Six-red snooker feature shorter frames, due to fewer red balls. Other formats are being considered as well. It was hoped that the format would revive the popularity of snooker as a spectator sport, in the same way Twenty20 has done to cricket. Jimmy White said that six-red snooker could be one way of helping boost the game's popularity. Ali Carter also said he would be interested in playing the format. The first international tournament in this format was contested in July 2008, with Ricky Walden defeating Stuart Bingham in the final. A six-red tournament was held during the 2009 World Snooker Championship
Sport in Northern Ireland against Scotland (a match which has first-class status) has been played annually since 1909. The Irish team was fairly strong in the mid and late 19th century, and sent several touring parties abroad, but development of the sport was adversely affected first by the Gaelic Athletic Association's ban on its members taking part in "foreign" sports and then by the creation of the Irish Free State; many of the best cricketers in Ireland had been British soldiers and civil servants and their withdrawal led to a decline in the overall standard of the game. There have been brighter spots in