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...

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...

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 ...