What Was It Like Playing at the New Ding Junhui Academy?

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Last week saw the World Women’s Snooker Tour play the 2022 World Women’s Snooker Championship at the new Ding Junhui Academy in Sheffield for the first time.

As the World Snooker Federation Junior and Main Open Events continue throughout the next few days at the Academy, SnookerZone caught up with Woking Snooker’s very own Jasmine Bolsover, who told SnookerZone what it was like to play at the luxurious Sheffield Academy and the surrounding Victoria Snooker Academy for the very first time.

Playing in her first World Championship since 2015: Jasmine Bolsover. Photo credits World Women Snooker Tour…

She said; “One of the best parts of the experience for me was experiencing the star tables (I’ve only ever played on them once before and that was years ago) so it was very cool to be able to play on them for 4 days straight. As much as they were a treat, as you don’t have to hit anything hard, they had their challenges as they are so different to club tables, but it only made me want one of my own to play on all the time.”

Jasmine added: “Playing at Ding’s academy was a special experience in itself, not something you get to do everyday. I was also practicing on a table next to current UK Champion Zhao Xintong and former Master Yan Bingtao, which was very cool to see some talented snooker players play up close.”

Jasmine coped with the new conditions well on her return to competitive snooker as she reached the last 32 narrowly losing frames to World no 5 Emma Parker.

She added: “Nail-bitingly close frames are what cost me the last 16. I had two black ball games against Emma Parker which, if had gone differently, would have given me a good chance to develop further into the competition.”

The 22-year-old Oxford Brookes graduate is seeking sponsorship for next season now the World Women’s Snooker tour season has ended.

She finally added: “As the women’s tournament season has now ended, I am going to keep a lookout for any other tournaments I can enter, as well as the local Woking Saturday tournaments. One other thing I am hoping to achieve would be having a sponsor for my snooker. It would be great to have this sort of backing because of the lack of money in the women’s snooker.