Pontin's International Open Series
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The International Open Series (often referred to as
Pontins Pontins is a British company operating holiday parks in the UK, founded in 1946 by Fred Pontin. It was acquired by Britannia Hotels in 2011. Pontins specialises in offering half-board and self-catering holidays featuring entertainment at reso ...
International Open Series or PIOS for sponsorship reasons), was a series of
snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sport played on a rectangular Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, billiards table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets: one at each corner and ...
tournaments that ran from the 2001–02 season until the 2009–10 season. It was originally called the Open Tour but was renamed in
2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...
. The tour was established to provide players not on the Main Tour or the minor
Challenge Tour The Challenge Tour, currently titled as the HotelPlanner Tour for sponsorship reasons and also sometimes referred to as the European Challenge Tour, is the second-tier men's professional golf tour in Europe. It is operated by the PGA European To ...
(now WPBSA Q Tour) with some degree of professional competition, and the best performers were initially promoted to the Challenge Tour. The series was abandoned after the 2009–10 season and replaced by Q School in the 2010–11 season.


History

It was organised by the
World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) is the governing body of professional snooker and English billiards. It is headquartered in Bristol, England. Founded as the Professional Billiard Players Association (PBPA) in ...
(WPBSA) during its first season, but the English Association of Snooker and Billiards (EASB), an amateur body, took it over from the 2002–03 season. The event was
open Open or OPEN may refer to: Music * Open (band), Australian pop/rock band * The Open (band), English indie rock band * ''Open'' (Blues Image album), 1969 * ''Open'' (Gerd Dudek, Buschi Niebergall, and Edward Vesala album), 1979 * ''Open'' (Go ...
to professionals, amateurs and international players for the first couple of seasons, but following the EASB's split from the WPBSA in
2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...
the entry criteria were revised barring professional and non-English players from entering. After the Challenge Tour was discontinued, the entry criteria were revised again to allow international amateur players to compete, and from the 2005–06 season the competition promoted players directly to the Main Tour.


Event finals


Order of Merit winners


See also

*
Pontins Professional The Pontins Professional was an invitational professional non-ranking snooker tournament which ran from 1974 until 2000. History Top snooker professionals had regularly supplemented their income from professional events by playing exhibition ma ...
– predecessor of the tournament with professional players' participation


References

{{Snooker tournaments Recurring sporting events established in 2001 Recurring events disestablished in 2010 Snooker competitions in the United Kingdom Snooker amateur competitions Defunct snooker competitions Defunct sports competitions in the United Kingdom Snooker tours and series