Under Starter’s Orders

-
So the battle for the Crucible title began in earnest yesterday and play didn’t fail to disappoint. After a shaky start, Mark Williams kicked into gear and saw off the Pinner Potter, Martin Gould over two sessions. Gould played well in spats with a slight fight back towards the end of the match and finally succumbed to last year’s champion, losing 10-6. As the match concluded, so the drama continued and Williams blasted World Snooker in his post match interview for poor treatment over the last twelve months as World Champion, being left off the cover of the new snooker console game and the various vinyls at the. Crucible. Topping this off, his son wasn’t even allowed to give him a high five in his dressing room as World Snooker only issues two back stage passes to players.

Aside from the Welsh saga, the other man in form was Neil Robertson. Taking on the former Shootout Champion, Michael Georgiou, Robertson Player as if he was practicing in his local club with balls not touching the sides of the pockets. With a potential whitewash in the offing, Michael must hope that he will not only the second victim to such an embarrassment in Crucible history, second to John Parrott ‘s drubbing of Eddie Charlton. Played to a conclusion today, this could be, potentially be a cry short session of snooker.

Elsewhere, close matches are in progress between Brecel and Wilson, currently with a 5-4 score line, Ding is leading McGill, 6-3 and McGuire is in a tight match with Ting Pengfei, now trailing 5-4 after losing a two frame cushion. Play in these matches continues this morning and any player could have a morning dream or nightmare after play. Morning play doesn’t suit most snooker players and will probably be the ones that hit the hotel pillow the earliest that triumph today.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Which way, left or right?

-
Image
One of the greatest spats that occurred in snooker history was between my friend Alain Robidoux and Ronnie O’Sullivan. It occurred in 1996 at the World Championship. Ronnie, a then young whipper snapper at 19, trounced Alain in the match, winning 10-3. However beyond the win, a spat occurred when Ronnie decided to take a number of shots left handed. Robidoux criticised O’Sullivan after the match for being “disrespectful”. Ronnie hit back at Alain saying “if he wants to act like a baby that’s up to him” adding “ the crowd enjoyed it, that’s the main thing”. This was probably the first time that a player had dared to take multiple shots left handed and led to players attempting the same feat. Perhaps this wouldn’t have been become a regular occurrence if this hadn’t of happened. This snooker bust up led to Alain refusing to shake Ronnie’s hand at the end of the match. Robidoux later explained his actions saying “Ronnie was being disrespectful to his fellow professionals and should sa
Read more

Place your bets

-
Image
Match fixing in snooker has unfortunately been in operation since the very early days of the game with reports of Joe Davis having "carried" weaker opponents in multi-session matches to maximise the gate revenue. This trait continued through the history of the sport with players such as Willie Thorne and Alex Higgins claiming they were offered large sums of money to lose matches. Players may not enter a match fixing agreement on their own free will, being subject to threats of violence if they fail to submit. The lucrative criminal act is largely based in the Far East where gangs devise money making scams in various sports, using their players to infiltrate the individual sport and extract multimillion currency earnings. Although this happens, World Snooker has been very vigilant to attempt to stamp out this criminal activity in recent years. The main punishment being heavy fines or bans from the game. Recognisable figures such as Quentin Hann, Stephen Lee and Joe Joggi
Read more

The Ooty Club, birthplace of snooker

-
Image
Snooker was first born millions of miles away from the UK in a small town in the Nilgiri hills of Southern India. Recently Dennis Taylor went to this club and played on the first ever table produced. The Ooty Colonial Club was set up amongst 65 hill stations for the British army. Built by Sir William Rumbold In 1836, the club was built in a colonial style  and houses a bar and billiard room. A relic of the Raj period, the mixed bar still has a strict dress code and is set in a building and surrounding area that could be produced by bursting a time bubble and even has the original ball room. Inside the Billiards Room, stands the first ever snooker table made. A rare antique that is still playable and reminds us how old the game and how far it has travelled
Read more