Snooker is a cue sport that was first played by British Army officers stationed in India in the second half of the 19th century. It is played on a rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six pockets: one at each corner and one in the middle of each long side. Using a cue stick, the individual players or teams take turns to strike the white cue ball to pot the other twenty-one snooker balls in the correct sequence, accumulating points for each pot. An individual frame of snooker is won by the player who has scored the most points. A snooker match ends with one of the players having won a predetermined number of frames.
The Players Tour Championship was a series of snooker tournaments comprising some minor-ranking events played in Europe, and an Asian leg comprising some minor-ranking events in Asia. The series concluded with a Grand Final, where qualification was based on performance in the other PTC events, and had the status of a full ranking tournament. Each regular event lasted for at least three days, with qualifying days for amateurs should the event be oversubscribed. Each event costs £100 to enter, and Main Tour players can gain ranking points in the events.
The 2016–17 snooker season was a series of professional snooker tournaments played between 5 May 2016 and 1 May 2017.
The 2017 188BET Champion of Champions was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place between 6 and 12 November 2017 at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry, England.
The 2017 World Seniors Championship was an invitational senior snooker tournament, that took place at the Baths Hall in Scunthorpe, England, from 22 to 24 March 2017. Qualifying for the tournament was open to non-tour players, who were aged 40 and over on 1 January 2017.
The 2017–18 snooker season was a series of professional snooker tournaments played between 4 May 2017 and 7 May 2018. The season began with the pro–am Vienna Snooker Open in May 2017 and ended with the 2018 World Snooker Championship in April the following year. Ronnie O'Sullivan earned a joint-record five ranking titles in the season. He joined Stephen Hendry (1990/1991), Ding Junhui (2013/2014), and Mark Selby (2016/2017) in winning five ranking titles in the same season.
The 2017 SangSom Six-red World Championship was a six-red snooker invitational tournament held between 4 and 9 September 2017 at the Bangkok Convention Center in Bangkok, Thailand. The tournament was reduced from 48 players to 32.
The 2017 UK Championship was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place from 28 November to 10 December 2017 at the Barbican Centre in York, England. The event was the 41st edition of the UK Championship, first held in 1977, organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. It was the eleventh ranking and first Triple Crown event of the 2017/2018 season. The event saw 128 players compete, with no qualification round. The prize fund was a total of £850,000, with £170,000 received by the winner.
The 2018 World Seniors Championship was an invitational senior snooker tournament, taking place at the Baths Hall in Scunthorpe, England, from 21 to 24 March 2018. Qualifying for the tournament was open to non-tour players, aged 40 and over on 1 January 2018.
The 2018–19 snooker season was a series of professional snooker tournaments played between 10 May 2018 and 6 May 2019. The season was made up of ranking tournaments, non-ranking tournaments and variant tournaments. In total, 46 events were competed in the 2018–19 season, beginning with the pro–am 2018 Vienna Open, and ending with the 2019 World Snooker Championship.
The 2018 UK Seniors Championship was a senior snooker tournament, that took place at the Bonus Arena in Hull, England, from 24 to 25 October 2018. It was the first event of the 2018/2019 World Seniors Tour.
The 2019 World Seniors Championship was an invitational senior snooker tournament, that took place from 15 to 18 August 2019 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the first event of the 2019/20 World Seniors Tour. The event was the tenth World Seniors Championship, first held in 1991.
The 2019 Seniors Irish Masters was a senior snooker tournament that took place from 5 to 6 January 2019 at Goffs in Kill, County Kildare, Ireland. It was the second event on the 2018/2019 World Seniors Tour.
The 2019 Seniors Masters was a senior snooker tournament, that took place on 11 April 2019 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the fourth event on the 2018/2019 World Seniors Tour.
The 2019 Tour Championship was a professional snooker ranking tournament, held from 19 to 24 March 2019 in Llandudno, Wales. Organised by World Snooker, this was the first edition of the Tour Championship and the third and final event of the inaugural Coral Cup. It was the eighteenth ranking event of the 2018–19 snooker season.
The 2019–20 snooker season was a series of professional snooker tournaments played between 9 May 2019 and 22 August 2020. In total, 42 events were held during the season, which was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. 18 world ranking tournaments were planned to take place, but only 17 were played. An event was held in Austria, the first time in any snooker season, while the 2020 China Open was cancelled. The Tour Championship and the World Snooker Championship were postponed, and the Gibraltar Open played with no audience. The season contained 128 professional tour players, 35 of which had been given new two-year places on the tour from a combination of invitations and qualifying events.
The 2019 Champion of Champions was a professional snooker tournament that took place between 4 and 10 November 2019 at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry, England. It was the ninth Champion of Champions event, the first of which was held in 1978. The tournament featured 16 participants who had won World Snooker events throughout the prior snooker season. In 2019, the Women's World Champion competed at the tournament for the first time. As an invitational event, the Champion of Champions tournament carried no world ranking points.
The 2019 UK Seniors Championship was a seniors' snooker tournament, that took place at the Bonus Arena in Hull, England, from 24 to 25 October 2019. It was the second event of the 2019/2020 World Seniors Tour.
The 2020 Gibraltar Open was a professional snooker tournament, that took place from 13 to 15 March 2020 at the Europa Point Sports Complex in Gibraltar with qualifying rounds occurring on 11 and 12 March 2020. It was the fifteenth ranking event of the 2019–20 snooker season, and the final tournament in the European Series, following the German Masters, European Masters and Snooker Shoot Out. The event was the fifth Gibraltar Open tournament, first held in 2015. The event was organized by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association and sponsored by BetVictor. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, matches were originally limited to a maximum audience of 100. After the first day, all matches were played without any spectators. A number of professional players withdrew from the event, alongside 54 amateur players and a series of referees.
The 2020 Tour Championship was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 20 to 26 June 2020 at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes, England. Organised by the World Snooker Tour, it was the second edition of the Tour Championship and the third and final event of the second season of the Coral Cup. It was the 16th and penultimate ranking event of the 2019–20 snooker season following the Gibraltar Open and preceding the World Championship. The tournament was originally scheduled for 17 to 22 March 2020, but on the morning of 17 March the event was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Following advice from the UK government, it had been decided that no spectators would be permitted at the event.
Jimmy White 
Aaron Canavan
