Ebdon Brushes Aside Dale But Is Unhappy With Short Format
Peter Ebdon won his first round match against Wales' Dominic Dale and then revealed he has made a formal complaint to World Snooker about the format of the Wyldecrest Parks Welsh Open this week.
Ebdon brushed aside Dale by four-frames-to-two and then grabbed a brush and began to rub-down the cloth on the table.
And his win has just about secured his place in the top 16 on the world ranking list - and with it a place in the Betfred.com World Championship at The Crucible for a 20th consecutive season.
Ebdon believes the best-of-seven frame format at the Welsh Open is wrong and that game should have a usual mid-session interval after four frames which gives the table fitters a chance to brush it down.
So he asked for a brush to be placed by his chair before his match with Dale so he could rub it down himself but, because it would not be politically correct for a player to be seen on television doing this job, World Snooker declined.
But, when the cameras were off, he was there running the brush from one end of the table to the other for a few minutes.
And he explained: "I don't necessarily agree with the best-of-seven format because, after four frames, the table does need to be brushed.
"But I have made a formal complaint to World Snooker about the lack of an interval and the fact that tables will not be brushed.
"It's of huge importance. Players have been used to playing in best-of-sevens in the PTCs (Players Tour Championship) but I'm disappointed that the format has been shortened for a ranking event like this."
So does Ebdon expect World Snooker to take any action? "No," he added. "Nothing will be done.
"From a player's point of view, I think it is absolutely vital that the table is in the best of conditions all of the time. Simply, there are chalk marks and finger marks on the table during a game that significantly increases the chance of getting bad bounces off the cushions and kicks."
Ebdon won the opener before Dale made the highest break of the event so far, a superb 139 before taking the lead in the next. Ebdon showed his class by producing breks of 115, 95 and 63 to deny Wales a fourth victory this week after Mark Williams, Ryan Day and Matthew Stevens all won on Monday.
But the 2002 world champ praised the former Neath man who now lives in Austria. "He's a tremendous player and played really well. He has played so well and just missed a couple of balls. That is surprising he didn't win, really. Any other day, he would have won 4-1 at least."
