53 cueists for yearlong Swan City Snooker Cup

SIBU: A total of 53 players will be vying for Swan City Snooker Cup, which begins on July 7 at Centre Point Snooker Centre here.

Tournament initiator Mark Yeo said the five-leg tournament would have matches staggered over a year and to be held at five snooker centres. “We are happy that about 10 players are new faces and this will go a long way to help promote the game here,” he added.

The second leg will be held at Executive 3 Snooker Centre in October, followed by the third-leg at Lucky 7 in January 2018, fourthleg at First Class Snooker Centre in April 2018 and the final leg at Cueball Centre in July 2018.

“This is another chance for local snooker enthusiasts to come together and pit their skills and hopefully, unearth more potential players in the sport,” Yeo added.

All the participating outlets will offer the same prize money for the five legs with the champion to take home RM1,000, first runner- up ( RM500), semi- finalists ( RM250 each), and quarter- f inalists ( RM100 each).

“There will also be an additional carrot of RM300 for the players achieving the highest break with a minimum 50 points per cue,” Yeo added.

The competition will be played on a single knock- out basis.

A keen promoter of snooker, Yeo said: “Someone needs to do something to ensure that the love and passion for the sport remains intact and the only way to move forward is to come up with more local tournaments to attract more players to the sport.”

Yeo said it is not easy to motivate all the participating centres to cooperate but persistence and perseverance have finally paid off.