Landmark Year for Disability Snooker
World Disability Billiards & Snooker (WDBS) celebrated its ten-year anniversary in 2025 with an unforgettable year which saw the Tour underline its global credentials with the inaugural staging of the World Championship in Thailand.
Seven events were held during the calendar year as the WDBS Tour returned with popular tournaments in England, Ireland and Belgium while making inaugural visits to Thailand and Albania for the World and European Championships respectively.
HISTORY MADE AT WORLD DISABILITY SNOOKER CHAMPIONSHIP
The opening event of 2025 saw history made as WDBS staged its first-ever World Disability Snooker Championship in Thailand.
A total of 66 players contested the six-day event in Nonthaburi, Thailand where the first world champions were crowned across seven classification groups.
Thailand’s Surasit Loisaratrakil, Thanapol Seekao and Songkiat Raebankoo Thailand made history on home soil by lifting the title and they were joined by England’s Gary Swift and Carl Gibson, Kristof De Bruyn from Belgium and Ireland’s Dylan Rees as the Tour’s first world champions.
GOING GLOBAL
Cueists from 18 countries and four continents competed in events on the WDBS Tour during 2025 as the Tour continued to grow on a global scale.
This included players who made history as they represented countries including the USA, Thailand, Chinese Taipei, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy and the Netherlands for the first time in a WDBS ranking event.
Loisaratrakil, Seekao and Raebankoo’s become the first ever players from Thailand to win a WDBS ranking event at a World Championship which saw the most global field in WDBS history with 15 nations represented.
This record was closely followed by the second staging of the European Championships in October, where players from 11 nations took part, with Shahzad Butt from Pakistan and Denmark’s Niklas Olsen becoming the first players from their countries to win a ranking event crown in Albania.
STRENGTH TO STRENGTH
The strength in depth on the WDBS Tour continued to increase with more players than ever before having competed in and claimed titles during 2025.
The Wilson Interiors Hull Open saw record entry numbers as 87 players competed in the long-standing event, which will celebrate its own tenth anniversary when it returns to the calendar next May.
A total of 29 players from nine countries won events during the calendar year, with nine cueists having lifted titles for the first time in their careers.
As well as the previously mentioned winners at the World and European Championships, there were maiden crowns for Cedric Van Wassenhove, Peter Hull, Reece Matin and Ryan Ryding – the latter winning at both the Hull Open and Irish Open to become one of 10 players to win multiple titles in 2025.
The year concluded with the third staging of the Irish Open, an event now firmly established on the calendar and which saw a record 48 players enter, including 16 from the host nation.
“AN UNFORGETTABLE YEAR”
Reflecting on 2025, WDBS Chairman Nigel Mawer QPM said: “2025 has been an unforgettable year for WDBS as we celebrated our ten-year anniversary with a global Tour that featured the inaugural staging of the World Disability Snooker Championship.
“The flagship event in Thailand marked a milestone tournament for the Tour and was a proud moment for everyone that have been associated with WDBS since our very first event in Gloucester a decade ago.
“Our long-term goal remains to secure the return of snooker to the Paralympic Games and the ever-increasing number of competitors from more countries and continents than ever before underlines the potential of disability snooker on the global stage.”
