Kilkenny’s snooker star Davy Morris is about to set the TV screens alight with the new Sky coverage of snooker tournaments.
Davy who is currently in San Francisco enjoying some well deserved rest before the new season kicks off has a very busy year ahead of him. The Kilkenny Advertiser caught up with Davy Morris senior to find out more about the new season ahead, “This year Professional Snooker is going to see "dramatic changes" according to the new Chairman Barry Hearn, he has introduced a number of new tournaments (11 new events ) plus one frame shoot outs to be screened on Sky.” According to Davy senior this will be a very busy time for young Davy, “in order to bring new faces to the events Hearn has allowed 32 amateurs to qualify to take part in some professional events. He has also introduced a new ranking points system to reward the players who are performing well in events. This means that you have the chance to move the rankings quickly, thus starting in the latter rounds. Some events will have open draws (no seeding ) — quite a number of events will be played at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield.”
For Davy (21 ) this means a far busier schedule with more travel and costs. The month of August will kick off the season for Davy with the following — Shanghai Master Qualifiers 2-5 August- Sheffield. Xing Pai Players Tour 3 Championship 6 - 8 August - Sheffield. Xing Pai Players Tour 4 Championship 14 - 16 August - Sheffield. World Open 21 - 24 August - Sheffield. The end of August will see him participate in the Euro Players Tour Championship 1 in Fuerth Germany.
However before all that Davy will play Joe Swail in Cellbridge at the end of this month in the Lucan Racing Pro Event in which all the Top Irish Professionals play, — Ken Doherty, Fergal O’Brien, Joe Delaney, Michael Judge and all the greats and Davy is part of this elite group. Davy won that event in 2007, so he will be hoping for a repeat this year.
Over the following months Davy will see trips to Prague, Bruges, Belgium as well as Russelsheim, Offenburg, Hamm, Berlin and of course Manchester, Glasgow, London, China and the Crucible Sheffield.
Most of these tournaments will be broadcasted on TV as Barry Hearn has promised more TV events with Sky Sports, Eurosport, BBC among the TV stations already signed up which will see interesting times for the sport.
Snooker is also set to clean up any doubts about betting scandals by using the independent Sport Resolutions UK. It is completely independent of the WPBSA. Like most young sports stars a sponsor is necessary to cover expense and travel this is no different for Davy who for the last four years was kindly sponsored by the O’Neill family of Kilkenny Citroen Centre. Davy is currently looking for new sponsors for the coming season for individual events or a main sponsor — if you would like to play a part in Davy’s career contact 0861617634.
So with a busy season in prospect, Davy will be putting in quite a bit of practice time to be ready for the competition he faces in his bid to improve his World Ranking and we wish him the very best of luck.
