It was a very difficult weekend for everyone involved at the recent British Open that took place in York.

Following significant snowfall overnight on the Saturday evening, and extremely hazardous travelling conditions, the decision was made to cancel Sunday’s play, and subsequently the entire tournament.

Our reasoning behind this decision was based on the following factors.

• The health and safety of all participants
• Predicted further weather conditions.
• Messages received from players who could not make it to the venue, either physically or felt unsafe to travel.
• Time constraints on re-signing players in who were already at the venue and subsequent workload to rejig the draws for the 3 tier knockout rounds to follow, thus making a later finish possible and these players then having to travel home in the dark with already dangerous conditions.
• Lack of sufficient players to fulfil marking duties.

Following a meeting between the SMPT directors, the following has been decided.

Order of Merit

All points accumulated from Saturday’s matches will be added to players Order of Merit totals.

World Rankings

Unlike the Order of Merit, points are dropped in the World Rankings as it’s a rolling 12 event ranking system. As this is the case, the recent British Open will not be included in the World Rankings, as the maximum points any player could accumulate was 12, and not a true reflection on potential points that could be gained as in other events. Most players would be dropping significant points. As not all group games were completed, and changes to standings within the groups could have changed, we believe this to be the fairest solution.

The World Rankings will stand as they are and continue with the next event which is the English Masters in February.

Link to how the World Rankings works – https://shortmatplayerstour.com/ran…/world-rankings-works/

Player entry fee refunds

An email with details has been sent to all the players who took part this weekend.

Raffle

As the raffle was not drawn at the event, we have decided that all proceeds from this will be donated to a chosen charity.

Finally our sincere thanks to everyone involved for your understanding and patience, on what was a difficult day for everyone. We have taken on board comments and feedback that we have received and had time to look back at anything we could have done differently. Lessons will be learnt and protocols implemented for future events.

We look forward to welcoming players to our next event, the English Masters, in February.

The SMPT Team