World Snooker changes play format of 2011 UK Championship: 2011-12 Snooker Season
Snooker governing body, World Snooker, has announced a new playing format of the upcoming 2011 UK Championship that will commence from December 3 to 11 at its new venue, York Barbican Centre. The
announcement was made on Friday, June 17, just one day before the 2011-12 Snooker Season starts with the commencement of Players Tour Championship (PTC) Event 1 on Saturday, June 18.
According to the new format of play, all the matches from the qualifiers till the quarter-final stage will be best-of-11 frames with a single session. However, the semi-finals and the final encounter
will remain best-of-17 and best-of-19 frames respectively.
Now there will be two tables in the York Barbican Centre arena to play the matches. This will allow all the matches to be properly televised by CCTV China, BBC and Eurosport as several exciting encounters
weren't broadcast on television last season.
Before 1993, the UK Championship final was best-of-31 frames that used to be played within two days but World Snooker changed the format to best-of-19 frames in 1993. Ronnie O’Sullivan became the
eventual winner of 1993 UK Championship after beating Stephen Hendry 10-6 in the final at Preston.
A couple of months back, the World Snooker chairman, Barry Hearn, announced that this season’s UK Championship will be played in its old home, York Barbican Centre. The decision was appreciated by
the snooker fans as well as international players including defending champion, John Higgins, Neil Robertson and Ding Junhui.
While speaking to the local media, Hearn said about the new venue, “The Barbican is an atmospheric venue, and that is what we wanted to create. We're thrilled and excited to be heading back to the
Barbican Centre in York for the UK Championship in December 2011.”
He added, “The UK Championship has had several homes, but returns to York, its rightful home. This is going to be the second biggest sporting event in York.”
The UK Championship is the second most prestigious snooker event in the history of world snooker after the World Snooker Championship. The York Barbican Centre possesses the same glory for UK Championship
as the Crucible Theatre does for World Snooker Championship.
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