This past weekend saw eight of snooker’s top male and female players compete in the World Mixed Doubles, with the hope of sparking more interest in the women’s game.
The World Mixed Doubles was broadcast to a large television audience around the world, shown in the UK on ITV4, and was snooker’s first televised mixed doubles event for 30 years. Competing in the showcase event was Ronnie O’Sullivan, Neil Robertson, Judd Trump, Mark Selby, Reanne Evans, Ng On Yee, Mink Nutcharut, and Rebecca Kenna.
Pairs were drawn in advance of the event, consisting of O’Sullivan and Evans, Robertson and Nutcharut, Selby and Kenna, and Trump and Yee. While the pairing of O’Sullivan and Evans, arguably the greatest man and woman to hold a cue with 19 world titles between them, it was the pair of Robertson and Nutcharut that went home with the trophy at Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes.
Nutcharut, 22, is one of the breakthrough stars of the women’s game and adds this title to her Women’s World Snooker Championship win in February. The hope is that the exposure that comes with playing side by side with four of the men’s names biggest names will be the catalyst to tempt more girls to give snooker a go.
Women’s Snooker Facts
In 2022, the World Women’s Snooker Tour (WWST) has over 170 players on its tour, with 30 countries represented. Four women are competing on the World Snooker Tour (WST) for the 2022/23 season.
The Women’s World Snooker Championship was first held in 1976 and has been mostly held on an annual basis. For six years, between 1998 and 2003, the semi-finals and finals were held concurrently with the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.
Reanne Evans is the most successful women’s player, winning 12 world titles including 10 in a row between 2005 and 2014. Evans became the first woman to compete at snooker’s Champion of Champions event in 2019 and was inducted into the Snooker Hall of Fame, along with seven-time world champion Allison Fisher, in 2022 for “outstanding contributions to the growth of snooker”.
Being Seen
For many fans, the World Mixed Double will have been their first real viewing of women’s players and what they are capable of. The women’s tour does not enjoy anywhere near the same level of exposure as the open professional tour and, with so few women ever participating on the WST, televised snooker has mostly been an all-male affair.
The event, it is hoped, will have been a catalyst in breaking down barriers and showing women and girls around the world that they, too, can play the sport. With players like Evans, On Yee, Nutcharut, and Kenna playing alongside four of the biggest names in snooker, this will have been the most exposure the women’s game has seen for many years – quite possibly ever.
Witnessing the growth of other women’s sports, such as football and cricket, has grown off the back of exposure. For example, the success of the Women’s Super League (WSL) has helped to improve attendance figures, career prospects and, with that, participation numbers – and the spike in interest coming off the back of England’s Women’s Euros win that was broadcast by the BBC.
Though snooker, men’s or women’s, won’t ever be on the same level as the national sport, making the game visible and smashing stereotypes is half the battle. If a girl had been thinking about picking up a cue but was unsure as she had never seen another girl or woman play, that will have changed with the World Mixed Doubles.
Progress
Progress has been made in growing women’s snooker, much of it thanks to the fantastic work of the WWST, but there is undoubtedly a lot more work to be done. The World Mixed Doubles has introduced four of the best women’s snooker players to a new audience and, with that, hopefully, new followers.
Like everyone else, we are excited to watch the continued growth of the women’s game – both at grassroots and professional levels.
