Neal Foulds snooker column: Story of the season so far as new TV channel launches

Six tournaments, six different winners, 12 different finalists. It’s safe to say that it’s been quite the start to the snooker season.

I always think it illustrates the game is in good health when there is so much strong and healthy competition and that has certainly been the case in the last few weeks.

It’s been familiar faces doing the winning, with no shock winners as yet, but many of the top players are really starting to hit their straps now, while it was good to see Anthony McGill playing well again as he made the final of the British Open recently.

Funnily enough, two names we would usually expect to be among that list of winners – Ronnie O’Sullivan and Judd Trump – haven’t done so, but Ronnie stole in the show in Saudi Arabia, making two quite magnificent 147 maximum breaks in his semi-final win over Chris Wakelin, before playing his part in a terrific final with Neil Robertson.

I wouldn’t expect to see too much of Ronnie on these shores this season, he’s made that clear already, but that might suit him at the age he is now and his game looked in very good shape out in the Middle East.

He’s playing at this week’s Xi’an Grand Prix and was it interesting to see his fellow players voted him as the player of the month for August, despite him not having won anything. That ought to change before long, with so many opportunities coming up, and he's clearly playing well again after the struggles he endured last term.

I have similar thoughts about Judd, too, someone who is usually such a fast starter and always gives every event 100 per cent. He changed his cue recently, so I wouldn’t judge his early-season form too harshly.

Judd hasn’t actually won a tournament in 2025, with all of his winning last season done in late 2024, but just as with Ronnie, I have no doubt that he’ll be back, perhaps even this week, and those two are probably still the players to beat right now.

It’s not Xi’an for me this week, though, as I’ll be working on snooker’s new television channel, Pluto Snooker 900.

Jason Francis is the brains behind the idea and Ronnie has thrown his support behind the channel which will have a different theme each week, starting with the Legends League this week which features the likes of John Parrott and Tony Drago. Jimmy White and Ken Doherty are involved, too.

I really like the concept and think it will do good for snooker. Ultimately, it should be good fun and that’s what the game is really all about.

All the action will be available on Pluto TV. Alternatively, the App is well worth a download and allows you to watch on your mobile device.

I’m expecting Ken to be in good spirits after his shock win last week over the increasingly-impressive Stan Moody in qualifying for the International Championship.

I certainly didn’t see that one coming and I’m sure he won’t mind me saying that he certainly enjoyed himself when we were down in Cheltenham covering the British Open recently. Let's just say he was last to leave the bar most nights and certainly not the first on the practice table.

He’s been a remarkable player, Ken, but I know he’s gone on record since to say he thinks Stan can go all the way to the top. I’d agree with every bit of that, and Stan really has come on a bundle in the last 12 months. He looks a top-class prospect now.

We’ve been wondering when the next big thing would appear and of those six winners so far this season, only Xiao Guodong is under 40 years of age. Snooker always needs new blood, and hopefully Stan can be our man.

What I will say from watching a good bit of him now is that Stan clearly has a liking for the big stage and the TV cameras. That’s great, but it won’t always be that way and he's going to have to find a way to grind out results when he’s playing on the outside tables in a leisure centre somewhere with only one man and his dog watching.

Someone who doesn’t have to worry about that is reigning world champion Zhao Xintong, but he might be worried about his results having yet to trouble the judge since his crowning moment at the Crucible in the spring.

I always thought it would be difficult for Zhao in his first season as world champion. He’s not the first and he won’t be the last – Kyren Wilson might’ve bucked the trend last season, but more broadly, history tells us it is not an easy thing to deal with.

Zhao will have so much going on in his life that he wouldn't have had to consider 12 months ago and let’s not forget, this is actually his first season back on the tour having been banned prior to the World Championship.

I honestly don’t think he’s that far away and it’s worth remembering that he’s still made more century breaks than anyone else this season. He’s playing well, but he has a bounty on his head now and needs to tighten up a few areas in his game.

If I were in his shoes, I wouldn’t be worried one bit and with no ranking points to defend, it’s not beyond the realms the possibility that Zhao is world number one in a couple of years.

He’s still played some terrific snooker in the last couple of months, it’s just that he’s not the only one and there have been any number of in-form players battling it out for trophies every week.

And that’s just as it should be – with the game in rude health. These feel like exciting times for snooker and long may that continue.