News

We’ve had another great season on the Tour that was unfortunately brought to an abrupt but sensible end.

Reflecting back over the season however, has given us more great memories and sporting excitement.

We’ve asked you, the players, to take a look at the achievements of a selected few and vote for your player of the season. Our shortlist of seven players, Alex Kley, Benny Sjogren, Gary McNabb, Jonas Hager, Jonathan Payne, Mark Beattie & Nathan Haire, was compiled by the SMPT directors and we’ve been counting your top three selections over the last 8 weeks or so. Congratulations to all who were selected and as announced earlier this week your votes narrowed it down to our three finalists, Mark, Alex & Gary.

The SMPT have been monitoring the ongoing outbreak of Covid-19 and the responses from respective Governments & health agencies.

We have been holding regular online meetings with our team and discussions with venues, sponsors and players to see whether a viable season could be staged in 2020/21.

Having weighed up all the options, including key information given to us by several of our venues, and with the likelihood that recovery from this pandemic will be a slow process, it is with a heavy heart that we feel it only prudent to cancel all events for the 2020-21 season. These include the six ranking singles events (UK Open. Irish Open, Norwegian Open, British Open, English Masters, World Masters) plus our team competitions (World Cup, World Fours Masters, World Pairs Masters, Belfast Open).

It’s that time of the year when we ask you to pick your most deserving player of the last twelve months on the Tour. The season has sadly been cut short for all of us, but we still look at all the positives from another incredible season. We have a shortlist of seven players, selected by the SMPT team, for you to choose from, one Belgian, one Englishman, two Swedes, and three from Ireland. Who will be your 2019/20 players player of the season?

Following the measures adopted by most countries in the wake of the continued spread of Covid-19, it has been decided that entries to all SMPT events for 2020/21 will be suspended until further notice.

We wish to reiterate that ALL our events are still scheduled for their existing dates at present but felt it prudent that no guarantees should be made at this time and that this situation should be monitored on an ongoing basis.

The SMPT have been monitoring the outbreak of coronavirus and the responses from respective Governments & health agencies.

In light of the of the World Health Organisations decision to upgrade the Covid-19 virus to a global pandemic and with the UK Government’s Chief Medical Officer’s timelines for the virus to reach its projected peak in the UK around the time of Belfast events we feel we have no other choice but to cancel the Belfast Open & World Masters on the 17th-19th April 2020.

The SMPT are closely monitoring the outbreak of coronavirus and any impact this might have on the running of the Belfast Open & World Masters in Belfast on 17-19th of April.

Alex Kley claims the 2020 English Masters after beating Lawrence Moffat 15-3 in the final. It’s Alex’s second title after claiming the 2018 UK Open.

Joe Beattie & Sibe Laureys take home bronze medals while Stephen McAlister wins the Plate from Andrew Jones and Sam Moore beats Martin Watts in the Shield.

It’s the fifth World ranking event of the season and there is everything to play for! We’ve got 42 of the World’s top 50 ranked players entered, so we’re in for a cracker. We’ve selected some great matches to play on the Show Mat, some of which will be broadcast live. We will, as always, bring you live, end by end scores of every show mat game and updates on all matches via our dedicated live feed page on our website. Sunday morning’s Show Mat line up will be announced on the Saturday evening via our Facebook page.

The draw for the 2020 English Masters has now taken place. You can see the draw here.