking professional snooker players to determine automatic qualification and seeding for tournaments on the World Snooker Tour . First introduced in the 1976–77 season , world rankings are maintained by the sport's governing body,
360-404: The event was granted ranking status. Steve Davis met Tony Meo in the final. Davis was level at 8 frames each with Tony Meo and only the colours were left in the deciding frame. As Meo lined up on the yellow, a spectator yelled out "Come on, Tony!". Although Meo took time to compose himself after the shout, he missed the yellow and Davis cleared the colours to win. Mercantile Credit took over
384-421: The game) were the rankings based on the ranking points accumulated in the previous season, combined with those accumulated thus far in the current season, and as the season progressed they converged on the official rankings for the following season. The provisional rankings gave an indication of a player's form, and as the season approached its dénouement, the provisional rankings would become a source of tension as
408-413: The governing body, but this system transitioned to a prize money list for the 2014–15 season . The rankings determine the seedings for tournaments on the World Snooker Tour , organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA), and who gets an invite to prestigious invitational events. Tournaments open to the membership are often played in two stages—a qualification stage and
432-475: The opening rounds were played earlier in the season. Steve Davis won in the final 13–12 against Jimmy White. Davis won the event the following year, this time defeating John Parrott 13–11. In 1989, Doug Mountjoy won his second consecutive ranking tournament, having previously won the UK Championship , by defeating Wayne Jones 13–11. The following year was a tournament of upsets, as only of four of
456-459: The same system; the Classic carried ranking points from the 1983–84 season , the UK Championship and British Open from 1984–85 . The revised system was now based on only the two previous seasons, and updated annually after the World Championship. While the ranking point allocations have undergone modifications down the years the basic system remained the same up until the 2009–10 season . For
480-546: The sponsorship for the 1985 and the event was renamed Mercantile Credit Classic . Willie Thorne won the only ranking tournament of his career, by beating Cliff Thorburn 13–8 in the final. In 1986 Jimmy White won his first ranking tournament by defeating Thorburn 13–12 in the final. In 1987 the event moved to the Norbreck Castle Hotel in Blackpool , but only just the last 16 played in the final stages, as
504-508: The top sixteen players reached its seeded place. Steve James won his only ranking tournament by defeating Warren King 10–6 in the final. The tournament moved to the Bournemouth International Centre in 1991. Stephen Hendry reached the final of the tournament in 1991 and 1992, but lost 4–10 against Jimmy White and 8–9 against Steve Davis respectively. After the 1992 event, it was discontinued and replaced with
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#1732801613447528-467: Was later revised slightly with winners of all bar the World Championship now receiving six points, runners-up five, down to one point for the last 32; the World Championship more or less stayed as it was with ten points for the winner, incrementally reduced by two points for each preceding round, but now awarded one point for the last 32 in line with the other tournaments. In addition to ranking points, merit and frame points were also awarded which were used as
552-521: Was renamed to Lada Classic . Steve Davis made the first televised maximum break (147) in his quarter-finals match against John Spencer . Terry Griffiths won in the final 9–8 against Steve Davis. In 1983 the field was expanded to 16 players and moved to the Spectrum Arena in Warrington . Bill Werbeniuk reached the only final of his career, but lost 9–5 against Steve Davis. In 1984,
576-456: Was very basic, with seedings based on the results of the last three World Championships, and rankings were formally introduced in 1976 after the World Championship for the 1976–77 season using the same criteria. By the 1982–83 season many more tournaments were being contested, and it seemed reasonable to take those results into consideration too. The Professional Players Tournament and International Open were awarded ranking status, working on
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