The 2022 World Seniors Championship (officially the 2022 Ways Facilities Management World Seniors Snooker Championship) was a

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sports, cue sport played on a Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets, one at each corner and o ...

tournament that took place from 4 to 8 May 2022 at the

Crucible Theatre The Crucible Theatre (often referred to simply as "The Crucible") is a theatre in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England which opened in 1971. Although it hosts regular theatrical performances, it is best known for hosting professional snooker's m ...

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

, England. The event was the 13th edition of the

World Seniors Championship The World Seniors Championship is an invitational seniors snooker tournament which has been played under different formats. As of 2020 the minimum age is 40, but it was 45 in 2011 and 2012. History The event was first held in 1991 with 16 pla ...

, first held in 1991, and was organised by the

World Seniors Tour The World Seniors Tour is the professional snooker tour for senior players aged 40 and over, running in parallel to the main World Snooker Tour. Founded in 2017 by Snooker Legends, it has been run since 2018 by World Seniors Snooker, a subsidiary ...

, which is open to players over 40 who are not in the top 64 of the

world rankings A ranking is a relationship between a set of items such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than" or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak order or total preorder of o ...

. Qualifying rounds were held from 14 to 19 December 2021 and 8 to 13 February 2022 at the Crucible Sports and Social Club in

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

. Players who had qualified for that season's cancelled Seniors Masters and Seniors Irish Masters events—

Bob Chaperon Robert Chaperon (born 18 May 1958) is a Canadians, Canadian retired professional snooker and billiards player. Career Chaperon was born on 18 May 1958. He played snooker on the professional tour from 1984 to 1995, and in the 1998/99, 2000/01, 200 ...

, Wayne Cooper,

Gary Filtness Gary may refer to: *Gary (given name), a common masculine given name, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name *Gary, Indiana, the largest city named Gary Places ;Iran * Gary, Iran, Sistan and Baluchestan Province ;Uni ...

Michael Judge Michael Judge (born 12 January 1975 in Dublin) is a professional snooker player from the Republic of Ireland. His best performance in a ranking event came in the 2004 Grand Prix, where he reached the semi-finals, and he reached his highest rank ...

, Rory McLeod,

Darren Morgan Darren Morgan (born 3 May 1966) is a Welsh former professional snooker player who now competes as an amateur. Morgan won the World Amateur Championship in 1987 and played on the professional main tour from 1988 until 2006. He earned just ov ...

, and

Patrick Wallace Patrick Wallace (born 20 September 1969) is a former professional snooker player from Dungannon in Northern Ireland. During his career, which lasted seventeen years from 1994 to 2011, he won two non-snooker world rankings, ranking titles, and ...

—were invited to compete at the World Seniors Championship instead. Referees for the event were Roy Gannon,

Leo Scullion Leo Scullion (born 10 April 1958) is a professional snooker referee from Glasgow, Scotland, who has been officiating on the main tour since 1999. Career After spending many years of his life as a taxi driver, and later a policeman, Scullion qu ...

Michaela Tabb Michaela Tabb (born 11 December 1967, in Bath, Somerset, England) is a Scottish snooker and pool referee. She established significant milestones for female officials in professional cue sports, beginning in pool, where she officiated at top to ...

, and Andy Yates.

Dominic Dale Dominic Dale (born Christopher Dale on 29 December 1971) is a Welsh professional snooker player and snooker commentator and presenter for the BBC and Eurosport. Career Dale was born in Coventry, England. He won the Welsh Amateur Championship, ...

was scheduled to participate, but re-entered the top 64 in the world rankings after the

2022 World Snooker Championship The 2022 World Snooker Championship (officially the 2022 Betfred World Snooker Championship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 16 April to 2 May 2022 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England, the 46th conse ...

qualifiers, rendering him ineligible to compete. Michael Holt took Dale's place as the highest ranked eligible player.

Maria Catalano Maria Catalano (born 27 February 1982) is an English snooker player. Career In the 2007 season she won the British Open and the Connie Gough National Championship. In December 2002, she was ranked number four in the world. She was ranked world ...

, who had turned 40 in February, became the first woman to reach the final stages of a seniors event. She lost 0–3 to Wael Talaat in the last 24.

Stephen Hendry Stephen Gordon Hendry (born 13 January 1969) is a Scottish professional snooker player who dominated the sport during the 1990s, becoming one of the most successful players in its history. After turning professional in 1985 at age 16, Hendry ...

played competitively for the first time since his first-round defeat at the

2021 UK Championship The 2021 UK Championship (also known as the 2021 Cazoo UK Championship for sponsorship reasons) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 23 November to 5 December 2021 at the York Barbican, in York, England. The event was the ...

, but lost 0–3 to

Lee Walker Lee Walker (born 11 February 1976) is a Welsh former professional snooker player who is the reigning World Seniors Champion. He is both an official WPBSA and SightRight coach. Career After turning professional in 1994 at the age of 18, Walker r ...

in the last 16. After losing 0–3 to

Nigel Bond Nigel Bond (born 15 November 1965) is an English former professional snooker player. Bond competed on the main tour from 1989 to 2022, and was ranked within the world's top 16 players between 1992 and 1999, peaking at 5th for the 1996–97 s ...

in the last 16,

John Parrott John Stephen Parrott, (born 11 May 1964) is an English former professional snooker player and television personality. He was a familiar face on the professional snooker circuit during the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, and remained within ...

announced his retirement from the seniors tour. He received a standing ovation in the Crucible as he displayed the

World Snooker Championship The World Snooker Championship is the longest-running and most prestigious tournament in professional snooker. It is also the wealthiest, with total prize money in 2022 of £2,395,000, including £500,000 for the winner. First held in 1927 Wor ...

trophy, which he won in

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

David Lilley David William Lilley (born 31 October 1977 in Bellshill, North Lanarkshire) is a Scottish former professional footballer who usually plays at centre back but has also played at right back. Lilley was most recently the manager of Bellshill Athl ...

was the defending champion, having defeated

Jimmy White James Warren White (born 2 May 1962) is an English professional snooker player who has won three seniors World titles. Nicknamed "The Whirlwind" because of his fluid, attacking style of play, White is the 1980 World Amateur Champion, 2009 ...

5–3 in the 2021 final, but he lost 3–4 to Walker in the semi-finals, despite winning the first three frames. White reached a fourth consecutive final, making a 138 break in his 4–1 quarter-final win over McLeod and a 132 in his 4–0 semi-final win over

Peter Lines Peter Lines (born 11 December 1969) is an English professional snooker player. He has reached the semi-finals of one ranking tournament, the 2018 Paul Hunter Classic. He reached his highest ranking, 42nd in the world, in 1999. He is the father ...

. He led 3–1 and 4–2 in the final, but Walker won the last three frames to clinch a 5–4 victory and win his first seniors title. Calling the win a "career highlight", Walker said it was a "dream come true" to win a title at the Crucible.

Main draw

Final

Century breaks

Total: 3 *138, 132

*121

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:World Seniors Championship, 2022 2022 in English sport 2022 in snooker

Sports competitions in Sheffield

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

World Seniors Tour