Today sees the start of the knockout stage of the EBSA Men’s Championship
137 players started off in 27 groups of 5. The top 3 from each group progressing into the knockout stage. The top 47 seeds were placed into the first round proper, last 64, while 34 play in the preliminary round to earn the right to join them.
It’s a pretty hectic schedule where the prelim, the last 64 and the last 32 rounds are all played today. The last 16, quarter finals and semi finals are all played tomorrow and the final will be on Friday.
Th draw sheet is here: http://esnooker.pl/turnieje/2018/me/en/show_drabinka.php?id_t=203&size=96
Follow the action
You can follow all the scoring action via this link http://esnooker.pl/live/en/tsnew.php where you can then if you prefer, choose a match to follow and maybe watch live streaming – which works well on mobile as well.
Card or no card?
The winner of the event should be offered a tour year card for the professional snooker tour, but this could be dependant on the winner’s National Governing Body (NGB) being a member of the newly formed World Snooker Federation (WSF). At the time of writing, there still seems to be some doubt as to whether or not, Simon Lichtenberg of Germany will be offered a card for winning the Under 21s event as Germany have not joined the WSF.
Jason Ferguson said on Twitter – “I have written to the DBU and I am discussing this matter with the EBSA. More information will be available in the coming days.”
It was well publicised before the event, that in order to earn a tour card, the winner’s NGB had to have joined the WSF before the deadline of 31 January. It remains to be seen if anyone will bow to the popular vote in order to award Lichtenberg a tour card.[vc_raw_html]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[/vc_raw_html]
