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New snooker ball introduced worth 20 points at tournament featuring Ronnie O'Sullivan

Home> News> Sport

Updated 13:33 19 Jan 2024 GMTPublished 13:30 19 Jan 2024 GMT

New snooker ball introduced worth 20 points at tournament featuring Ronnie O'Sullivan

Will it catch on? Probably not

Joe Harker

Joe Harker

For some reason a new snooker tournament set to be hosted in Saudi Arabia is due to introduce a new rule and put a new ball on the table.

While the rules of snooker seem to have been doing a perfectly good job for years the World Snooker Tour has announced that at an invitational event in Riyadh there will be a new rule for players to contend with.

Ronnie O'Sullivan, Judd Trump and Luca Brecel are among the players who will be heading off to compete and the twist at this tournament is that there will be up to 23 balls on the table this time.

Taking place in March, the Riyadh Season World Masters of Snooker will see the introduction of the 'Riyadh Season gold ball' which will be worth 20 points if a player manages to pot it.

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However, an extra rule states that you're not allowed to pot the gold ball until you've completed a maximum break of 147.

Bold new invention, or fixing something that was absolutely not broken?
X/@WeAreWST

At the moment we don't know whether the golden ball will be sitting on the table throughout the game like a shining monument to its own self-importance compared to the standard rules of snooker.

Nor do we know whether there would be any penalties for hitting the golden ball or accidentally potting it should the ball be on the table for the whole game.

Otherwise, the ball might be kept off the table unless and until a player completes a maximum break, with the ball then placed on the table for the player to get a chance to pot it and pick up 20 points.

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It's either going to sit there like a shiny golden annoyance that thinks it's too cool for you to play with, or it'll be a meaningless denouement to a frame already won by the snooker player who gets to pot it.

Ronnie O'Sullivan holds the record for the highest number of maximum breaks in competitions at 15, though he hasn't done it since 2018.

Ronnie O'Sullivan might have a chance to pot a golden ball in March.
Tai Chengzhe/VCG via Getty Images

As you can imagine this announcement has been received about as well as that one fan who got chucked out of the snooker for setting off a fart machine.

One fan called the rule change 'gimmicky' and another said they wished we'd 'stop f**king around with sports' that already work just fine.

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Someone else said 'snooker has s**t the bed', so it doesn't seem like a popular change.

Another snooker fan pointed out the problem that you can only pot the gold ball if you've already completed a maximum break, after which point you've already won the frame leaving them to wonder 'what's the point'.

Others lamented that snooker was 'selling its soul' while plenty said they wanted Jasper Carrott involved in some way.

Featured Image Credit: Richard Pelham/Getty/Getty Stock Image

Topics: Sport

Joe Harker
Joe Harker

Joe graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in Journalism and worked for Reach before joining the LADbible Group. When not writing he enjoys the nerdier things in life like painting wargaming miniatures and chatting with other nerds on the internet. He's also spent a few years coaching fencing. Contact him via [email protected]

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@MrJoeHarker

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