Premier League Snooker returns on Sky Sports

August 4, 2011   ·   0 Comments

The 2011 PartyCasino.com Premier League Snooker tournament returns on Thursday 18 August at the Embassy Theatre, Skegness live on Sky Sports HD1. 

World Champion John Higgins and People’s Champion Jimmy White get proceedings underway with the winner playing either Neil Robertson or Matthew Stevens in the evening’s final match.

The following fixture on Thursday 1 September sees the debut of defending champion Ronnie O’Sullivan as he takes on Shaun Murphy. The winner then faces either Mark Williams or Jimmy White.

With ten players in the PartyCasino.com Premier League, each player competes on four nights only. With three matches per evening – two semi-finals followed by the final – each match is the best of five frames with no dead frames played.

In the event of a match reaching two frames each, the decider will be played to the rules of the hugely successful ‘Shoot-Out’ tournament, which means a maximum of ten minutes, a 20 second shot-clock for the first five minutes and then 15 seconds for the remaining five.

Points will be awarded for frames won; therefore the maximum number of points a player can gain are six in one evening and 24 over the whole qualifying section of the Premier League.

Matchroom Sport Chairman Barry Hearn said : “Last season was a watershed year for snooker and one of the consequences has been the incredible standard of play, and the number of players now operating at the very highest level of the sport,” he said.

“With the Premier League moving forward with an expanded field, it seemed only right to invite the winners of every major championship last season.”

The complete field is: Ronnie O’Sullivan (defending champion), John Higgins (World champion), Ding Junhui (Masters champion), Mark Williams (German Masters champion), Ali Carter (Shanghai Masters champion), Judd Trump (China Open champion), Neil Robertson (World Open champion), Shaun Murphy (PTC Finals champion), Matthew Stevens (Championship League winner) and Jimmy White (World Seniors champion).

Full coverage of matches will be shown live on Thursday nights on Sky Sports.

The 2011 PartyCasino.com Premier League Snooker Schedule

Thursday 18th August Embassy Theatre, Skegness
John Higgins v Jimmy White
Neil Robertson v Matthew Stevens

Thursday 1st September Guildford Spectrum
Jimmy White v Mark Williams
Ronnie O’Sullivan v Shaun Murphy

Thursday 22nd September Ravenscraig Sports Facility, Motherwell
John Higgins v Neil Robertson
Ding Junhui v Shaun Murphy

Thursday 29th September The Dome, Doncaster
Ronnie O’Sullivan v Matthew Stevens
Ding Junhui v Ali Carter

Thursday 6th October Hutton Moor Leisure Centre, Weston-Super-Mare
Mark Williams v Judd Trump
John Higgins v Matthew Stevens

Thursday 13th October Biddulph Valley Leisure Centre, Stoke
Mark Williams v Ali Carter
Jimmy White v Ding Junhui

Thursday 20th October Riverside Leisure Centre, Exeter
Ali Carter v Judd Trump
Shaun Murphy v Neil Robertson

Thursday 3rd November Guildhall, Southampton
Ronnie O’Sullivan v Judd Trump
Neil Robertson v Ding Junhui

Thursday 10th November Spiceball Leisure Centre, Banbury
John Higgins v Ali Carter
Mark Williams v Matthew Stevens

Thursday 17th November Grimsby Auditorium
Judd Trump v Shaun Murphy
Ronnie O’Sullivan v Jimmy White

Saturday 26th November Potters Leisure Resort, Hopton-on-Sea
Semi-Final 1
Semi-Final 2

Sunday 27th November Potters Leisure Resort, Hopton-on-Sea
The Final

All evenings commence at 7.30pm

Tags: Barry Hearn, Jimmy White, John Higgins, Judd Trump, Premier League Snooker, Ronnie O'Sullivan