World snooker championships

Any other snooker fans?
Been a good tournement so far.

I had an amazing experience this evening and was at the cruciable to see the second session between Ali carter and neil Robertson, if you happened to have been watching this game earlier, I was 7 rows from front wearing a yellow Australian football shirt, supporting Aussie neil Robertson
apparently I was shown on tv, and john Virgo who was commentating said "I wonder who he's hear to support" whilst being shown by he camera in my aussie shirt haha,
I'm just watching the highlights on BBC to see it for myself, getting ready to record it lol!

I have been watching bits of it - following Ronnie O'Sullivans progress as always, but he was beaten well by M Allen.

I watched a bit of Henry too and at times he was playing like he did in the 90's - he looks in form and seems to be setting the standard - his win against Williams saw him produce some excellent stuff.

It would be nice for Hendry to bag another world championship title, him or Higgins for me (who by the way is in a fantastic game with the new guy Cope).

So...was it you that Virgo spotted?lol

This another sport I have fallen out of love with like cricket.

Its boring.

When it first started out to be popular the players were much older n the standard wasnt as good.

this ment 2 things - one the players had some personality n were interesting (Not Davis lol - although I am a huge fan of his) the other thing was - they missed often making the frames much more exciting.

Now the average age is 20 something n they are all milk bottle pale skinned boring kids with about as much personality as a stunned slug on depression pills.

As much as O'Sulivan is a genius - he is a very annoying bloke to watch.

Years ago I went to Wembley arena to see the BH semi final between Kirk Stevens n Jimmy White - it was an amazing atmousphere - bit like the old great boxing nights they used to have there back in the 70 80's.

Snooker was king then - now its a also ran - with the most damning thing of all being pay tv has not bothered with it for years leaving it to be cheap for the BBC.

Interesting is the proposal of a shortened form of snooker, likened to 20-20 cricket that I believe is to be trialled amongst legends of the game in an exhibition tournament. O' Sullivan has really been the ringleader in suggesting that snooker needs some kind of lift to take it to a new level of entertainment, citing darts as an example. Darts really has had much success but the key here, is that legs are short and so game after game come at decent pace and there is no such equivalent to safety play in snooker. (Funnily enough, I always thought pool had a better chance of receiving such a revamp).

However, the powers that be in snooker have decided that frames in this new format should take place with only 6 reds on the table, as opposed to 15, in order to shorten frames and matches. With a maximum break of 75 (6x8 plus the standard 27 for colours), frame time should be reduced by half giving more exciting snooker.

I am sceptical about such a proposal. I believe that the players would have to have the necessarily mentality to play this game the way it would need to be played. The way 20-20 is approached in a gung-ho fashion is the way that it needs to be played. I still feel, that in snooker, a shortended frame with only 6 reds, may encourage even more cautious play and safety may even be easier, with less reds to possibly leave available. Perhaps such a rule (as in pool) could be introduced that one ball must always strike a cushion...this would counterract infuriating "roll up" safety play.

In short, I think rules need to be changed to formulate a version of snooker that will be more entertaining, on top of shortening frame length. That said, I am a massive fan of snooker and how it is in the World Championships and other tournaments and would not like to see any such changes affect the longer format of the game. It's like Test cricket, should always be number 1 and unchanged.

I had a couple of big bets on Chelsea to have a sent off tonight - but while at BET365 i had a look at the snooker - n they had Hendry a big fav over Murphy after his max exploits - Well Happen to think Murphy will go close to winning the whole thing so I have had one of my biggest bets of the year on him to beat Hendry at very attractive odds - score was 5-3 to Hendry at the time.

Fingers crossed

Quality of break building this year is outstanding - had more than half the most centuries ever after 5 days...cant be far off the record now.

Maguire vs Robertson is taking my eye at the moment - two brilliant attacking players of the game - great to watch

TickTok wrote:

I had a couple of big bets on Chelsea to have a sent off tonight - but while at BET365 i had a look at the snooker - n they had Hendry a big fav over Murphy after his max exploits - Well Happen to think Murphy will go close to winning the whole thing so I have had one of my biggest bets of the year on him to beat Hendry at very attractive odds - score was 5-3 to Hendry at the time.

Fingers crossed

Pay me Pay Me

huzup wrote:

Quality of break building this year is outstanding - had more than half the most centuries ever after 5 days...cant be far off the record now.

Maguire vs Robertson is taking my eye at the moment - two brilliant attacking players of the game - great to watch

Is it true the pockets are said to be more acceptable to the balls this year? I have heard that they are like buckets.

I think they say its more to do with the quality of the cloths which allows for more control of the white ball - theyve broken the record with 2 semi-finals and a final to go.

Havent heard anything about change in pocket size - all pocket sizes have to be in accordance with the WSA regulations.

The pocket openings of modern standard snooker tables conform to special templates owned and controlled by the Governing Body of World Snooker. These templates are used for the snooker tables used in all professional snooker tournaments.

Congratulations John Higgins on his 3rd World title - much deserved n a very nice guy.

I am sure he would struggle against me at pool on my local table (Its a homer with lots of invisble spots where the balls roll off lol) but he is a true credit to the game of snooker.

Now then - I wonder if snooker will mentioned again on this board before the next world championships?

I dont really post much about it, but i watch alot over the year, not jsut the WC..

Credit too him.