Who beat him?
Holt
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Daniel Wells the first into the semis. Great opportunity this for the amateurs
Playing well. Lost his card after the covid
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Toss of a coin for the final.
Poor old jimmy- must be back on the beer!
Cracking break to win.
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50 grand. Nice pot.
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German Masters tomorrow. Only five or six of the top sixteen have qualified and that includes the two Chinese lads who are banned. Wide open.,
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Tom Ford to win
Fixers âtarget young starsâ at snooker talent factories
Players coached in Sheffield academies allegedly targeted with threats to fix matches
Young Chinese snooker players who have come to Britain hoping to make the breakthrough as top professionals have allegedly been targeted with threats to make them deliberately lose matches.
One 20-year-old, Chang Bingyu, has alleged that Liang Wenbo, a 35-year-old senior player with a court conviction for assault, threatened him and ordered him to lose a match in Septemberâs British Open, which he did out of fear of reprisals.
A source with knowledge of the match-fixing investigation confirmed there was an aggressive phone call, allegedly made by Liang, to Chang telling him to lose the match.
Liang and Chang are among ten Chinese players â all based in England and most linked to two academies in Sheffield â who have been charged by snookerâs worldgoverning body, the WPBSA, in relation to match-fixing as part of the biggest scandal to hit the sport.
There are also concerns that threats have been made to players and to their families from what one source called an âexternal forceâ.
The academies, the Ding Junhui Snooker Academy and Victoriaâs, are recognised by the WPBSA and have been part of the sportâs drive to embrace China. They offer competition-quality tables and players pay a fee to cover accommodation in student-type flats and coaching, sometimes funded by the Chinese government.
There are 25 Chinese players on the world tour at the moment, a fifth of the total, and another six or so on the secondary Q Tour hoping for a senior tour card. Many of them are attached to the two Sheffield academies, often living together, and some, it is alleged, have been targeted with threats to fix matches to allow others to make money from betting.
The age of some of the players charged with match-fixing has raised concerns â most are in their twenties and four are under 22. Tracey Crouch, the former sports minister, said snookerâs authorities needed to ensure young players were protected from coercion.
Ding Junhui is snookerâs most successful player to emerge from Asia and the manager of his academy declined to comment when The Times visited it, beyond saying: âThe investigation is still going on and we are helping it.â
The other academy is run by Victoria Shi, who has made a success of spotting talent in China, and did not respond when approached. There is no suggestion either academy has any connection to match-fixing.
One official, who asked not to be named, said Victoria had been âin tearsâ after the charges were announced. âNo one can understand why the players have done it,â the official said. âItâs baffling.
âThere is absolutely no doubt they would all have known the rules from the induction programmes when they arrived. But it is very worrying â you cannot be with the players 24 hours a day.â
The Gambling Commission is understood to be considering whether to call in the police to investigate, especially if it is suspected that organised crime is involved.
Two of snookerâs leading young players are among those facing fixing charges. Zhao Xintong, 25, and Yan Bingtao, 22, have already each made significant sums in prize money but now their careers are on the line, with snookerâs rules including the possibility of a lifetime ban for match-fixing.
Sources have told The Times that a number of matches that the two players have competed in are being studied by investigators, including last yearâs German Masters final, when Zhao beat Yan 9-0.
Zhao has been charged with âbeing concerned in fixing matchesâ on the World Snooker Tour while Yan has been charged with âfixing matches on the tourâ. Both have also been charged with betting on snooker.
The most serious allegations surround Liang, the 2016 English Open winner, who was banned last year by the WPBSA after he pleaded guilty to a âsustained assaultâ on a woman in Sheffield city centre â he was caught on CCTV punching and kicking her, continuing even when a passer-by tried to intervene. He was fined and given a 12-month community order, and banned from snooker for four months as a result.
On October 27, Liang was suspended by the World Snooker Tour again pending a new investigation into misconduct. Six weeks later, the tour announced that five players had been suspended and in a now deleted post on Weibo, Chinaâs version of Twitter, Chang alleged he had been scared into fixing the score to lose his British Open match against Jamie Jones 4-1 in September last year.
He wrote: âLiang Wenbo called me in a threatening tone, saying he was [betting on] my game against Jamie Jones. I was afraid that he had bet so much money. If I didnât agree, he would make trouble for me, so I had no choice but to agree. I was very scared.
âIt is my mistake, and I will actively cooperate with the investigation. I can accept my punishment.â
He also claimed an accomplice of Liang approached him the morning he was due to meet investigators and handed him a phone. âOn the phone, Liang told me to lie, or I would get myself into trouble,â Chang wrote.
In a recent post on Chinese social media, Liang denied he had ever been involved in match-fixing, that he would challenge the claims legally, and also suggested he would blow the whistle on other corrupt practices.
Liang is not one of the five players charged with betting on matches, which is against snookerâs rules, but has been charged in relation to fixing. Changâs charge is also related to fixing rather than betting.
Snookerâs integrity unit is headed by a former Metropolitan Police detective chief superintendent, Nigel Mawer, who carried out the police investigation into spot-fixing by three Pakistan cricket internationals in 2011. It is understood to have received information from a confidential whistleblowerâs line as well as snookerâs data partner Sportradar, with suspicious betting patterns flagged up in regular betting markets and irregular ones in the Far East.
Jason Ferguson, the WPBSA chairman, said player welfare was already its priority. âThere are 125 players on the tour and we know them all personally,â Ferguson said. âWe will always consider playersâ welfare, especially young players â we do care about them.â
The scandal is a huge blow for the sport, especially at a time when it is looking to expand into new markets such as the US, but Ferguson insisted: âWe will come through this â we believe this is a short-term cloud that will blow away and the sun will come out again.â
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Lisowski, Slessor , Pemgfei win. Jimmy playing tonight
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Well done jimmy!
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Just watching it back here now
Lisowski playing Jimmy tonight
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2-0 jimmy
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Jimmy loses 5-2.
Still, I remain cautiously optimistic he might just do it at the Crucible this year.
Jimmy the first player over 60 to reach the last 16 of a ranking event since Eddie Charlton at the British Open in 1992. Youâd sense that Jimmy is coming into form at just the right time as we start to move towards the business end of the season.
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If lisowski is ever going to win a tournament it has to be this one! Thereâs no one left of note in it!
Playing poorly.