Power Snooker - Ali Carter V's Mark Selby

Two equally matched players, face each in the new battle which is Power snooker, after watching Ronnie O'Sullivan see off Luca Brecel, the crowd began to realise that the tides had changed and that now, noise is more than accepted. So on came the on slaught of crowd interaction and abuse. Ali Carter took a healthy lead  from the start, as a clearly tired Mark Selby seemed to struggle to get into the balls. As the half an hour ticked down Mark slowly but surely started to catch up on Ali, it then became a battle of wits. Ali didn't turn to saftey play to waste his time on the table, he instead decided to waste some of his 20 second shot time to walk round the table before having to run back to the balk, to take a shot which was basically a shot to nothing, putting Mark Selby back in the balls, not that he had any time to fix the deficit in scores, this lead to the crowd chanting cheat at Ali when he came back to the table, to finsih the winner. 

Power Snooker

The tension is building as Barry Hearn's Power Snooker takes place at Indigo London 02 arena and TV rights belong to ITV4. Eight specially chosen players will take part in the revolution, which is set to interest younger viewers with a quick game of snooker something like crickets 20 20 matches.
  There will be 9 red balls set in a diamond formation, with the middle ball being the power ball, when the first player breaks off two or more balls must hit the cushion or the next player take turn. Points are what count not frames, when the power ball is potted, every ball in a two minute, power play are worth double. Double points can also be won if the cue ball is in the power zone when it is struck to hit a ball.
   The eight chosen players are all well known and from all sectors for the world rankings, players include World Number one Neil Robertson, Allister Carter, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Mark Selby, Shaun Murphy, Ding Junhui, Jimmy White and Belgium's wonder kid fifteen year old Luca Brecel. Favourites have to be Ronnie O'sullivan and Mark Selby, with strong competition from Ali Carter and Neil Robertson. 
   Ronnie is re known for his power play so this game should him down to the ground, with a half an hour match there is little time for the Rocket to become bored.  Mark is the also a nine ball pool player, so he is used to having less balls on the table, he is also quick and powerful around the table.  Ali Carter is an unknown contender, he is strong and has recently won the Shanghai Masters, but he isn't always a completer on the table, hopefully the shorter games will appeal to his mind frame.  Luca, Jimmy, Shaun and Neil are all unknowns on how they will play as they are all known for playing fast and furious from time to time, but steady and cautious at others.
  Another counterpart to be dealt with by both players and a TV audience is the noise factor, for power snooker the audience are not expected to stay quiet, it is all about shouting out and interacting with the players, whether or not this will be off putting is yet to be seen.

Ali Carter pulls out of the EPTC 3

Ali Carter the World Number 2, has announced today that he will not be taking part in this weekends EPTC 3 event in Russelsheim, Germany.  Allister has stated that he wants to prepare for next weeks power snooker event and for the EPTC4 in Gloucester.

Carter told 110sport tv:
“The last week in October is going to be extremely busy so I’ve decided to withdraw from this weekend’s event, I hope it will give me the chance to prepare properly for what I consider to be two important events as well as giving me a chance to spend a bit more time with my family.”

Ali Carter officially named world number 2

Ali Carter has been officially named World Snooker number 2, the rankinsg which update now more often than they used too, means that rankings are based on game on game performance rather than yearly performance. But after a flying start to Captain Carter's seasons after he won the Rowe Shanghai Masters, have scored him enough ranking points to safely root him close to the top, even though his performance at the world open meant that he failed to make it in the last 32.

“Being ranked as second in the world is great. I don’t feel that the rankings mean as much as they used to with the three cut-off points during the season however you always aspire to reach the top of your sport and I have almost been able to do that,” Carter went on to discuss, his dissapointment at missing out on the world open top spot.

“It was also bit of a rush between the two tournaments. I wasn’t back from China until late on the Monday and then wasn’t really back in the land of the living until the Wednesday then flew to Glasgow on Friday for my match on the Saturday.” Now with a time space of two months between the next championship matches, which will see Telford hold the UK Championships sponsored by Pukka Pies.  While waiting for the Uk Championship however the long awaited arrival of Power Snooker will keep Ali Carter on his toes and keep his sharpness at its best.

“Between now and the UK Championship we have the PTC events and these will help the players to keep up practice in a match situation. I missed out on playing in Bruges at the weekend as it was my sons first birthday – it was too special a moment to miss.”

When asked for his views on the Power Snooker format, Carter added: “I really like it and I am pleased to be involved in the Power Snooker. I think we all will enjoy having a bit of everything in the snooker calendar."