World Snooker names wild cards

Eurosport - Thu, 18 Jun 17:37:00 2009

World Snooker has handed Ian Preece, Andrew Norman, David Gray and Joe Jogia wild card places onto the pro tour for the 2009/2010 season.

David Gray, SNOOKER - 0

Preece, Norman and Gray were awarded their places for being the best placed players on the one year ranking list not to have qualified for the tour while Jogia was rewarded for finishing top of the PIOS standings.

Leicester potter Jogia would normally have been guaranteed a spot due to finishing in the top eight of the PIOS but could not take up his position via that route as he was not a member of his national association which was a PIOS requirement for taking a tour spot.

His wild card means that there is also a place on tour for Chris Norbury who finished ninth in the PIOS standings.

Gray (pictured) had risked being the highest profile player to drop off the tour. A former ranking event winner (2003 Scottish Open) the Englishman had once been ranked as high as 12th in the world.

There is traditionally only one wild card awarded by the sports governing body but three extra places became available this year due to European U19 champion Luca Brecel being too young to take his place; Oceania champion Glen Wilkinson declining his nomination; and the World U21 championships not taking place.

The 96 players who will compete on the main tour next year are:

Ronnie O'Sullivan

Stephen Maguire

Shaun Murphy

John Higgins

Allister Carter

Ryan Day

Mark Selby

Marco Fu

Neil Robertson

Stephen Hendry

Mark Allen

Joe Perry

Ding Junhui

Peter Ebdon

Mark Williams

Mark King

Barry Hawkins

Jamie Cope

Dave Harold

Ricky Walden

Stuart Bingham

Joe Swail

Steve Davis

Michael Holt

Stephen Lee

Matthew Stevens

Liang Wenbo

Graeme Dott

Nigel Bond

Judd Trump

Fergal O'Brien

Gerard Greene

Anthony Hamilton

Dominic Dale

Ian McCulloch

Michael Judge

Stuart Pettman

Mike Dunn

Rory McLeod

Jamie Burnett

Alan McManus

Adrian Gunnell

Andrew Higginson

Ken Doherty

Marcus Campbell

Martin Gould

Mark Davis

Jimmy Michie

Tom Ford

Andy Hicks

David Brown Gilbert

Barry Pinches

John Parrott

Paul Davies

Robert Milkins

Jimmy White

Mark Joyce

David Morris

Liu Song

Jin Long

Rod Lawler

David Roe

Joe Delaney

Peter Lines

Matthew Selt

Matthew Couch

Lee Spick

Daniel Wells

Li Hang

Simon Bedford

Patrick Wallace

Atthasit Mahitthi

Xiao Guodong

Lee Page

Bjorn Haneever

Stephen Rowlings

Ben Woollaston

Noppadol Sangnil

Craig Steadman

Chris Norbury

Thepchaiya Un Nooh

Tony Drago

David Hogan

Jimmy Robertson

Sam Baird

Jordan Brown

James Wattana

Mei Xiwen

Zhang Anda

Mark Boyle

Michael White

Brendan O'Donoghue

Ian Preece

Andrew Norman

David Gray

Joe Jogia

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Comment 1 - 2 of 2

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  1. give jimmy white wild card for every competetion my­ hero

    From williamstamps58, on Sat 27 Jun 12:20AM
  2. should give the wild card to tony drago and jimmy­ white you need them to bright up snooker because has­ become boring from alberto tooting

    From RUE, on Fri 26 Jun 9:59AM
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