Stan Moody beats Gary Wilson 5-4 to win Snooker 900 Professionals Week title in Reading

Stan Moody won the Snooker 900 Professionals Week on Wednesday night (7 Oct), beating Gary Wilson 5-4 in the final at the Crucible Sports and Social Club in Reading. The 20-year-old from Halifax came through a three-day round-robin that also included Jimmy White, Matthew Stevens, Ryan Day and Reanne Evans.

The event was played under the Snooker 900 rules, a faster version of the game where every frame has a time limit and every shot is on a clock. It was shown live on the Pluto TV Snooker 900 channel.

What is Snooker 900?

Snooker 900 is named after its 900-second limit: each frame lasts no more than 15 minutes. If the clock runs out first, the player with more points wins the frame, and a frame tied on points at the buzzer goes to a tiebreak on the blue.

Players also get only 20 seconds for each shot. Every shot must either pot a ball or send a ball into a cushion, otherwise it is a foul, and after a foul the incoming player can place the cue ball anywhere on the table.

The format was created by Jason Francis, the promoter behind World Seniors Snooker, and is an extended version of the Snooker Shoot Out, which uses ten-minute frames. The first event was at Epsom Racecourse on 29 December 2023, where Stephen Hendry beat White in the final.

How the week unfolded

The six players met each other once in best-of-five matches across Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, giving 15 matches in total. Players earned a point for each frame won plus a bonus point for each century break, so heavy scoring could make a difference.

Wilson and Moody both finished the group on 16 points. Wilson took top spot because he made the highest break of the round-robin, a 131, while Moody's best was 118. The two then met in a best-of-nine final, which Moody edged 5-4.

White, the 64-year-old six-time World Championship runner-up, did not reach the final this time, despite winning the format's Champions Week in March when he beat Evans 5-3.

Moody's next steps on the main tour

Moody broke through as a teenager and has become one of the most talked-about young players on the World Snooker Tour. He did not qualify for the Northern Ireland Open, which runs in Belfast from 18 to 25 October, so his next ranking event is the International Championship in China in early November.

The wider tour is also heading into a key stretch. The Northern Ireland Open and the International Championship are the last two events that count towards the top-16 seedings for the UK Championship in York (28 November to 6 December). Thailand's Thepchaiya Un-Nooh is 21st in the provisional list, so he would need a strong run in those two events to move into the top 16 and avoid the qualifiers.

Why the format matters

Shot clocks and time-limited frames are designed to make snooker quicker and more TV-friendly, especially for short streaming slots. For fans in Malaysia following snooker online, the 15-minute frames make matches easy to catch up on.

Key takeaways

• Stan Moody beat Gary Wilson 5-4 in the Snooker 900 Professionals Week final in Reading on 7 October.
• Moody and Wilson both scored 16 points in the round-robin, with Wilson top on highest break (131).
• Snooker 900 uses 15-minute frames, a 20-second shot clock and a pot-or-cushion rule.
• Moody's next ranking event is the International Championship in early November.

FAQ Who played in the Snooker 900 Professionals Week? Stan Moody, Gary Wilson, Jimmy White, Matthew Stevens, Ryan Day and Reanne Evans. How long is a frame in Snooker 900? Up to 900 seconds, or 15 minutes. If time runs out, the player ahead on points wins. Where can fans watch Snooker 900? Matches are streamed on the Pluto TV Snooker 900 channel, through its app or website.

Sources: SnookerHQ, Totally Snookered, Wikipedia