The Fountain
#1, July 25th 1995
News from the Qualifiers, Aussie boy wonder Quinten Hann is setting the early pace as he makes it 23 wins out of 23, to be the only player as yet undefeated. He says he is not interested in breaking any records but it must have crossed his mind about Ronnie O'Sullivan's record 36 pro tournament wins in a row.
The provisional ranking list for the 95-96 season has just been released, and there are some notable movements in it. By far the biggest move must be of young John Higgins who is up to number 2 behind World Champ Hendry, perhaps Hendry's manager Ian Doyle will be regreting his comments that Higgins would never be a Davis or a Hendry. Ronnie O'Sullivan is close up in third and Ebdon is breathing down his neck in fourth. Steve Davis slips from second to fifth while Jimmy White has plummeted to 13. Other movers to note are Neal Foulds down to 35 while Romfords Mark King climbs to 37, Alex Higgins meanwhile has dropped back to 72, and frankly one wonders whether he will climb back up.
This season sees the implementation of a one and a half year ranking system, which means players points scored last season will only count half. So you will see some rapid movements up and down the rankings, this I must say should have been introduced many years ago and can only benefit this game.
Richard Fountain
The Fountain is a column written by Richard Fountain from England. He is the manager of Mark King, a new and promising player who is provisionally 37 in the new rankings for 95-96. He will be writing to you throughout the snooker year and will try to give you all the inside info on this great game. Please feel free to write him <[email protected]> with any questions you may have.