Redcafe Snooker

One Night Only said:
The fans have been gash all tournament. Leaving their phones on, making noises, coughing constantly, clapping every fecking shot, shouting. Just pure bellends.
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Probably get a bit over excited when the think they’re on telly ….someone took the lemonade out of their lager shandy.
 
Well pleased for Ronnie, I thought Trump was gonna get back into it at 5-4 from 5-1 down. Looked like Ronnies head was going to go- especially after the warning farce. But wow, his head coach has really worked wonders with him. All credit to him, best player ever.
 
Withnail said:
No feckin chance. What a player.

I'm delighted he's done so well over the past decade or so. As others have said at once stage I doubted he'd ever back up his talent.
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He's a huge reason why snooker is so big. Not (just) Barry Hearn. Back when we only had 4 (and then 5) channels snooker was a staple evening diet. I watched it religiously since Griffiths won it in 1979. Loved Higgins' antics, the Whirlwind and of course my favourite Steve Davis, even though I was on the edge of my seat willing Dennis Taylor to sink 'that' black.

Then Hendry came along and snooker became boring (see the 'Do City Leave You Cold' thread). Sky also offered magical new channels and suddenly we could watch The Simpsons and Friends instead. I almost hadn't even registered who O Sullivan was until the mid 2000s.

Then Ronnie drew me back in and I now know pretty much who the top 32 players are again. Never thought I would get back into it. On a side note darts took a similar trajectory since the 80s.
 
7 x triple crown winner across the board :drool:. I’m glad he’s racked up the titles to back up his talent and he’s not showing signs of slowing down, I think there’s another title for him to win. Having said that the best we got mixing with the oldies is Robertson who’s already 40, Selby who’s getting up there and Trump who’s not a spring chicken anymore. Lisowski and a couple of the young Chinese lads need to step up and a few young superstars coming through would help.
 
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Vidic_In_Moscow said:
I know he’s into his fitness for a number of years but I don’t remember him looking so clean cut and healthy in the face for a long time if ever. Even in his youngest days he looked a bit of a scruff. He looks much healthier right now.
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When Ronnie was going through a period of mental stress, which badly affected his snooker, he did 2 things.
Firstly he started to work with Dr Steve Peters who was a significant help.
Secondly he took up running, which is a well known help with mental stress.
And he actually became an excellent club runner. He managed to complete a 10k in around 35 minutes which is a fantastic achievement. During that time, he said that he enjoyed running far more than snooker.
Not sure how much running he still does, but in his book which is well worth a read, he attributes running to changing his life.

Easily the very best snooker player I have ever seen. And by far and away the most naturally talented.
 
Vidic_In_Moscow said:
I think he’s been running for a number of years now and didn’t look so good. If I was a betting man I’d say he’s done something drastic with his diet in more recent times like giving up sugar, only drinking water etc he looks so refreshed!
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Well whatever it is, it is certainly working.
It is the most focused and yet relaxed (assuming you can be relaxed playing such an important match) I have seen in a very long time.
He is not just brilliant. He is so good to watch.
 
He's been looking pretty well and fit since his mid to early 30's... he loves an outburst, don't confuse that with him having a genuine issue, which he still very occasionally has, but he's mostly on top of it, being the top dog and being allowed to get away with whatever helps that, but they've gotta pander to him, he's their only genuine star in a massively fading sport.
 
Buster15 said:
When Ronnie was going through a period of mental stress, which badly affected his snooker, he did 2 things.
Firstly he started to work with Dr Steve Peters who was a significant help.
Secondly he took up running, which is a well known help with mental stress.
And he actually became an excellent club runner. He managed to complete a 10k in around 35 minutes which is a fantastic achievement. During that time, he said that he enjoyed running far more than snooker.
Not sure how much running he still does, but in his book which is well worth a read, he attributes running to changing his life.

Easily the very best snooker player I have ever seen. And by far and away the most naturally talented.
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That is an excellent 10k time, I never cracked 35 minutes.
 
10k in 35minutes. What.. That's seems ridiculously quick.
 
I enjoyed following Q School scores, and finding out more about some of the younger amateurs out there.

I was hoping Ben Mertens and Liam Davies got on the tour rather than some of the older ones, so a bit disappointed they missed out - especially Ben Mertens, who was one match away in Event 2. But, other than those, the main two amateurs I wanted to get on tour - Michael White and Julien Leclercq - did so by other routes earlier so I'm looking forward to seeing those next year.

List of Q School Qualifiers:

Event One: Fergal O’Brien, Rod Lawler, Andy Lee, Bai Langning.

Event Two: Aaron Hill, Zak Surety, Sanderson Lam, Adam Duffy.

Event Three: James Cahill, John Astley, Jenson Kendrick, Lukas Kleckers.
 
Cahill is an interesting one - his victory over O'Sullivan at the Crucible a few years ago was one of the biggest shocks the World Championship has seen, but he never really used it to kick on.

Good to see him back and hope he can pick up some more results this time around.
 
ChrisNelson said:
Cahill is an interesting one - his victory over O'Sullivan at the Crucible a few years ago was one of the biggest shocks the World Championship has seen, but he never really used it to kick on.

Good to see him back and hope he can pick up some more results this time around.
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Yeah, out of the 12, Cahill is the one I'm most pleased to see get there.

I was disappointed that Mertens, Wells and Sargeant missed out in the QF's of the events. They were amongst the dozen or so I was hoping would qualify.

It'll be interesting to see Jenson Kendrick, as I know very little about him and hadn't really heard of him before the events.

Other than those two, and Aaron Hill, the other qualifiers are a bit meh.
 
Bertie Wooster said:
I was disappointed that Mertens, Wells and Sargeant missed out in the QF's of the events. They were amongst the dozen or so I was hoping would qualify.
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Ben Mertens has just won the 2022 European U21 Snooker Championship. That means he'll be on the main Tour at some point (not sure if he qualifies for this season or from 23/24). That would see 3 Belgians on tour with Julien Leclercq already joining Luca Brecel next season.

I followed some of it on YouTube. Liam Davies, the talented 15 year old from Wales, won the U18 tournament. Hopefully it won't be long before he qualifies for the main tour as well.
 
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I recently watched the video of the 1981 match between Higgins and Davies which Davies won 9-8 and while it was enthralling the quality of the game considering they were the two best at the time was pretty poor compared to todays players.
A few things I noticed was that Higgins was a fecking lunatic and how did he pot balls with that technique, neither player seemed to play many cannons and were content to take cushion balls on which they seemed better at then the current players.
 
There's a mad stat which Andy Goldstein resurrected on TalkSport the other week, that Alex Higgins made 86 centuries in his entire career, and never made higher than 142 in professional play.

And that's over a 25 year career.

Compare that to Ronnie who currently sits on 1,163 centuries and has made at least one maximum in 12 different seasons.

While some will say the quality of the game has perhaps peaked and might be on the slide (it's difficult to argue while the CO92 continue to dominate) it's undoubtedly light years ahead of previous generations.

I'm not sure about quality of tables, pocket sizes etc. and the quality of the coaching (there are also many more ranking events these days) but it seems to me a journeyman player of this generation, say in the 50s ranking wise could go back to the 70s/80s and pretty much clean up.
 
I sometimes wonder if the players are just that much better now, or if the pockets are far more accepting. More and more, I see shots being played that don't look like they'll go in, yet they still find the pocket some way or other. Maybe I'm becoming paranoid and the players really have just mastered the art.
 
Parma Dewol said:
I sometimes wonder if the players are just that much better now, or if the pockets are far more accepting. More and more, I see shots being played that don't look like they'll go in, yet they still find the pocket some way or other. Maybe I'm becoming paranoid and the players really have just mastered the art.
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We have the same opinion.
 
ChrisNelson said:
There's a mad stat which Andy Goldstein resurrected on TalkSport the other week, that Alex Higgins made 86 centuries in his entire career, and never made higher than 142 in professional play.

And that's over a 25 year career.

Compare that to Ronnie who currently sits on 1,163 centuries and has made at least one maximum in 12 different seasons.

While some will say the quality of the game has perhaps peaked and might be on the slide (it's difficult to argue while the CO92 continue to dominate) it's undoubtedly light years ahead of previous generations.

I'm not sure about quality of tables, pocket sizes etc. and the quality of the coaching (there are also many more ranking events these days) but it seems to me a journeyman player of this generation, say in the 50s ranking wise could go back to the 70s/80s and pretty much clean up.
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Pretty sure I said as much as this earlier in this thread when someone claimed Alex was better than Ronnie. It’s honestly absolute nonsense.
 
Bondi77 said:
I recently watched the video of the 1981 match between Higgins and Davies which Davies won 9-8 and while it was enthralling the quality of the game considering they were the two best at the time was pretty poor compared to todays players.
A few things I noticed was that Higgins was a fecking lunatic and how did he pot balls with that technique, neither player seemed to play many cannons and were content to take cushion balls on which they seemed better at then the current players.
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If you get a chance you should watch the infamous White vs Higgins semi-final. A certain blue into the green pocket by Higgins and the screw back to this day many are still staggered as to how he did it. Given the circumstances White needed only the one frame, for Higgins it was no miss snooker but some of the shots absolutely spellbinding and well worth a look.
 
I had a look at the last 16 game in 2010 between Davis and John Higgins today and while it was not a break building fest it really was an enthralling match.
Great to see the aging nugget get the victory but Higgins had some shocking bad luck and blew a lot of games with some shocking shots.
 
Off and running for the 22/23 season!

Kyren Wilson defeated Barry Hawkins last night 9-3 in the final of the European Masters. It was a poor quality final but a 5th ranking title for Wilson.

Bit of a break now, although there are some qualifiers for the NI Open for 6 days starting tomorrow.

September sees the 6-Reds World Championship, newly re-launched World Mixed Doubles and British Open.
 
My buddy Ryan Day just won the British Open to really restart his career.

Chuffed for him.
 
Great win, especially to pull clear when neither player had been in front by more than one frame until it got to 7-7.

Chuffed for him, one of the nice guys of the circuit, gets a healthy payday.

Really thought Mark Allen was going to do it from the second round onwards really, he looked so strong and of course he's used to going deep in ranking events.

The weight loss really seems to have helped his game and I hope he goes on to have a good season.

Made me chuckle when they were getting ready to start one of the frames and it was half time at the Etihad, they're both United fans and word of the score got through, they were having some banter about it which was nice to see.

Honk Kong Masters now, starting on Thursday (only 8 players in this) before the Scottish Open Qualifiers then the Northern Ireland Open.
 
Northern Ireland Open in full swing.

Potential last 32 matches include Stephen Maguire vs. Kyren Wilson, Stuart Bingham vs. David Gilbert and Anthony McGill vs. Yan Bingtao, most seeds going very well so far.
 
Champion of Champions starts today, live on ITV4 in the UK.

1pm
Mark Selby v Lee Walker (best of 7)
John Higgins v Hossein Vafaei (best of 7)

7pm
Winners of above matches (best of 11)

Lee Walker qualifies as World Seniors Champion, he is the only amateur in the draw.

Mink Nutcharut represents the Womens Tour.
 
UK Championship starts tomorrow in York (got my tickets booked for next week :) )

Only 16 matches in the first round proper but it presents some awesome potential matches as early as the second round.

Draw in bracket form:

Zhao Xintong (1) vs. Sam Craigie
Ryan Day (16) vs. Jimmy White
Mark Allen (9) vs. Jordan Brown
Kyren Wilson (8) vs. Matthew Selt
Mark Selby (5) vs. Hossein Vafaei
Jack Lisowski (12) vs. Xu Si
Shaun Murphy (13) vs. David Gilbert
Judd Trump (4) vs. Xiao Guodong
Neil Robertson (3) vs. Joe Perry
Stuart Bingham (14) vs. Liam Highfield
Luca Brecel (11) vs. Lyu Haotian
John Higgins (6) vs. Tom Ford
Mark Williams (7) vs. Jamie Clarke
Barry Hawkins (10) vs. Ding Junhui
Yan Bingtao (15) vs. Zhou Yuelong
Ronnie O'Sullivan (2) vs. Matthew Stevens
 
Just to be sure this is one of the competitions that Ronnie treats seriously, right?
 
Was watching some fantastic qualifiers during the week. Ding was on for a 147 but missed a spotted Yellow with a rest
 
Something fishy is going on at the Snooker:

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Ronnie is the greatest of all time imo but it’s kind of bad that he is sleep walking through these games.

No one is putting up a fight.
 
Sweet Square said:
Ronnie is the greatest of all time imo but it’s kind of bad that he is sleep walking through these games.

No one is putting up a fight.
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Nobody gave him a game in the Worlds and he’s cruising through this. That’s the problem when the likes of Robertson, Selby, Higgins etc drop, nobody is there to replace them.
 
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