Portal:Cue sports

The 2018 World Snooker Championship (officially the 2018 Betfred World Snooker Championship) was a professional snooker tournament held from 21 April to 7 May 2018 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. Hosted by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, it was the 20th and final ranking event of the 2017–18 snooker season and the 42nd consecutive time the World Snooker Championship had been held at the venue. The tournament was broadcast by BBC Sport and Eurosport in Europe, and sponsored by betting company Betfred.

Welsh left-hander Mark Williams won his third world championship and 21st ranking title, defeating Scottish professional John Higgins 18–16 in the final. Williams' victory came 15 years after his second world title in 2003; before the start of the season, he had not won a ranking event in the previous six years. In winning the event, Williams received the highest prize money awarded for a snooker event, £425,000 of a total pool of £1,968,000. Aged 43, he was the third oldest winner at the crucible after Ronnie O'Sullivan who was 44 when he won the 2020 World Snooker Championship and Ray Reardon who was 45 when he won the title in 1978. Defending and three-time world champion Mark Selby had won the world title for the previous two years, but lost in the first round 4–10 to Joe Perry. (Full article...)

The 2002 World Snooker Championship (also referred to as the 2002 Embassy World Snooker Championship for the purposes of sponsorship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 20 April to 6 May 2002 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the final ranking event of the 2001–02 snooker season. This was the 26th consecutive year that the World Snooker Championship had been held at the Crucible, marking the 25th anniversary of the first staging of the event at this venue. The championship was sponsored by cigarette manufacturer Embassy.

Peter Ebdon won his only world title by defeating seven-time winner Stephen Hendry 18–17 in the final. Ebdon defeated Matthew Stevens 17–16 in the semi-finals, and Hendry defeated the defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan 17–13 to reach the final. This was Hendry's ninth and last appearance in a World Championship final. There were 65 century breaks during the tournament. The highest break of the tournament was by Stevens, who achieved 145 in his quarter-final match. Hendry made 16 centuries during the event, a record for any individual tournament, equalled by Mark Williams in 2022. A total prize fund of £1,615,770 was awarded at the event, the winner receiving £260,000 (Full article...)

The 1983 World Snooker Championship (also known as the 1983 Embassy World Snooker Championship for the purposes of sponsorship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place between 16 April and 2 May 1983 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. This was the third and final world ranking event of the 1982–83 snooker season following the 1982 Professional Players Tournament. Sixteen seeded players qualified directly for the event, with an additional sixteen players progressing through a two-round qualification round held at the Romiley Forum in Stockport, and Redwood Lodge in Bristol. The winner of the event received £30,000, and the tournament was sponsored by cigarette company Embassy.

Alex Higgins was the defending champion, having won the 1982 championship, but he lost 5–16 to Steve Davis in the semi-finals. Davis, the 1981 champion, won the event for the second time, defeating Cliff Thorburn 18–6 in the final. A total of 18 century breaks were made during the tournament. The highest was made by Thorburn in the fourth frame of his second round match against Terry Griffiths, where he compiled a maximum break of 147 points, becoming the first player to make such a break in a World Championship match. (Full article...)

Snooker (pronounced UK: /ˈsnuːkər/ SNOO-kər, US: /ˈsnʊkər/ SNUUK-ər) is a cue sport played on a rectangular billiards table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six pockets: one at each corner and one in the middle of each long side. First played by British Army officers stationed in India in the second half of the 19th century, the game is played with 22 balls, comprising a white cue ball, 15 red balls and six other balls—a yellow, green, brown, blue, pink and black—collectively called 'the colours'. Using a snooker cue, the individual players or teams take turns to strike the cue ball to pot other balls in a predefined sequence, accumulating points for each successful pot and for each foul committed by the opposing player or team. An individual frame of snooker is won by the player who has scored the most points, and a snooker match ends when a player wins a predetermined number of frames.

In 1875, army officer Neville Chamberlain, stationed in India, devised a set of rules that combined black pool and pyramids. The word snooker was a well-established derogatory term used to describe inexperienced or first-year military personnel. In the early 20th century, snooker was predominantly played in the United Kingdom, where it was considered a "gentleman's sport" until the early 1960s before growing in popularity as a national pastime and eventually spreading overseas. The standard rules of the game were first established in 1919 when the Billiards Association and Control Club was formed. As a professional sport, snooker is now governed by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. (Full article...)

The 2021 Masters (officially the 2021 Betfred Masters) was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place between 10 and 17 January 2021 at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes, England. It was the 47th staging of the Masters tournament, which was first held in 1975, and the second of three Triple Crown events in the 2020–21 season, following the 2020 UK Championship and preceding the 2021 World Snooker Championship. The top sixteen players from the snooker world rankings were invited to compete in a knockout tournament. The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association organised the tournament, which was broadcast by the BBC and Eurosport in Europe. The event was sponsored by sports betting company Betfred. It was played behind closed doors because of COVID-19 restrictions in the United Kingdom. Two players, world number one Judd Trump and Jack Lisowski, withdrew from the event after testing positive for COVID-19.

The defending champion, Stuart Bingham, had defeated Ali Carter 10–8 in the previous year's final. Bingham lost 6–5 to Yan Bingtao in the semi-finals. Yan (one of three debutants at the event, alongside Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and Gary Wilson) met John Higgins in the final. Yan completed a 10–8 victory to win his first Triple Crown tournament. As the winner of the event, Yan was awarded £250,000 from the total prize pool of £725,000. The highest break of the event was a 145 made by Higgins in his quarter-final win over Ronnie O'Sullivan which earned him £15,000. (Full article...)

The 2020 Masters (officially the 2020 Dafabet Masters) was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place at Alexandra Palace in London, England, from 12 to 19 January 2020. It was the 46th staging of the Masters tournament, which was first held in 1975, and the second of three Triple Crown events in the 2019–20 season, following the 2019 UK Championship and preceding the 2020 World Snooker Championship. The event invites the top sixteen players from the snooker world rankings in a knockout tournament. It was organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association and was broadcast by the BBC and Eurosport in Europe.

Judd Trump was the defending champion, having defeated Ronnie O'Sullivan 10–4 in the final of the previous year's event. Trump lost to Shaun Murphy 3–6 in the first round. O'Sullivan was eligible to compete, but chose not to participate, so his entry was given to Ali Carter, next on the world ranking list. Carter reached the final, where he played Stuart Bingham; recovering from 5–7 behind, Bingham won the final 10–8 to claim his first Masters title. He became the oldest Masters champion at the age of 43 years and 243 days, beating the previous record set by Ray Reardon in 1976; Bingham remained the tournament's oldest winner until 2024, when O'Sullivan won the title aged 48 years and 40 days. (Full article...)

The 2019 WPA World Ten-ball Championship was a professional pool tournament for the discipline of ten-ball organised by the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) and CueSports International. It was the fifth WPA World Ten-ball Championship; the previous championship was held in 2015. After plans for an event in both 2016 and 2018 to be held in Manila fell through, it was agreed to hold a 2019 event at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas as part of a three-year deal for the event to be played in the United States. The tournament ran concurrently with the Billiard Congress of America's National Ten-ball event from July 22 to 26. The event was sponsored by cue manufacturer Predator Group.

The competition featured 64 participants, selected according to world and continental pool rankings as well as qualifying events. The tournament was played as a double-elimination bracket until 16 players remained, at which point it changed to a single-elimination format. Ko Ping-chung, representing Chinese Taipei, won the event, defeating German player Joshua Filler 10–7 in the final. Ko's brother Ko Pin-yi, who was the defending champion, lost to Filler 10–8 in the semi-final. The event featured a prize fund of $132,000, the winner receiving $30,000. (Full article...)

The 1985 World Snooker Championship (also known as the 1985 Embassy World Snooker Championship for the purpose of sponsorship) was a professional ranking tournament in snooker that took place from 12 to 28 April 1985 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. Organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA), the event was the ninth consecutive World Snooker Championship to be held at the Crucible, the first tournament having taken place in 1977. A five-round qualifying event for the championship was held at the Preston Guild Hall from 29 March to 5 April for 87 players, 16 of whom reached the main stage, where they met the 16 invited seeded players. The tournament was broadcast in the United Kingdom by the BBC, and was sponsored by the Embassy cigarette company. The total prize fund for the event was £250,000, the highest prize pool for any snooker tournament to that date. The winner received £60,000, which was the highest amount ever received by the winner of a snooker event at that time.

The defending champion was Englishman Steve Davis, who had previously won the World Championship three times. He met Northern Irishman Dennis Taylor in the final which was a best-of-35-frames match. Davis took an early 9–1 lead, but Taylor battled back into the match and drew level at 17–17, forcing a deciding frame. The 35th frame was contested over the final black ball, with the player able to pot the ball winning the world title. After Taylor missed three attempts to pot the black, Davis missed his only attempt to leave Taylor a relatively simple pot to win his sole World Championship. The match, often referred to as the "black ball final", is commonly considered to be the best-known match in the history of snooker and a reason for the surge in the sport's popularity in the 1980s and 1990s. (Full article...)

The 1988 World Snooker Championship, also known as the 1988 Embassy World Snooker Championship for sponsorship reasons, was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 16 April to 2 May 1988 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. Organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA), it was the sixth and final ranking event of the 1987–88 snooker season and the twelfth consecutive World Snooker Championship to be held at the Crucible, the first tournament there having taken place in 1977.

A five-round qualifying event for the championship was held at the Preston Guild Hall from 22 March to 2 April 1988 for 113 players, 16 of whom reached the main stage, where they met the 16 invited seeded players. The tournament was broadcast in the United Kingdom by the BBC, and was sponsored by the Embassy cigarette company. The winner received £95,000 from the total prize fund of £475,000. (Full article...)

The 1987 World Snooker Championship (also referred to as the 1987 Embassy World Snooker Championship for the purpose of sponsorship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place between 18 April and 4 May 1987 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the sixth and final ranking event of the 1986–87 snooker season. The championship was the 1987 edition of the World Snooker Championship, first held in 1927, and had 32 participants. The highest ranked 16 players were awarded a place in the first round draw, whilst a pre-tournament qualification event for 104 professionals was held between 26 March and 4 April at the Preston Guild Hall for the remaining places. The tournament was sponsored by cigarette manufacturer Embassy and had a prize fund of £400,000 with the winner receiving £80,000.

Since his 1986 victory, Joe Johnson had experienced a disappointing season leading up to the 1987 Championship, and bookmakers considered it unlikely that he would retain the title. Johnson did reach the final, a rematch of the previous year's final against Steve Davis. Davis won his fourth championship by defeating Johnson 18 frames to 14. A total of 18 century breaks were made during the tournament, the highest of which was 127 made by Davis in first frame of the final. Stephen Hendry, aged 18, became the youngest player to win a match in the tournament's history since it moved to the Crucible in 1977, whilst it was the last time that six-times champion Ray Reardon appeared. (Full article...)

This is a list of professional and alternative format snooker tournaments. Professional snooker tournaments can take the form of ranking tournaments—which are open to players on the main tour and award ranking points based on a player's performance—and non-ranking tournaments. A non-ranking tournament may take the form of an invitational event where player participation is conditional on criteria set by the organiser or sponsor or by personal invite. Most tournaments take the form of a 'singles' event, but there are several team formats that have appeared on the calendar over the years.

In recent seasons alternative forms of snooker have proliferated on the calendar. Any event that uses the official rules of snooker but is not completely consistent with them is defined as an "alternative form of snooker", such as six-red snooker (which is played with six reds as opposed to the standard fifteen as required by the official rules), and alterations to scoring and fouling. Some tournaments have occupied the middle ground between strict adherence to the official rules and adopting an alternative format by implementing tournament rules that fully complement the official rules of the game, such as adding a shot clock or call shot; in such instances, a tournament rule operates in a way that the official rules of the game are still fully observed. (Full article...)

Graeme Dott (born 12 May 1977) is a Scottish professional snooker player from Glasgow. After winning the British Under-19 Championship in 1992 and the Scottish Amateur Championship in 1993, he turned professional in 1994. He first entered the top 16 in 2001 and reached his first world final at the 2004 World Championship, losing 8–18 to Ronnie O'Sullivan. Two years later, he defeated Peter Ebdon 18–14 in the final of the 2006 World Championship, winning his first world title and first ranking title. He reached the semi-finals of the 2006 UK Championship and claimed his second ranking title at the 2007 China Open, defeating Jamie Cope 9–5 in the final. He reached his career highest ranking of second in the 2007–08 rankings.

Dott's form declined in late 2007 as he struggled with clinical depression. After a string of poor results, he dropped from second to 13th in the 2008–09 rankings and then to 28th in the 2009–10 rankings. He reached a third world final at the 2010 World Championship, where he lost 13–18 to Neil Robertson but re-entered the top 16 in the rankings. He reached the semi-finals of the 2013 Masters but lost 5–6 to Mark Selby. He was runner-up at three ranking events later in his career, at the 2018 German Masters, 2018 Snooker Shoot Out, and 2020 World Grand Prix. In all, he has played in ten ranking finals, winning two. He was last ranked within the top 16 before the 2015 German Masters; he fell out of the top 32 during the 2021–22 season.

In 2025, Dott was charged with sexually abusing two children, a girl between 1993 and 1996, beginning when she was around 10 years old, and a boy between 2006 and 2010, beginning when he was around 7 years old. Released on bail, he has pleaded not guilty to the charges and will stand trial at Scotland's High Court of Justiciary in August 2026. The WPBSA suspended him from competition in April 2025, at which point he was ranked 56th in the world, and he remains suspended pending the outcome of his trial. (Full article...)

Dorothy Wise (née Dorothy Eleanor Maxfield; December 13, 1914 – April 12, 1995) was an American professional pool player. She was born in Spokane, Washington. When she first started playing pool professionally, there were very few national tournaments for women. She won many local and state tournaments, so she called herself the world champion. The first national tournament for women happened in 1967. She won and kept winning for the next five years. She lost the title in 1972. She played in the final against 13-year-old Jean Balukas.

She became a member of the Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame in 1981. She was the first woman to be made a member.

Dorothy learned to play pool from her husband, Jimmy Wise. He managed billiard parlors (where people play pool) in several cities around the western United States. He watched Dorothy win the first national championship in 1967, but died later that year. (Full article...)

Kelly Teresa Fisher (born 25 August 1978) is an English professional snooker, pool and billiards player. She has won world championships in all three disciplines. (Full article...)

Sinuca brasileira (Portuguese for Brazilian snooker), often simply called sinuca, is a cue sport played on a snooker table, using only one red ball instead of snooker's fifteen, with the normal six colours of the standard set of snooker balls. Each ball carries the same basic point value as in snooker. As with other pocket billiards games, a white cue ball is used to pot the red and other coloured balls. The game is played almost exclusively in Brazil and is little known outside this region. (Full article...)

Maximilian Lechner (born 27 May 1990) is an Austrian professional pool player.

Lechner has been successful on the Euro Tour, where he has reached the last 16 at the 2017 Dutch Open, 2017 Treviso Open, 2018 Leende Open, 2018 Sankt Johann im Pongau Open, as well as reaching the quarter-finals of the 2017 Klagenfurt Open before reaching semifinals at both and 2018 Treviso Open and 2019 Leende Open. (Full article...)

Li Hang (Chinese: 李行; pinyin: Lǐ Háng; born 4 October 1990) is a Chinese former professional snooker player who, in 2023, was permanently banned from the sport after committing a range of match-fixing offences. Li first competed professionally during the 2008–09 season. His best performances during his professional career were reaching two ranking semi-finals. He reached a career high of 28th in the snooker world rankings in 2019.

In December 2022, the WPBSA suspended Li from the professional tour amid a match-fixing investigation. In January 2023, it charged him with fixing a match, being concerned in fixing matches, approaching a player to fix a match, seeking to obstruct the investigation, and betting on snooker matches. Following an independent disciplinary tribunal, Li received a lifetime ban from the sport. (Full article...)

Sporting Clube de Portugal is a professional billiards team based in Lisbon, Portugal, founded in 1930. The team competes in the Portuguese Billiards League and in European championships, in both carom billiards (three-cushion) and pool (eight-ball and nine-ball) events. The team includes some players from Belgium, France and Spain. (Full article...)

The World Women's Snooker Championship (known as the Women's World Open from 1976 to 1981 and the World Ladies Snooker Championship from 1983 to 2018) is the longest-running and most prestigious tournament on the World Women's Snooker Tour. Staged 41 times since the inaugural edition in 1976, it has produced 15 different champions, six of whom have won the title more than once.

The most successful player in the tournament's history has been Reanne Evans, who has won 12 titles, followed by Allison Fisher with seven titles and Kelly Fisher with five. The inaugural champion was Vera Selby, who won the title twice. Although the tournament had only one winner from outside the United Kingdom before 2014 (Australia's Lesley McIlrath in 1980) most recent editions have been won by Asian players. Hong Kong's Ng On-yee won three titles, in 2015, 2017 and 2018. Thai players Mink Nutcharut and Baipat Siripaporn won in 2022 and 2023 respectively, and China's Bai Yulu claimed her first title in 2024.

In 2021, the World Women’s Snooker Tour became an official qualification route to the main professional World Snooker Tour. At the end of each season, the reigning World Women's Snooker Champion receives a professional tour card for the following two seasons, as does the highest-ranked player in the women's rankings who is not already on the tour. If the World Champion is already on the tour, that card will be issued to the next highest ranked player who is not on the tour. (Full article...)

A trick shot (also trickshot or trick-shot) is a shot played on a billiards table (most often a pool table, though snooker tables are also used) which seems unlikely or impossible or requires significant skill. Trick shots frequently involve the balls organized in ways that do not correspond to normal play, such as balls being in a straight line, or use props such as extra cues or a triangle that would not be allowed on the table during a game. As an organized cue sports discipline, trick shot competition is known as artistic pool. (Full article...)

The 2019 World Pool Masters was a nine-ball pool tournament which took place in Gibraltar from 29 to 31 March 2019. It was the 26th edition of the World Pool Masters invitational tournament organised by Matchroom Sport. The event contained increased participation from 16 to 24 players, and increased total prize fund to $100,000. Spaniard David Alcaide won the event, defeating Greece's Alexander Kazakis in the final 9–8, doubling the final ball the length of the table to win. The reigning champion was Dutchman Niels Feijen who defeated Shane Van Boening of the United States in the previous year's final to win the title for the second time in his career. Feijen was defeated in the opening round by Alcaide. (Full article...)

Tom Reece (12 August 1873 – 16 October 1953) was an English professional player of English billiards. He was six times runner-up in the professional billiards championship, now regarded as the world championship, losing three times to Melbourne Inman in finals from 1912 to 1914, and three times to Tom Newman in the 1921, 1924 and 1925 finals. He made the unofficial world's highest billiards break of 499,135 in 1907 using a cradle cannon technique shortly before it was banned from the sport. In 1927, his prowess with the pendulum stroke led to that also being banned from use in competition.

His highest officially-recognised break was 901, which he compiled in 1916. He authored two books, Dainty Billiards: How to play the close cannon game (1925), and his autobiography Cannons and Big Guns (1928). Reece died on 16 October 1953, a week after suffering a stroke. (Full article...)

Margaret Fefilova Styer (formerly Marharyta Fefilava; born 31 May 1997) is a Belarusian professional pool player from Minsk, Belarus. Fefilova has won dozens of Belarusian national women's championships, with an additional three national championships in mixed competitions against both men and women. She is the first player from Belarus to win a medal at the European Pool Championships.

Fefilova is a regular player on the Euro Tour and the Baltic Pool League. She has been the number one ranked player on the Euro Tour after winning two Tour events in 2017, the Dutch Open and the Portugal Open. (Full article...)

The 2019–20 Challenge Tour was a series of snooker tournaments that took place during the 2019–20 snooker season. The Challenge Tour was the second-tier tour for players not on the main World Snooker Tour. The top player in the final rankings earned a two-year card to the World Snooker Tour from the 2020–21 snooker season. The following eight players in the rankings progressed to a play-off event, with the winner of that event also receiving a two-year place on the World Snooker Tour. Two of the events were postponed: Event five was rearranged due to poor weather conditions, whilst the play-off was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Played between August and July, the series was contested over ten events. Ashley Hugill finished top of the rankings, winning two of the events. Hugill had already earned a place on the World Snooker Tour having won the 2020 WSF Open, so second placed Lukas Kleckers
earned a tour card. Third ranked Andrew Pagett also received a place on the World Snooker Tour after his victory in the 2020 EBSA European Snooker Championship. Allan Taylor, who had finished seventh in the rankings, won the play-off tournament and a place on the World Snooker Tour. (Full article...)

Dennis Taylor (born 19 January 1949) is a Northern Irish former professional snooker player and current commentator. He turned professional in 1972 and won the 1985 World Snooker Championship, in which he lost the first eight frames of the final to defending champion Steve Davis but recovered to win 18–17 in a duel on the last black ball. The final's conclusion attracted 18.5 million viewers, setting UK viewership records for any post-midnight broadcast and for any broadcast on BBC Two that still stand.

Taylor had previously been runner-up at the 1979 World Snooker Championship, where he lost the final 16–24 to Terry Griffiths. He attained his highest world ranking in 1979–1980, when he was second. He won one other ranking title at the 1984 Grand Prix, where he defeated Cliff Thorburn 10–2 in the final. He reached two other Grand Prix finals but lost 9–10 to Davis in 1985 and 7–10 to Stephen Hendry in 1987. He won the invitational 1987 Masters, defeating Alex Higgins 9–8 in the final. He made the highest break of his career at the 1987 Carling Challenge, a 141. (Full article...)

David Alcaide Bermúdez (born 14 December 1978) is a Spanish professional pool player. He is a two-time winner of the World Pool Masters, winning the 2017 event, defeating Jayson Shaw 8–7 in the final, and again in 2019 defeating Alexander Kazakis 9–8. Alcaide is a three-time world championship semi-finalist having reached the stage at the WPA World Ten-ball Championship, in 2009 and 2015, and the WPA World Eight-ball Championship in 2011.

Alcaide has also represented Europe at the Mosconi Cup in 2006, 2017, 2021 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 with six wins. At the 2006 event, he was the first Spanish player to compete in the competition. In addition to pool, Alcaide also plays snooker, having competed at the 2019 Gibraltar Open professional snooker event. He has also represented Spain at the World Cup of Pool on multiple occasions, partnering fellow Spaniard Francisco Sánchez Ruiz in the events. (Full article...)

Jasmin Ouschan (German pronunciation: [ˈjasmɪn ˈɔʊʃan]; born 10 January 1986) is an Austrian professional pool player from Klagenfurt, Carinthia. Her first professional competition occurred in 2002, but she did not officially become a professional member of the Women's Professional Billiards Association (WPBA) until 2007. She is currently one of the top-ranked women in the world according to the 2010 prize money list and by the WPBA rankings. At times, she has been ranked as the number one female player in the world. Since 2006, she has been listed among the top-ten women in the annual prize money rankings. Ouschan competes regularly with men on the Euro Tour and in 2008 became the first woman to earn a medal in an open world pool championship. She is recognized as a WPBA Elite Pro.

In international competition she has earned the World Games 2005 gold medal and World Games 2009 silver medal in nine-ball. As of 2013, she has earned a total of twenty-nine individual European Pool Championships gold medals (ten in eight-ball, ten in nine-ball, six in straight pool and three in ten-ball) since 1999, including eighteen (four in eight-ball, five in nine-ball, six in straight pool and three in ten-ball) since joining the open Women's division in 2005. She was the Youth European Champion in eight-ball six consecutive years from 1999–2004. (Full article...)

Ng On-yee BBS MH (Chinese: 吳安儀; born 17 November 1990) is a Hong Kong professional snooker player who has won three IBSF World Snooker Championships and three World Women's Snooker world championships. She held the number one position in the World Women's Snooker world ranking list from February 2018 to April 2019.

After competing in several International Billiards and Snooker Federation (IBSF) tournaments, Ng became the youngest-ever IBSF women's world champion at the age of 19 and successfully defended the title the following year. At the 2015 World Ladies Snooker Championship she defeated Reanne Evans—who had held the title for the previous ten years—in the semi-final and won the title. After losing the final of the same tournament to Evans the following year, Ng regained the title in 2017, defeating Evans 5–4 in the semi-final and overcoming Vidya Pillai 6–5 in the protracted final. In 2018, Ng won the title for a third time and in 2019 she collected her third IBSF World Title. (Full article...)

The 2019 Paul Hunter Classic was a professional non-ranking invitational snooker tournament. The event took place between 24 and 25 August 2019 at the Stadthalle in Fürth, Germany. The tournament was the 2019 edition of the Paul Hunter Classic first held in 2004 as the Grand Prix Fürth. The tournament is named in honour of snooker professional, Paul Hunter who won the 2004 event and died in 2006. The event featured a 16-player bracket with a qualification tournament that was held in Nuremberg, Germany. As the tournament was dropped as a ranking event, independent promoters Dragonstars Event Management promoted the event providing prize money for the tournament.

Kyren Wilson was the defending champion, having defeated Peter Ebdon 4–2 in the 2018 final. Barry Hawkins won the title 4–3 defeating Wilson in the final. Wison lead 3–2 and required one frame to win the title, he was one ball from winning but lost the frame 64–65 and incredibly Hawkins won the decider to win the title. The event also featured an exhibition Speed Snooker Cup tournament which ran concurrently with the main event, which was won by Gary Wilson. Barry Hawkins scored the highest break of the event, a 120 in the third round of the final. (Full article...)

Herbert John Pulman (12 December 1923 – 25 December 1998) was an English professional snooker player who was the World Snooker Champion from 1957 to 1968. He first won the title at the 1957 Championship and retained it across seven challenges from 1964 to 1968, three of them against Fred Davis and two against Rex Williams. When the tournament reverted to a knockout event in 1969, he lost 18–25 in the first round to the eventual champion John Spencer. After finishing as runner-up to Ray Reardon in 1970, Pulman never again reached the final, although he was a losing semi-finalist in 1977.

He turned professional in 1946, shortly after winning the English Amateur Championship, and achieved three News of the World Snooker Tournament titles, in 1954, 1957 and 1958. An emotional player, he was prone to venting his frustration and missing important shots. He generally played attacking snooker in his early career, but he made more use of safety tactics in the 1970s. (Full article...)