{"id":23211,"date":"2018-01-23T11:29:37","date_gmt":"2018-01-23T11:29:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/?p=23211"},"modified":"2018-01-23T11:29:37","modified_gmt":"2018-01-23T11:29:37","slug":"snooker-stars-return-cardiff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2018\/01\/23\/snooker-stars-return-cardiff\/","title":{"rendered":"Snooker stars return to Cardiff arena"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SNOOKER&#8217;S Welsh Open returns to the Motorpoint Arena this season, with the sport\u2019s leading cue kings heading to Cardiff.<br \/>\nThe world ranking tournament is one of the longest running on the snooker calendar, ever present since 1992. It has a rich history in South Wales and will now be staged at the Motorpoint Arena for the fourth consecutive year.<br \/>\nThis time it will run from <span data-term=\"goog_646382501\">February 26 to March 4<\/span> and tickets are on sale now.<br \/>\nStuart Bingham lifted the Ray Reardon Trophy last year after beating Judd Trump 9-8 in a dramatic final. Other winners in recent years include Ronnie O\u2019Sullivan, John Higgins, Ding Junhui, Mark Selby and Neil Robertson.<br \/>\nOnce again a stellar field of 128 of the sport\u2019s top players will battle for the title.<br \/>\nThe Welsh Open, televised live by Eurosport, is the fourth and last of the season\u2019s Home Nations series and carries a top prize of \u00a370,000.<br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_23212\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-23212\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-23212\" src=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/01\/Ryan-Day-1024x680.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"638\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/01\/Ryan-Day-1024x680.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/01\/Ryan-Day-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/01\/Ryan-Day-770x511.jpg 770w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/01\/Ryan-Day-1536x1020.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/01\/Ryan-Day-2048x1360.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/01\/Ryan-Day-500x332.jpg 500w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/01\/Ryan-Day-370x247.jpg 370w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/01\/Ryan-Day-293x195.jpg 293w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/01\/Ryan-Day-1400x930.jpg 1400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-23212\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-23212\" src=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/01\/Ryan-Day-1024x680.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"638\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/01\/Ryan-Day-1024x680.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/01\/Ryan-Day-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/01\/Ryan-Day-770x511.jpg 770w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/01\/Ryan-Day-1536x1020.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/01\/Ryan-Day-2048x1360.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/01\/Ryan-Day-500x332.jpg 500w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/01\/Ryan-Day-370x247.jpg 370w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/01\/Ryan-Day-293x195.jpg 293w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/01\/Ryan-Day-1400x930.jpg 1400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/noscript> Welsh snooker player Ryan Day will head into the Open as a ranking event champion after winning the Riga Masters in June<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nWelshman Ryan Day is particularly looking forward to the event as this season he will head to Cardiff as a ranking event champion for the first time, having landed his maiden title at the Riga Masters.<br \/>\n\u201cI always look forward to the Welsh Open and it will be extra special for me this time with a title under my belt,\u201d said Bridgend\u2019s Day.<br \/>\n\u201cIt was a massive relief for me to win my first tournament because I had lost in a few finals before, I am getting older and I knew it was only going to get harder for me to get a trophy.<br \/>\n\u201cSince the Welsh Open moved to Cardiff it seems to have been really well supported, whether it\u2019s a <span data-term=\"goog_646382502\">10am<\/span> session on a <span data-term=\"goog_646382503\">Monday\u00a0<\/span>morning or Ronnie O\u2019Sullivan playing on a <span data-term=\"goog_646382504\">Friday<\/span> night. The fans love it and hopefully this time the Welsh players can do better than we have done in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Book tickets now by calling 029 2022 44 88 or visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.worldsnooker.com\/tickets\">here.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SNOOKER&#8217;S Welsh Open returns to the Motorpoint Arena this season, with the sport\u2019s leading cue kings heading to Cardiff. The world ranking tournament is one of the longest running on the snooker calendar, ever present since 1992. It has a rich history in South Wales and will now be staged at the Motorpoint Arena for the fourth consecutive year. This time it will run from February 26 to March 4 and tickets are on sale now. Stuart Bingham lifted the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":23214,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[579,113],"tags":[578,3404,580,581],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-23211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-snooker","category-uncategorised","tag-motorpoint-arena","tag-ryan-day","tag-snooker-2","tag-welsh-open"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Snooker stars return to Cardiff arena - The Cardiffian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2018\/01\/23\/snooker-stars-return-cardiff\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Snooker stars return to Cardiff arena - The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"SNOOKER&#8217;S Welsh Open returns to the Motorpoint Arena this season, with the sport\u2019s leading cue kings heading to Cardiff. The world ranking tournament is one of the longest running on the snooker calendar, ever present since 1992. It has a rich history in South Wales and will now be staged at the Motorpoint Arena for the fourth consecutive year. This time it will run from February 26 to March 4 and tickets are on sale now. 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