Monday lunchtime, and there's a lot going on. Selby walks out in Leicester at 1pm, a three-cushion world No.1 has changed hands in Korea, and Indore is three days away. Before all that, a weekend in Kentucky that finished with a handshake rather than a final.
Louisville: Shepherd and Splawn shake on it
Jersey Girl Billiards took its second annual Get Spooked Split Bracket weekend to Railyard Billiards in Louisville from 31 October to 2 November, and it ended with the two finalists, Jason Shepherd and Brayden Splawn, agreeing to split the top two prizes rather than play it out, per AzBilliards.
Shepherd came through the Low Side bracket undefeated. He gave up just five racks across five matches on his way to that bracket's hot seat, then won a double-hill hot-seat match over Jesse Cortner. Splawn did it the hard way. He lost early on the High Side to Zach Mellott, then went on a loss-side run that included a 6–2 quarter-final rematch win over Mellott, a 6–1 win over Josh Faught, and in the Final Four a 6–1 win over Sheldon Bass followed by a 6–5 edge past Kolby Ervin. Ervin, who had gone unbeaten through the High Side, settled for third.
Elsewhere on the weekend:
- Ladies event: Remy Fitzgerald went undefeated and beat Kasey Shepherd twice, in the hot-seat match and the final.
- Friday warm-up: Chip Compton won without dropping a match, beating Mikael Hinton 3–0 for the hot seat and 3–1 in the final.
- The numbers: 31 in the High Side, 60 in the Low Side, 9 in the Ladies event and 35 in the warm-up.
Next up: the Split Bracket Series heads to Big Time Billiards & Café in Dalton, Georgia for the Big Time Brawl on 13–15 November.
Leicester: the Champion of Champions starts today
Sixteen title winners from the past year, £440,000 in the pot and £150,000 to the winner. The Champion of Champions gets going at the Mattioli Arena this afternoon, with Mark Selby defending the title in his home city.
Today (Group One):
- 1pm: Mark Selby v Alfie Burden (best of seven)
- To follow: Barry Hawkins v Chris Wakelin (best of seven)
- 7pm: the two winners meet over best of 11 for a semi-final place
The rest of the week:
- Tuesday: Neil Robertson v Panchaya Channoi, then Judd Trump v Jak Jones. Channoi, the 18-year-old Thai who won the World Women's Championship in May, is making her debut on this stage.
- Wednesday: Shaun Murphy v Ronnie O'Sullivan, then Wu Yize v Chang Bingyu.
- Thursday: Zhao Xintong v Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, then Kyren Wilson v Ali Carter. Wilson arrives with Saturday's International Championship trophy fresh in the bag.
- Friday and Saturday: semi-finals at 7pm.
- Sunday: the final over best of 19, across sessions at 1pm and 7pm.
Where to watch: ITV in the UK, DAZN in Germany, Fox Sports in Australia and Viaplay in the Netherlands, Scandinavia and Iceland. Anywhere without a broadcaster, every match streams live on WNT TV and the Matchroom Multi Sport YouTube channel.
Three-cushion: Merckx back on top of the world
We covered Eddy Merckx's 50–23 rout of Glenn Hofman in the Yanggu World Cup final last night. The ranking story has come out since. Korea's NoCut News reports the win has lifted Merckx past Cho Myung-woo to world No.1. Cho had held the top spot since 2023, and his bid for a fourth World Cup title of the season ended in the last 16 against Vietnam's Tran Quyet Chien.
The season-long race is still Cho's to lose, though. The UMB has him on 302 points to Merckx's 250, with Dick Jaspers third on 214. It comes down to the last World Cup of the year in Hurghada, Egypt, on 6–12 December.
Indore: IBSF World Snooker Championships this week
The amateur game's biggest week starts on Thursday at the Yeshwant Club in Indore, India, where the IBSF World Snooker Championships run from 12 to 21 November. Entries closed back in September. According to the IBSF schedule, men's qualifying starts on 13 November, the men's main event and the women's championship both start on 17 November, and both finals are on the 21st. We will follow it through the week.
Diary
- 13–15 Nov: Jersey Girl Billiards' Big Time Brawl, Dalton, Georgia
- 12–21 Nov: IBSF World Snooker Championships, Indore
- 15 Nov: Champion of Champions final, Leicester
- 25–27 Nov: WPA Predator Junior 10-Ball World Championships, San Antonio
- 27–30 Nov: Mosconi Cup, Caribe Royale, Orlando
- 6–12 Dec: UMB Three-Cushion World Cup, Hurghada
Who are you backing in Leicester this week? And would you have played the Louisville final out, or taken the split? Tell us below.
Reggie Rutherford, Cueball Talk
Sources: AzBilliards, Champion of Champions organisers, Totally Snookered, UMB, NoCut News, IBSF, WPA, World Nineball Tour. Feature image: “Louisville Skyline” by Chris Watson, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY 2.0.
