Evans And Wongharuthai Among Shoot Out Wild Cards

Credit: World Snooker Tournament

Evans And Wongharuthai Among Shoot Out Wild Cards

Leading female players Reanne Evans and Nutcharut Wongharuthai are among the eight wild cards to be awarded places at the BetVictor Shoot Out to take place in Watford later this month.

The tournament has a unique format with all matches lasting a maximum of ten minutes within a single frame, with a shot clock of 15 seconds for the first five minutes and ten seconds for the last five.

In all there are 128 players in the field, including 118 professionals, eight wild cards and two from the Q School ranking list.

Evans won the Women’s World Championship for the 12th time last year and is top of the women’s world rankings. The 34-year-old played in the Shoot Out last year as well as the recent Champion of Champions where she ran Shaun Murphy close, losing 4-3.

Wongharuthai, age 20 from Thailand, was runner-up to Evans in last year’s world final and is currently ranked third. She also won the Australian Open last year and is the only female player to make a 147 in a practice match. The Shoot Out will be her first live televised match in the UK.

The other six wild cards selections, based in performance in the World Snooker Federation Open and the Challenge Tour, are:

Ashley Hugill. Age 25 from York. Won the recent World Snooker Federation Open.

Iulian Boiko. Age 14 from Ukraine. Runner-up at the recent World Snooker Federation Open.

Dean Young. Age 18 from Edinburgh. Won a Challenge Tour event this season and a former Scottish Under-21 Champion.

Sean Maddocks. Age 17 from Liverpool. Made a competitive 147 at the age of 15.

Aaron Hill. Age 17 from Cork. European Under-18 Champion in 2019 and a World Snooker Federation Open semi-finalist.

Robbie McGuigan. Age 15 from Antrim. Made his first 147 in practice aged just 13.

Leading pro players in the field will include five-time World Champion Ronnie O’Sullivan, who last played in the event in 2015, Mark Selby, Mark Williams, Shaun Murphy, Mark Allen, Stuart Bingham, Jimmy White and Thailand’s Thepchaiya Un-Nooh who won the title last year.