Neil Robertson is a big fan of the ever-growing Snooker 900 format, the Australian having emerged triumphantly at the Crucible Cup in Reading on Tuesday.
Robertson warmed up for the upcoming UK Championship with an appearance at the invitational series which is being run outside the World Snooker Tour.
The reigning Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters champion was one of eight players in a strong field that also included John Higgins, Mark Williams, and Mark Selby.
Barry Hawkins, Gary Wilson, and Xiao Guodong’s involvement meant that seven out of the top 16 players from the official world rankings were involved.
The other contender was none other than seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry, who was coaxed out of retirement for a one-off appearance.
Hendry managed to briefly roll back the years with a century break, but he could only muster a couple of frames in a 6-2 quarter-final defeat to Robertson.
The latter duly beat Selby in the semi-finals before pipping Higgins to glory in the final with a 7-5 scoreline to pocket the handsome top prize of £25,000.
The Snooker 900 format was showcased in recent years on the World Seniors Tour with the likes of Hendry, Ken Doherty, and Igor Figueiredo winning titles.
But World Seniors Tour supremo Jason Francis has recently taken the fast-paced variation to Pluto TV, with weekly events being staged in an effort to promote snooker at various levels away from the main tour.
The 900 translates to 900 seconds, or 15 minutes, which is the length of each frame. Shot clocks and other tweaks are also incorporated to keep things moving.
After playing in the Crucible Cup, champion Robertson was full of praise and suggested that it and other formats should be tested in the future.
“The ruleset for the 900 is the most fun I’ve had playing snooker,” Neil Robertson wrote on social media platform X.
“It forces players to play their natural game, and you don’t even notice the shot clock for the most part.”
“The rules in snooker haven’t changed for over 50 years and they need to evolve now. I’m not saying every rule, but there are three or four I would like to see trialed.”
The 43 year-old will next be in action at the UK Championship, the second-oldest ranking event on the calendar that makes it a tournament full of tradition and prestige.
It’s unlikely that events like the UK Championship will be adopting different formats any time soon, but other destinations on the schedule potentially could.
Robertson, meanwhile, is one of 16 seeds who have automatically qualified for the venue stages at the Barbican Centre in York.
The draw for the last 32, which begins on Saturday, takes place on Thursday afternoon with the seeds getting paired with the 16 qualifiers who emerge from Judgement Day in the preliminary competition.
