The Irish Snooker Open, which had its inaugural staging at the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght last week, has a decidedly bright future. This was yesterday's view by Ray Reardon, vice-chairman of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA), which put up the prize fund of £305,000.
Reardon's colleagues on the WPBSA also responded warmly to an event which was put together in a decidedly rushed manner. But the future of Ireland's first world-ranking tournament could hinge on developments tomorrow at the annual general meeting of the game's governing body.
"All things considered, I think it has gone extremely well," said Reardon, who was six times world champion before joining the administrative side of the game. "Ireland needed this tournament and I would like to see it claiming a permanent place in our fixture calendar."
He went on: "Ideally, it would be at a more favourable time and with the support of a sponsor, but as a first effort, I am very happy with what has been done this week." Live television coverage, which was absent last week, would be a crucial factor in that context.
Tournament co-ordinator Kevin Norton will be quickly into action in the New Year with a view to setting up the 1999 event. "There are a number of options to be considered and the WPBSA are anxious that we should get working as quickly as possible," he said last night.
Though the Basketball Arena worked well in terms of the actual playing area, it lacked the ancillary facilities which are so important to an event of this nature. A dearth of top-quality venues in the Dublin area, however, was reflected in the fact that prior to finalising arrangements for Tallaght, the only option open to the organisers was a move to Millstreet.
Meanwhile, internal strife within the WPBSA seems certain to come to a head tomorrow. Essentially it has to do with those who support the current chairman, Rex Williams, and those who trenchantly oppose him.
Former world champions Steve Davis, Dennis Taylor and Terry Griffiths are putting themselves forward for board places. This is against a backdrop of accusations that some of the game's leading sponsors have been ill-treated by existing officials.
Ian Doyle, who manages six-times world champion Stephen Hendry and last Sunday's Irish Open winner Mark Williams, among others, is a particularly vocal critic of the game's establishment. And to lend strength to that criticism, he draws a revealing comparison between the prize-money in snooker and professional golf over the last 14 years.
"In 1985, when the PGA European Tour were playing for prize money of £3.4 million, the figure for snooker was £4.2 million," said Doyle yesterday. "Now, the golfers are playing for more than £30 million while the figure for snooker this season is £5.25 million."
Doyle concluded: "I'm not saying we should be keeping pace with tournament golf. But those figures suggest to me that there is something radically wrong with our current set-up." The agm promises to be quite interesting, not least for its impact on the future of the Irish Open.
Jimmy White, who has dropped out of the World's top 16, has been handed a wild card to compete in the Benson and Hedges Masters at Wembley in February. He won the tournament in 1984.
