The 900 returns for Season Two with live crowd and with big plans for the future

The 900 is back for Season Two on Monday evening, with the fast-paced, unpredictable event offering the biggest prize in amateur snooker once again.

The innovative idea burst onto the scene last year and was a hit with amateur players, who scrapped it out for the £10,000 top prize, eventually won by Ant Parsons.

The tournament is back with the same one-frame format, in the same Crucible Sports & Social Club in Reading, but played with a live crowd this time around, which will be a first.

It is a huge opportunity for some little-known players, while there are former world champions Dennis Taylor and Joe Johnson, ex-pros including Tony Drago, Michael Holt, Robin Hull and Ng On Yee all involved and even pool star Jayson Shaw.

The event is played over eight weeks, with the winner each week winning £2,000 and qualifying for the Grand Final where the £10,000 and Season Two title is on offer.

The man behind The 900, Jason Francis, told Metro.co.uk: ‘There’s been huge interest after last year, hence why we’re going to a live studio.

‘We’ve built a live studio, we’ve got champions from 15 countries. The interest has been unbelievable.

‘The TV channel – SportyStuffTV – have already put the dates in for Season 3 next year, so The 900 is definitely here to stay. We just look to build on it and get the prize money bigger and bigger.’

Francis is also chairman of World Seniors Snooker and says talks are underway to get The 900 events on a bigger broadcaster under that banner.

‘We’re still talking to Channel 5 about doing one day specials of The 900 with them, with the more high profile players,’ he said.

‘Possibly by the end of the year with the likes of Jimmy [White], Stephen [Hendry] and Ken [Doherty] under the World Seniors banner.

‘A problem with snooker is that you don’t know how long it will last. With The 900 we know how long it’s going to be. An 8-player event can be done in three hours and that’s very appealing to broadcasters.’

What is The 900?

The matches are one frame of 15 minutes – which is 900 seconds.

There is a 20-second shot clock, ball-in-hand for any four, players must pot a ball or hit a cushion and it is all played with a spotted cue ball.

Francis explained the tournament structure, saying: ‘Each week is a separate event. Eight players start on Monday. The four players who win their quarter-final matches all qualify for the Wednesday.

‘On the Tuesday, the four that lost on the Monday get a second chance as they’re joined by four more players.

‘Those four winners go to the Wednesday when we will have a weekly winner. We repeat that over eight weeks so we get eight weekly winners who go into one Grand Final. 12 players a week, so 96 players over eight weeks.’

When is The 900?

The first week gets underway on 18 September and it runs for eight weeks before the Grand Final on 22 November.

It is shown from 10pm-1am on Monday to Wednesday each week.