Fourteen points decided a weekend of English billiards in Staffordshire. Belfast lost two more big names overnight, and Sydney has its dream semi-final.
Landywood — Causier does it again, just
David Causier retained the English Open on Sunday night, beating Robert Hall 427–413 in the final at Landywood Snooker Club (per World Billiards). It was a repeat of last year's final, and much closer. Hall made two 116s and still lost.
Hall had scored 1,024 to Pankaj Advani's 169 in his semi-final, with breaks of 592 and 305. Causier's route was nearly as ruthless:
- Last 16: 893–198 v Wayne Doyle (257, 254)
- Quarter-final: 1,069–161 v Dhruv Sitwala (540 unfinished)
- Semi-final: 693–196 v Rupesh Shah (188)
Sitwala had won the all-Indian last-16 tie with Geet Sethi 475–187.
The World Championship starts today at the same club and finishes on Thursday. The WPBSA says the 60-player field includes the entire top ten and six former champions. Causier is chasing a third straight Landywood title after beating Hall in 2024 and Sitwala last year. Table one is streamed on the World Billiards YouTube channel.
Belfast — the seeds keep falling
Sunday evening at the Northern Ireland Open was as bad for the big names as the afternoon (scores per snooker.org, details from TNT Sports).
- Ricky Walden 4–1 Neil Robertson: Walden won the first three frames and the world number four never got back into it.
- Liam Davies 4–2 Shaun Murphy: the 20-year-old Welshman opened with 64 and 81. Murphy, who has been struggling with tendinitis, got it back to 3–2, but Davies finished the job with a century.
- Xu Si 4–0 Ali Carter: a whitewash for the English Open champion.
- Joe O'Connor 4–1 Matthew Stevens: two centuries, the best a 124. Walden is next.
With Selby out and Wu Yize withdrawn, four of the top eight seeds are gone before Ronnie O'Sullivan has struck a ball. He is still listed against Cheung Ka Wai at around 3pm today. Judd Trump v Martin O'Donnell follows at 7pm.
Sydney — Ng v Evans in the last four
The Australian Women's Open knockouts went to form overnight (scores on WPBSA SnookerScores). Ng On Yee beat Agnes Kimura 3–0 and Jessica Woods 3–1. Reanne Evans beat Alice Wu 3–0 and So Man Yan 3–1, so the two meet in a semi-final at midnight UK time. Mink Nutcharut whitewashed both Jazmin Brown and Narucha Phoemphul. She will play Anupama Ramachandran or Cheung Yee Ting; Anupama led that quarter-final 2–1 as we went to press. The final is at around 4am UK time on Tuesday.
Quezon City — the draw is out
The Philippines Open draw is out: 23 countries, 74 Filipinos, straight knockout. The World Nineball Tour says it is also the last ranking cut-off for the Mosconi Cup and the World Pool Masters. David Alcaide opens his defence against Rodlin John Bautista and Carlo Biado plays David Keith Dennison. Aloysius Yapp could meet Francisco Bustamante in the last 64. It starts tomorrow at Gateway Mall, live on WNT TV.
Rest of the World aren't gloating about the Reyes Cup. "Even though the scoreline looks like we ran over them, that's not the truth," Ralf Souquet said after the 11–4 win. "Most of the games were tight."
Goyang — Srong's slide goes on
Money Today notes that Srong Pheavy has gone out early three events running since her tenth career title in June. Last-event winner Jung Su-bin and Lee Mi-rae start their LPBA campaigns at KINTEX today.
Coming up
- WPA Blackball World Championships: Thistle Hotel Heathrow, 20–28 October. Malta are sending four squads, per the Times of Malta.
- Q Tour Europe Event 3: Oberhausen, 22–25 October. That's 153 players from 35 countries, including a record 33 Germans, per the WPBSA.
Feature image: “Dave Causier with trophy 2025” by BennyOnTheLoose, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY 4.0.
