Cue Sports Weekly - Snooker's New World Order Gets Stress-Tested

It's been a pressure cooker of a week on the circuit. Seven days ago we crowned two new world number ones. This week, both of them found out exactly what that ranking is worth.

Zhao Xintong, fresh off reclaiming top spot, crashed out early at the English Open. It's a good reminder that the number next to your name doesn't buy you safety once you're in best-of-7 territory — the ranking list means nothing when you're 3-3 and it's winner-take-all.

Chang Bingyu was the headline of last week's piece, and he followed up his giant-killing form in Wuhan with a gritty 4-3 loss to Kyren Wilson. Not quite the fairytale continuation everyone was hoping for. But it wasn't a capitulation either — it was the kind of narrow loss that tells you his new ceiling isn't a fluke.

Meanwhile, the established elite have just been quietly doing what the elite do. Judd Trump looks sharp and unbothered, like always. Mark Selby is grinding opponents into dust, which is basically his brand at this point. Barry Hawkins, Shaun Murphy, Ding Junhui, and Kyren Wilson all advanced with the kind of controlled, professional wins that don't make headlines but win tournaments.

The English Open quarter-finals land today, and the field is stacked with players who know exactly how to close out a ranking title. The turbulence this week has been happening around the top names, not to them — which might be the more interesting story.

Global Cue Sports — Morocco Hosts the Reds & Yellows World Stage

Morocco is stepping into the spotlight this month, hosting the World English Pool Championship in Marrakech from 17-28 September. This is the biggest international event on the calendar for the classic reds-and-yellows rule set — the same format Kiwi players compete in under WEPF and EPA structures back home.

The event covers pretty much every division you'd want: Men's, Ladies', U23, O50, O60, Juniors, Doubles, Singles, and full national team shootouts. Morocco has been pushing hard on the promotional side too, especially around their women's national squad, which is great to see.

Oceania federations regularly send players to African and Middle Eastern events, so it's entirely plausible there are Kiwi competitors heading to Marrakech this month. No official roster has been published yet though, so I'll hold off on names until that's confirmed.

Either way, it's a good reminder that cue sports culture is bigger than the UK-China axis we tend to focus on week to week.

British Open — Liam Highfield's Breakthrough

One of the best stories of the week comes out of the British Open, where Liam Highfield reached his first-ever ranking semi-final.

His run included three centuries, ten 50+ breaks, and a composed 5-2 win over Stan Moody. It's a level of confidence and clarity we haven't seen from him in years. He now faces Mark Selby for a place in the final — a brutal assignment on paper, but exactly the kind of match that can redefine a career if it goes his way.

It's a nice contrast to the "new world number ones" narrative dominating the rest of the week. While the top of the sport reshuffles, players like Highfield are quietly breaking through underneath it.

Weekly Pool Drill — "The Baulk Fan"

Anchor the cue ball at the centre of the D, dead on the baulk line. Set out three object balls, each one sitting exactly on the straight line between your cue ball and a different pocket — one toward the top-right corner, one toward the bottom-right corner, one toward the bottom side pocket.

Pot ball one into the top-right corner with a firm draw shot, pulling the cue ball back down the same line to your starting spot on the D. Reset your aim, pot ball two into the bottom-right corner the same way, then ball three into the bottom side. Because every shot is dead straight, there's no cut angle to fight — this isolates pure draw control and straight potting, which is the skill you actually need before cuts start making sense.

Run it 10 times. A clean run is all three balls potted with the cue ball returning within a cue-tip's width of the starting spot each time. 6/10 clean runs is a strong result.

Looking Ahead

A few dates worth circling before next week's edition. The English Open final lands this Sunday, 13 September — which also happens to be when Northern Ireland Open qualifiers get underway, so it's a genuinely stacked weekend for anyone trying to follow both.

Then the calendar shifts south. The World English Pool Championship kicks off in Marrakech on 17 September and runs through to the 28th, so we'll have a fortnight of Morocco coverage to work with — hopefully with a confirmed look at who's actually making the trip from this part of the world by then.

And by late September, the circuit swings back to China for the next leg of the snooker season. Busy few weeks ahead.

If your own club's running anything alongside the Northern Ireland Open qualifiers, our Pool & Snooker Tournament Draw Maker will sort your bracket in about thirty seconds flat. And if the foul rules ever spark an argument at your table, the Snooker Free Ball & Foul Explainer settles most of them. See you next week.