Four Welsh potters were forced to play their first match at the World Open without their own cue today.
Jamie Jones, Matthew Stevens, Ryan Day and Michael White all landed in Yushan ready to compete in the fifth ranking event of the season, but were left without their snooker cues after the airline they flew with accidentally misplaced them.
It was no surprise to see their performance massively affected. Jones, Stevens and White were all knocked out, winning just two frames between them.
White’s defeat was perhaps the most shocking as he suffered a 5-1 loss to an amateur wildcard entry Ma Bing. Jones suffered the same scoreline defeat to Robert Milkins while Stevens suffered a whitewash to fellow Welshman Mark Williams.
Despite the implications these results will have on their season, Jones managed to find the funny side of mishap. He tweeted later in the day: “Cue and case arrived. Only trouble is I’m on my way home with it. Nice to have a clean pair of pants tho.”
This came after he put a plea out on social media to any other players willing to lend him a suit to wear for his match.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom for the cueless quartet. Day managed to continue his good form this season, which has seen him win a maiden ranking event title, to beat Gary Wilson 5-1.
Amidst the chaos on the opening day of the tournament, a handful of people have chosen to bemoan the snooker calendar and its packed schedule at this time of year, allowing this kind of scenario to arise.
But the reality of the situation it that the issue was caused by the inefficiency of a third-party airline company, of which World Snooker has no control over. Most people will be pleased to have so many tournaments being hosted to vastly increase their earning power.
