World Snooker & Rileys launch National Snooker Week - 27/04/2011
World Snooker is teaming up with Rileys Sports Bars to launch the first ever National Snooker Week.
The announcement was made at a press conference held by World Snooker's Barry Hearn and Rileys' Maurice Kelly during the 2011 Betfred.com World Championship at The Crucible in Sheffield.
National Snooker Week will run 25 - 29 July 2011, to coincide with the beginning of the school summer holidays, and it aims to get more people of all ages playing the sport.
Barry Hearn, chairman of World Snooker said: “We want to see the next Ronnie O’Sullivans and Stephen Hendrys coming through, and the best way to do that is to get more people into clubs and playing snooker. Rileys is the biggest and best chain of clubs and this is a marvellous way to get people involved. For anyone who loves the game, or anyone who has never played and wants to give it a try, make sure you take advantage of this offer. There has never been a better time to be a snooker player, with more tournaments and prize money going through the roof. There must be a lot of untapped talent out there and, alongside Rileys, we’ll find it.”
Throughout National Snooker Week Rileys will be offering free membership and free snooker to everyone of all ages before 6pm in any of their 115 Rileys Sports Bars across the UK. There will also be lots of activity planned for the week, including various events and competitions to win.
Maurice Kelly, CEO of Rileys clubs says: "Snooker is evolving and it's great that we're seeing different formats being introduced to broaden the appeal of the sport to a wider audience. The traditional game will always be popular amongst the fans, but the quicker, shorter formats appeal to the more universal sports fan. We've been in talks with Barry for a while about introducing a National Snooker Week, it's a sport that's accessible to everyone and we plan to work with World Snooker to bring the game back into the spotlight!"
Snooker is already growing in popularity amongst the younger population; last year Rileys together with Ronnie O'Sullivan launched the first of their 'Future Stars', a competition for under 16's to find the new star of snooker. This year's competition is even bigger, and the final is planned to take place during National Snooker Week.
Further details and announcements on National Snooker Week to be released.
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