Snooker Loopy

As we approach the end of 2019, our attention now focuses on the start of 2020 and with the start of the new year comes the second half of the snooker season. We kick off with esteemed invitational event, the Masters, where only the top sixteen players of the main tour get a crack at the title. This tournament is steeped in tradition with the first event being won by John Spencer way back in 1975 when he beat Ray Reardon 9-8 at the West Centre Hotel. Since those early days, we have seen many players win at the New London Theatre, Wembley and now at its established home, Alexandra Palace with Paul Hunter winning the title three times. For years, the sport was tied to cigarette companies with Benson and Hedges sponsoring this tournament for many years and everyone who follows the sport will remember a player lightning up before they took their shot. The sport has of course moved on and some of those who won this great title are no longer with us However their memories live on in film a

I have been watching snooker for over thirty years and have seen many players come and go but in recent times one of the most exciting players that I have been lucky enough to meet and watch is Kurt Maflin. Maflin is London born but now considers Norway his home and lives there with his wife Anita and family. Kurt is a person who took to snooker like a duck to water and has compiled more than 170 century breaks during his career and is among 25 players to have made multiple 147 breaks in professional competition. Maflin comes from the Jimmy White mould, an attacking player who is never afraid to go for that daring shot and oozes with flair and natural talent. In fact Jimmy White is a family friend and was at the wedding when he married Anita Rizzuti in 2013. Maflin is a multiple Norwegian amateur champion and has also won the World Amateur Championship. I don't often anoint a player as a future champion but I will make an exception for this player. If ever anyone wanted to be ent

Michael Judge will be remembered by most snooker fans as a prolific player on the main tour in the 1990s. A professional player from 1992-2011, Judge’s best performance was in the 2004 Grand Prix when he reached the semi-final and had some success in the World Championship, the best being in 2001 when he knocked out Jimmy White in the qualifiers and John Parrott in the first round before being beaten by Ken Doherty. With his highest ranking being 24 in the 2002/3 season, Michael earned £472,438 on the professional circuit, made 66 century breaks and had his highest in the 2004 European Open when he made a 144 break. Hailing from the Republic of Ireland, Judge has won the Irish Amateur Championship twice in 2013 and 2018 and attempted to get back on the tour in 2018 via the infamous Q School. Since leaving the snooker main stage, Judge’s career has been given a second wind with an invitation to join the World Seniors tour. Created by Jason Francis, the tour with the backing of World S

The final  at the Scottish Open was always going to be a battle of minds.This year experience played  hunger as Mark Selby took on the youthful Jack Lisowski. Jack hails from the same mould as Judd Trump and has been circling the victory platform for sometime. Having had an impressive run to the final, Lisowski aimed to silence his critics and put to bed the claims that he is an underachiever. On the day, this match could have gone either way and Jack looked good at the start of the match with a dream start, taking the first frame with a 131-7 score line. Perhaps this was going to be the flavour of the match as when the first interval arrived, both players were neck and neck at 2-2 with nothing to separate them. However no one should underestimate Mark Selby and his resilience to pressure and his ability to win a match when he is fighting for survival. However after the interval the first sign of an advantage for Selby was when he took a 4-3 lead after the interval. This was perhaps

Yesterday was a seismic day in Glasgow with many of the leading lights of snooker falling in the carnage that is the best of seven format. Ding Junhui, John Higgins and Shaun Murphy all fell foul to the process with Mark Allen, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Mark Selby and Judd Trump remaining in contention for the title. Snooker is always more exciting when other players do well and this has been proven at this year’s Scottish Open with faces such as Graeme Dott, Scott Donaldson, David Gilbert, Jack Lisowski and Thepchaiya Un-Nooh still riding high. Of course O”Sullivan and Trump remain favourites for this title but come Sunday we may again have a new person winning this Scottish title. Rather than concentrating on results, it is important to look at the broader picture in snooker. It is clear especially in this event that lower ranked players are suffering as a result of the rules around the drawing process. The reason we don’t see May new faces on the televised stages of tournaments is becaus

It was another fast and furious day of snooker yesterday in Glasgow with the majority of the top sixteen surviving an early exit. Mark Allen continued his good run with a 4-1 victory over Louis Heathcote. Allen trying to forget his whitewash in York at the hands of Stephen Maguire, will have his mind eased that his Victor was later dispatched by Marco Fu. Fu is back on the up and showed in his match against Maguire what a player he truly is. A 4-2 win with breaks of 72, 66, 104 and 57 was more than enough to seal the winning deal against the canny Scot. Perhaps Stephen’s  previous win against Jimmy White was an omen that this player wasn’t going to go much further in this tournament. He enough to beat Jimmy but White clearly wasn’t firing on all cylinders on the night. It was a game of respect rather than attrition. John Higgins came up against a possible hurdle with a draw against the Swiss player, Alexander Ursenbacker. Alexander won the first frame but then his table nightmare beg

Another day in Glasgow as players took part in day two of the Scottish Open. Snooker is full of twists and turns and this Scottish city was would be no exception to the news headlines. Ding Junhui, fresh from his victory in York, is clearly in form and hungry for another title before he has to open his Christmas present. His match against the talented Welshman, Michael White was sadly one sided with Michael unable to produce the form that served him so well in his great run in the UK Championship. On the day Michael was blown away by the Chinese dragon and could only pinch one frame off of Ding. Breaks of 60, 104, 83 and 118 helped Junhui produce a solid performance and kept him in contention for this December title. The best of seven format can be cruel but Ding walked away from this 4-1 victory with a broad grin. He will now have to wait to see who he has to play in the draw, either Xi Wen or Gary Thomson. A striking performance again from Ding! Moving on, Ronnie O’Sullivan was up

Snooker moves at a fast these days and no sooner has the UK Championship ended, the boys from the baize are quickly hot footing it to Glasgow for the start of the of the next instalment of the Home Nations series, the Scottish Open. Held just before Christmas, this the last chance for all 128 players to prove themselves in this historic city, especially those who are still licking their wounds from their defeats in York. The likes of Higgins, Selby, Trump and O'Sullivan are all on show and Mark Allen who won this title last year has the difficult task of retaining his title against a barrage of contenders who want to snatch the prized glassware from his fingers. This tournament is fraught with perils, especially as it uses a best of seven frames' format. Any player could lose on the day and especially to a lower ranked player who is experiencing a boost in form. Play began quick and fast today with some of the top names in the sport playing. Mark Allen kicked off his run with

People including myself have been critical of Ding Junhui over his general performance in snooker in the last couple of years. This has been self-evident in his drought of match wins and tournament trophies. Ding hasn't won any silverware since 2017 and last won the UK Championship ten years ago. Many reasons have been bandied around, including being a new father and the strains of Chinese interest on expectations to do well. However this year's UK Championship has final put this sniping to bed as the Chinese player pulled off one of his greatest victories, beating Stephen Maguire in the final, 10-6. This wasn't a fluke and was a result of deconstructing his entire game, surgically stitching the best parts back together with modifications to his faults. A dissection that was achieved by put his game under the microscope on the practice table and probably look at footage of his previous matches and trying to find out the root causes of those loses. Ding was until yesterday a

Another day in York and one closer to the final. Most of the familiar faces of the UK Championship have now been eliminated. Today afternoon session was the first chance for a player to enter tomorrow’s final and it was the turn of Ding Junhui and Yan Bingtao to battle it out for a one of those places. Both players have vastly improved this season with Yan having already win the Riga Masters at the start of the season and Ding having bloomed in this tournament. Ding was first to deliver with a 68 break in the first frame, 1-0 Ding. Despite several attempts by Bingtao to get into the next, Yan couldn’t string a break together to win the frame, collapsing at 27 and it was Ding who came from behind to snatch the frame and inflicted a hurtful blow on his opponent, 2-0. With the cue ball on a piece of string. Ding navigated his way around the table with a break of 60 but wasn’t able to quite make it over the line. Bingtao had a glimmer of hope to clinch the frame with the remainder of the b

This year’s UK Championship has been full of shocks with top seeds being spat out and familiar faces of the past doing very well. Today in the afternoon’s play the the destroyer of Neil Robertson, Yan Bingtao was up against John Higgins. The first frame seemed to go on forever with an attempt double by Higgins bring rejected by the jaws of the pocket. This left Bingtao with a gild edged chance to win the win and cleared the table with a 25 break to make it 1-0. Higgins then replied in the second frame with a 78 break to make it one a piece. A good chance by Higgins in the next was put to bed with a catastrophic miss intimacy a red. Higgins was clearly visibly angry but Yan was unable to win the frame in one visit. John suffered with water in his eyes in his last match against Stuart Bingham but this seemed to have passed in this match and there were sign that his skills of break building were starting to return. Bingtao attempted a double on the pink to clinch the frame but missed but

As snooker entered another day in York, fans prepared to watch one of the crowd drawing matches of the tournament. Ding Junhui playing Ronnie O’Sullivan always a delight to watch and for Ding it was a match that quickly led to a 4-1 advantage but after several attempts on reds that were dubious choices, Ronnie smelt blood and cranked up the gears, producing sublime snooker that brought him breaks of 77 and two centuries to bring the match back to 4-4. At an average shot time of fifteen seconds a shot, Jan Verhaas was having to whizz around the table at an equal speed to. Just replace the potted colours. Frame nine was crucial for Ding to win and after a crucial blunder by Ronnie on an elementary red. Ding managed to re-tie his potting shoes and took the frame with breaks of 54 and 36 and was now one frame away from a crucial victory over Ronnie. Ding achieved his goal in the next after making breaks of 45 and 37. Ding is a popular winner and this is his first quarter-final since  2011.

As the set up of the arena changes and we are now down to the two table set up, afternoon play began in earnest with two very exciting matches in prospect. Stuart Bingham was up against John Higgins and this in the initial stages was a slow burner with both players having to fight to gain points in the frames ahead. Bingham initially seized the initiative and built up a 2-0 lead over Higgins and then went on to lead 3-1 and 4-3. Controversy struck in frame nine when Stuart who was leading 46-18 in the frame and his hand in the table, was struck by the curse of the mobile phone ringtone and caused him to miss a basic red. This was a cruel turning point in the match and could be the noise that lost him the match. Subsequently Higgins won the frame and not before a fuming Stuart Bingham gestured to the crowd in utter frustration. Higgins then took the next frame with a 50 break to win the match 6-4. His opponent would be either Yan Bingtao or Neil Robertson. Bingham said after his defeat:

After the shock exit of Judd Trump yesterday, minds will have adjusted to a new favourite, Ronnie O’Sullivan. Ronnie in his match against Thailand’s Noppon Saengkham didn’t actually play that well. He have Noppon umpteen chances to kill off frames but Noppon wasn’t able to kill them all off. Watching from the audience with Damien Hirst to one side of me and John Higgin in front of me, Ronnie didn’t look fluid in his cue action and won this match largely down to the multiple mistakes that his opponent made mistakes and not from consecutive break building. The 6-2 score line doesn’t reflect this and had Noppon gone the extra milr, this result would have swung the other way. However a result is a result and Ronnie had to wait to see who his opponent would be between Ali Carter and Ding Junhui. Ding actually played very well in this match and gave Ali very few chances. Not to say tha Carter didn’t takes his chances and was able to make inroads into this match but probably when it was too

I thought I would move away from the usual match report today and concentrate on the shock of the day. Prior to the start of the UK Championship, Judd Trump would have been the form favourite to win this tournament based on season form. However today, Judd was a shadow of his former self and got lost in a doubting Thomas mode. His opponent, Nigel Bond has long been a fantastic player and has been on the tour almost as long as I have been watching snooker, 1989 to be precise. A former British Open winner in 1996 when he beat John Higgins, 10-9, Bond has also won the Snooker Shootout in 2011 and the World Seniors Championship in 2012. Many had thought at 54 that Nigel was going to retire from the sport including himself when he nearly fell off the tour. Thankfully Nigel took a leaf out of Ronnie O’Sullivan’s book and decided to pick and choose which main tour tournaments he would play in. The rest of the time he spends coaching other players. Perhaps this was the key to his success tod

In a blaze of glory, Judd Trump entered the arena in York, brimming with confidence after previous season wins. His match against Mei Xiwen was very one sided with the Bristolian dominating the table. Mei had the weight of the world on his shoulders as he failed to break free of Trump’s vice of success. Judd on the other hand, free flowed and played shots with flair and a stroke of genius. The first four frames were easy pickings for Trump with Xiwen frozen out of the match and living in scraps that he he couldn’t take advantage of. Judd was in third gear with no chance of breaking out into a sweat and went into the mid-session interval, 4-0 up with Mei only scoring 32 points in total compared to Judd’s 400 points. After the interval, Xiwen managed to claw back a frame with a break of 127 to make it 1-4 but Judd wasn’t phased by his opponent’s glimpse of flair. He quickly took the next after Mei conceded to take the match to 5-1 and he sealed the match with a 93 break after over cutt

With round one out of the way, it was now the time for the cameras to roll and players to experience the magic of York. First up in the televised table was last year’s winner, Ronnie O’Sullivan against a very dangerous, Chinese player, Tian Pengfei. Pengfei briefly fell off the tour but got back on through the Q School. He has beaten Ronnie several times and in this match got off to a good start with a 46 break but then fell away, letting O’Sullivan  take  the frame in several visits. This convincing tidal wave continued with Ronnie averaging fifteen seconds a shot and rather like a fast sprint, Tian remained firmly on the back foot at 2-0 down. A blistering attempt at a red by Pengfei turned out to be all in vain as the white fell into the middle pocket on its return. Ronnie had the cue ball on a string as he put Tian back in and got him to split the pack in his favour but O’Sullivan took a tough red on and let Tian play but this man was without rhythm and confidence. Weaknesses that