The 2015 Shoot Out (officially the 2015 Betway Snooker Shoot Out) was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place between 4–6 March 2015 at the Circus Arena in Blackpool. It was played under a variation of the standard rules of snooker.
Dominic Dale was the defending champion, but he lost 20–65 against Luca Brecel in round one.
Michael White won his first professional title by defeating Xiao Guodong 54–48 in the final.
Tournament format The tournament was played using a variation of the traditional snooker rules. The draw was randomised before each round. All matches were played over a single , each of which lasted up to 10 minutes. The event featured a variable ; shots played in the first five minutes were allowed 15 seconds while the final five had a 10-second timer. All awarded the opponent a . Unlike traditional snooker, if a ball did not hit a on every shot, it was a foul. Rather than a coin toss, a lag was used to choose which player . In the event of a draw, each player received a shot at the this is known as a "blue ball shootout". The player who the ball with the from inside the and the blue ball on its spot with the opponent missing won the match.
Prize fund The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:
Winner: £32,000 Runner-up: £16,000 Semi-final: £8,000 Quarter-final: £4,000 Last 16: £2,000 Last 32: £1,000 Last 64: £500 Highest break: £2,000
Total: £130,000
Tournament draw The random draw for round one was made on 12 February 2015 and was broadcast live by Talksport. There were two century breaks during the tournament. Martin Gould made a 116 break in round two, and Shaun Murphy made a 105 break in round three.
All times in Greenwich Mean Time. Times for quarter-finals, semi-finals and final are approximate. Players in bold denote match winners.
Round 1 4 March – 18:00
65–20 23–69 49–21 66–6 18–58 50–53 34–46 9–53 71–37 77–13 75–25 0–123 61–52 51–30 1–76 36–61
5 March – 12:00
19–52 17–77 69–54 0–104 36–27 78–0 16–10 62–11 59–48 21–9 0–94 23–69 65–8 77–0 0–75 16–81
Round 2 5 March – 18:00
42–38 40–9 0–55 117–0 56–51 52–38 89–4 40–17 1–71 16–60 42–77 68–0 11–55 55–10 15–48 75–17
Round 3 6 March – 14:00
62–5 4–105 88–0 24–35 16–107 50–12 64–8 83–0
Quarter-finals 6 March – 19:00
84–8 22–10 71–0 12–23
Semi-finals 6 March – 20:30 18–19 53–76
Final Final: 1 frame. Referee: Brendan Moore Circus Arena, Blackpool, England, 6 March 2015 – 21:00 Xiao Guodong 48–54 Michael White
Century breaks Two century breaks were made during the tournament. 116 Martin Gould 105 Shaun Murphy
References