Redcafe Snooker

Artemijs Zizins is the first player to win today and guarantee his place on the Main tour from next season after beating Kayden Brierley 4-2. :drool:

I don't know how many games he'll win because he's still young and raw, but he's well worth watching with his attacking style and potting ability. Very much in the Milkins / Brecel style than Lawler or McLeod!
 
Along with Artemijs Zizins (:)), the other three from Event 1 who have just successfully booked their place on the Main Tour are Haydon Pinhey, Allan Taylor, Wang Yuchen.

Haydon Pinhey's 27 years old and has been an Amateur that's been there or thereabouts for quite a while so interesting to see how he does and I'm pleased for him to finally get on the Tour for the first time.

Allan Taylor's a bit of a dull one for me. A 39 year old who's often on the tour but never makes much of an impression.

I'm frustrated about China / Hong Kong's (he's represented both), Wang Yuchen, getting through for two reasons. He beat Dylan Emery (4-3), who I wanted to retain his place on the tour - and I don't think Yuchen should be in these qualifiers anyway.

All the other qualifying sections have 'regions' - two for different parts of Asia, an American one, African one... But what should be the UK and European one is just an open event that anyone in the world can participate in (so long as they haven't already opted for the others in their region).

I don't agree with that. If all the other qualifiers can be for specific regions, why can't the UK and Europe one be as well instead of having to be an open event where people from any region in the world can participate and take one of the vital qualifying spots?

Even more so as there used to be 3 of these UK events - so 12 qualifiers - but now just 2 events and just 8 qualifiers as there's a lot more qualifiers now from the regional Q Schools from Asia, Africa, Americas, etc, as well. So they've already lost 4 spots, and the region isn't even guaranteed those remaining 8 either.
 
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Pleased for Zizins who seems a breath of fresh air and I agree with you about Allan Taylor.

A very on and off (tour) player, he even spent one season doing some MC'ing for the tournaments. He will make absolutely no impact over the next two seasons.

Zizins is a good one to welcome on tour because he's only 17, Taylor is in his late 30s and the other two are in their mid 20s so it's not really that exciting of a lineup.

As for the format it's clear that World Snooker want someone from outside the UK to win the title again, the main draw at Sheffield this year was still heavily dominated by British players and WS are desperate to rectify this before the tournament leaves the UK.

Over in Q School 2 I think Gary Thomson will be looking for a new sport to play. Ng On Yee was the beneficiary of two of the biggest flukes I've ever seen against him, including on the match deciding black and he will be sick as a dog. Tonly Knowles remains alive and kicking in that draw.
 
ChrisNelson said:
Pleased for Zizins who seems a breath of fresh air and I agree with you about Allan Taylor.

A very on and off (tour) player, he even spent one season doing some MC'ing for the tournaments. He will make absolutely no impact over the next two seasons.

Zizins is a good one to welcome on tour because he's only 17, Taylor is in his late 30s and the other two are in their mid 20s so it's not really that exciting of a lineup.

As for the format it's clear that World Snooker want someone from outside the UK to win the title again, the main draw at Sheffield this year was still heavily dominated by British players and WS are desperate to rectify this before the tournament leaves the UK.

Over in Q School 2 I think Gary Thomson will be looking for a new sport to play. Ng On Yee was the beneficiary of two of the biggest flukes I've ever seen against him, including on the match deciding black and he will be sick as a dog. Tonly Knowles remains alive and kicking in that draw.
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Yeah, I saw that. You always hear about 'good advertising for...' - it would have been a particularly bad advertisement for the women's game had the person who'd just won the latest tournament (and is one of the top female players) lost in the first amateur round straight after!

Mind you, she lost tonight 4-0 in the 2nd round - after losing 4-1 in the 2nd round of the first event - so still a pretty poor advertisement overall.

Again hoping to see Iulian Boiko, Florian Nuessle and Dylan Emery qualify. Emery came within one frame in the first event of an immediate return to the tour.
 
I don't think she was ever going to get a card to be fair, her game just isn't quite there.

I do think that while the main tour is still quite strong, the quality of Q School is declining.

I would like to see Luke Pinches qualify although he faces a very tough match in Craig Steadman.
 
Just noticed that Artemijs Zizins was due to play Haydon Pinhey today in just the 2nd round of the event. That would have been a tough early round match for both!

Obviously, they both qualified for the Main Tour from the first event so that match won't take place at all - and the person who would have faced the winner in a tough round 3 game will now get a bye in that round instead.
 
Getting close to the end of the second Q School event. Round's 4 and 5 today, with the final round tomorrow to decide which four players get on the Main Tour.

After the first 4th round games today, we already know that it's going to be James Cahill / Antoni Kowalski v Simon Blackwell / Hamim Hussain in one of tomorrow's deciders.

And Dylan Emery / Chris Totten v Lewis Ullah / Steven Hallworth for another spot.

Would like to see James Cahill and Dylan Emery (or Steven Hallworth) make it onto the Tour out of those.

This afternoon's 4th round games include Iulian Boiko v Mark Joyce. I'm wanting Boiko to get back on the tour, but Joyce is one of the toughest opponents in Q School given his 16 consecutive years of Main Tour experience that only ended (for now) at the end of the season just finished.
 
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Great win for Iulian Boiko, beating Mark Joyce 4-0. So into tonight's 5th (penultimate) round.

Elsewhere, there must be an undercurrent between Anton Kazakov and Andres Petrov?

In the second frame, Kazakov carried on looking for snookers on the colours a little longer than I'd have expected, but I didn't think too much of it. Then in the 3rd frame, Petrov (already 2-0 up) carried on when 89-0 down with just 3 reds left. And even carried on later on when 99-7 down with just the final four colours left!

Currently 2-1 to Petrov, interesting to see if that kind of thing continues or if they start acting sensibly.
 
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Tomorrow's final round matches are:

Iulian Boiko v Farakh Ajaib
Chris Totten v Lewis Ullah
Antoni Kowalski v Simon Blackwell
Mitchell Mann v Joshua Thomond

The first of those is the one I'm most bothered about, as Boiko is the one of the eight that I'm most eager to see on the tour, and Ajaib the least.

Of the others, would like to see Kowalski win. And maybe prefer Mitchell Mann. Have no preference in the Totten v Ullah game (I was hoping it would be Emery v Hallworth instead, but they both lost tonight to Totten and Ullah).
 
The four Q School winners for event 2 were: Farakh Ajaib, Chris Totten, Antoni Kowalski, Mitchell Mann.

Fairly uninspiring bunch for me. Was hoping Iulian Boiko would get through from the start, and even more so against Ajaib, but he's missed out once again!

Chris Totten is a 25 year old from Scotland. He seems a very slow player - I'm seeing 30+, even 40+, AST's for his matches here.

Mitchell Mann is 32 and returns to the Tour after a couple of years off it - but he never made much of an impact while on it.

Antoni Kowalski is a young Polish player who qualifies for the first time. So I'm pleased for him, but would have preferred Boiko or Nuessle to get through instead (or as well).

Of the eight qualifiers, only Artemijs Zizins was one that I'd have chosen at the start. So disappointed to see the likes of Boiko, Nuessle, Emery, Cahill miss out.
 
A few potential youngsters of the future to look out for who all won a game or two at Q School...

Moldova's Vladislav Gradinari is one that's been about for a couple of years now - he's currently 15.

Shaun Liu of Hong Kong is only 13. He's named after Shaun Murphy as his mum is a huge fan of his (which might not endear him to some on here :)).

England's Adam Abbas is just 11 but beat Tyler Rees 4-3 in an early round.
 
I assume you're doubly disappointed with Cahill's defeat with it coming on the final black!

The age of some of the players entering Q School is crazy when you think about it.

There's an article on the BBC Sport website about Mitchell Mann, he's never been higher than 70 in the world but he has played at the Crucible.

I can't see any of the qualifiers this year having an impact on the tour to be honest, it really feels a bit like the gap between the Premier League and the Championship, widening by the year.

The only thing that can arrest it is if one of these kids turns out to be the Luke Littler of snooker.
 
Yeah, I felt for Cahill losing on the final black like that. Though he wasn't one that I was overly invested in getting back on tour - he was just one that I had more of a passing interest in.

I was much more disappointed that Boiko missed out again. That's 3 of the 4 Q School events in the last couple of years that he's suffered final round defeat! Even when he got onto the tour as a 14 year old it was courtesy of being runner up in an event - so he seems to have Jack Lisowski level of bottling when it matters . :(

I saw that BBC article about Mitchell Mann. I hadn't realised he'd 'quit' the sport twice. Though I do remember reading he was struggling with drink, drugs and depression isssues at points while on the tour so not a surprise that he's considered giving it up at times. I'm pleased for him that he seems to be in a better place and has got back on the tour, though I'd be (pleasantly) surprised if he makes much of an impact this time around either.
 
ChrisNelson said:
Meant to post this the other day.

Michael White has been jailed for assaulting his partner.

He has subsequently been thrown off the tour.

I doubt we'll see him back on it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c72546evnpxo
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As a fan of his when he was initially on the Tour and winning titles, then following his efforts to get back on it after his personal struggles led to him falling off the Tour, I was absoloutely gutted when I saw that. :(

Really shitty part of being a fan of sports / entertainment stars nowadays is that every day I now fear to see their name when I Google as it's likely to mean they've died or done / been accused of something.

As you say, probably unlikely to ever return now. And, unlike with the match fixers who'll be allowed back on at the end of their ban, there'll probably be loud calls from non-Snooker related people for him not to be allowed a Tour card even if he did try a comeback and qualified.
 
I have just seen that Ray Reardon passed away a day ago.
Sad to see it, legend of the game, RIP
 
Pleased to see Judd finally win the Shanghai Masters (shame it was only after it stopped being a Ranking event!)

After the shock news just before the tournament that one of my favourite players had been jailed and so, inevitably, removed from the Tour (Michael White), I'm glad it at least ended with a win for one of my other favourite players.
 
Great effort from Julian Leclercq in the Xi'an Grand Prix Qualifiers - 4-0 down to Ben Woolaston, and only scoring 45 points in those frames, he came back to win 5-4.

That said, it's not a particularly exciting start to the Snooker season. The lengthy, under the radar Championship League. Then after a gap, a non-ranking invitational tournament in Asia. And now the next couple of months are either qualifiers or a couple more Asian tournaments, including another invitational one.

The first real UK ranking tournaments isn't until Mid-september. So it kind of feels the season has started but not really started for the first 3 months. Kind of an elongated pre-season with plenty of friendly / exhibition matches.
 
Good win for Stan Moody today in the qualifiers - beating Matthew Stevens 5-2, with a 135 break to win the match.

After a disappointing first season, his most realistic chance of staying on the tour at the end of the season is on the one year list - if he has a better season this year. Just hope he has a better second season anyway and shows good progression from his first year.
 
Was a great win for Stan but he faces a very tough draw in the British Open Q's which run back to back with the China ones - he faces Joe O'Connor who will start favourite.

He also has to play Ryan Day now he's qualified for China.
 
Another impressive win for Stan Moody, beating Joe O' Connor (ranked in the top 30) in the British Open qualifiers, 4-2.
 
Judd Trump has got back to being world #1. :)

First time since late 2021, which is a bit of a surprise given how many tournaments he wins - but it's often so weighted towards who has the £500,000 for the last two world championships.

He's started off this season great, with 10 straight wins - winning the Shanghai Masters and now in the final of the Xi'an Grand Prix. Though this one has been a bit funny - comfortable wins, only dropping 5 frames across his 5 matches so far, and a number of 50-99 breaks, but yet to record a century.

A very tasty looking final: Current #1 Judd Trump v Current World Champion Kyren Wilson.

Another major tournament coming up in Asia after this - the new Saudi Arabia Masters. And then finally some of the British based ranking events start from the middle of September.
 
What a final!!
That final frame was so similar to the White Higgins clash all those years ago apart from Judd being superb positionally in his clearance.
 
Just been watching a bit of the snooker, Yuan sijun, Vs some lad from Hungary. Hilarious stuff.

Thought Yuan Sijuns play looked iffy, along with his body language. He over acts his disappointment at a bad shot, and misses some absolute sitters.

Google him, and he is mentioned in match fixing but no charges, an unimpressive witness or something. He definitely looks dodgy as feck.

Edit: staged a mini comeback only for the other fella to knock it a proper flukey red and then clean up to take the match.
 
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Delighted for Robertson. Great to see him back winning, and back in the Top 16 for now. Also gets him back into a few of those tournaments like Champion of Champions and Players Series.

The tournament looked like it was heading towards a poor one for me, with most of the players I like out early and even Judd falling at the QF's. Fortunately, Robbo came through. Though I started to fear he was going to end up losing in heartbreaking fashion from 8-2 up! He really stumbled over the line in the evening session after such an impressive afternoon session and tournament overall. Wu Yize had him rocking with his comeback, but delighted that he finally did it. :)
 
Yes very pleased for him too. He was almost becoming a forgotten man of snooker.

Not the final many would have had in mind!

Straight back to action today with the British Open at Cheltenham where some big hitters are in action today and there are some belting fixtures in what is effectively the final qualifying round which have been held over to the main arena including Milkins v Trump and G. Wilson v Allen.

Ronnie also plays tonight if he can be bothered.
 
ChrisNelson said:
Yes very pleased for him too. He was almost becoming a forgotten man of snooker.

Not the final many would have had in mind!

Straight back to action today with the British Open at Cheltenham where some big hitters are in action today and there are some belting fixtures in what is effectively the final qualifying round which have been held over to the main arena including Milkins v Trump and G. Wilson v Allen.

Ronnie also plays tonight if he can be bothered.
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Yeah, I was amazed to see those as qualifying matches! Was it an open draw or something, so anyone could draw anyone else, regardless of ranking? If so, I'd forgotten that! Very tough early round matches for those players.
 
Bertie Wooster said:
Yeah, I was amazed to see those as qualifying matches! Was it an open draw or something, so anyone could draw anyone else, regardless of ranking? If so, I'd forgotten that! Very tough early round matches for those players.
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Yeah this one is drawn at random!

I suppose it makes a nice change as there are so few snooker tournaments which aren't seeded. I remember when they started the UK Open darts tournament, it was like the FA Cup of darts and I think all sports need at least one run this way.

I also didn't realise until reading just now that John Higgins has now dropped out of the top 16, replaced by Robbo!

He could of course get straight back in but he plays Ross Muir in round one which won't be easy, fellow Scot will want to do well in that one.
 
ChrisNelson said:
Yes very pleased for him too. He was almost becoming a forgotten man of snooker.

Not the final many would have had in mind!

Straight back to action today with the British Open at Cheltenham where some big hitters are in action today and there are some belting fixtures in what is effectively the final qualifying round which have been held over to the main arena including Milkins v Trump and G. Wilson v Allen.

Ronnie also plays tonight if he can be bothered.
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No, he hasn't bothered! :mad:

Now withdrawn and replaced by Lewis Ullah. He's really doing all he can to help kill the British tournaments and promote the Asian ones. Wish it was the other way round, but money talks of course.
 
Bertie Wooster said:
No, he hasn't bothered! :mad:

Now withdrawn and replaced by Lewis Ullah. He's really doing all he can to help kill the British tournaments and promote the Asian ones. Wish it was the other way round, but money talks of course.
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Yes you're spot on mate, very sad. Does lots of complaining about the game but by withdrawing from a tournament like this and constantly heading to China, where does he expect the next generation to find their inspiration?

Snooker is already huge in China, it's produced lots of top players in the last two decades and doesn't need Ronnie to push it along.

In the UK however it's difficult to see where the next superstar is.
 
Impressive wins for a couple of the teenagers on the tour tonight.

Liam Davies beat Barry Hawkins 4-1, and Hungary's Bulcsu Revesz beat Ali Carter 4-3.
 
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Bertie Wooster said:
Impressive wins for a couple of the teenagers on the tour tonight.

Liam Davies beat Barry Hawkins 4-1, and Hungary's Bulcsu Revesz beat Ali Carter 4-3.
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And another one this morning - Iulian Boiko, actually an amateur after agonisingly missing out at the last round a few times in the last couple of years, beat Si Juahui 4-1.

EDIT: And another one - Stan Moody beating Michael Holt 4-0.
 
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Another nice win for Liam Davies this morning - not as big an opponent as Barry Hawkins, but a comfortable 4-0 win over Anton Kazakov.

Unfortunately, he goes through to play Luca Brecel - I hate it when players I like draw each other. Also tough top 16 opponents coming up for Stan Moody and Iulian Boiko - they're playing Zhang Anda and Jak Jones. And if Ben Mertens beats Hammad Miah (EDIT - he did, 4-1), then he plays Mark Allen!

With an open draw, I was hoping they might get an easier route for once. But can't see many of those youngsters getting passed those 3rd round opponents.

EDIT: Great effort from Stan Moody - beating world #12 Zhang Anda 4-3. Especially good effort to win the decider, having led by 40 with 51 on in the frame before, looking set to win, before losing on the final black. Did well to recover from that and win the decider.
 
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I thought when I logged on this morning you'd be here with a Stan Moody comment :) phenomenal result for the lad and he seems a good kid too, hopefully he can carry it on.

Shame to see Neil Robertson go out as I was hoping he'd have another deep run but it didn't help that the Selby match went on so late and both matches on table one went to a decider.

Some cracking matches in both the L32 and L16 today (with some players having to play twice) including Higgins v Dott, Davis v Trump (Maguire awaits the winner), Fu v Wilson and Lyu v Gilbert.
 
What’s everyone thinking with regards to Ronnie? His usual antics and bleating or are we genuinely seeing the beginning of his decline? It’s not uncommon for players to fall off a cliff when they reach a certain age and he’s done well to get well beyond the median in that regard so it wouldn’t be a surprise if this is it for him and I can’t see him being a player that will dodder around the circuits playing inconsistent snooker rarely getting beyond a quarter final, I think that would be soul destroying for him.

Equally I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s just not practicing at the moment and has just been enjoying life on the side for a while with exhibitions and well paid media commitments as the only thing that motivates him anymore is getting that 8th world title and closer to the start of the world championships he will get back to 8 hours a day on the practice table and start getting his match sharpness back sometime around the Welsh open?
 
Pexbo said:
What’s everyone thinking with regards to Ronnie? His usual antics and bleating or are we genuinely seeing the beginning of his decline? It’s not uncommon for players to fall off a cliff when they reach a certain age and he’s done well to get well beyond the median in that regard so it wouldn’t be a surprise if this is it for him and I can’t see him being a player that will dodder around the circuits playing inconsistent snooker rarely getting beyond a quarter final, I think that would be soul destroying for him.

Equally I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s just not practicing at the moment and has just been enjoying life on the side for a while with exhibitions and well paid media commitments as the only thing that motivates him anymore is getting that 8th world title and closer to the start of the world championships he will get back to 8 hours a day on the practice table and start getting his match sharpness back sometime around the Welsh open?
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Him dropping out of this tournament was one of the most predictable things in recent years. He will do it many more times this season but then conveniently pop up in China.

It's such a difficult one to judge because no one in the history of the sport (and hardly in any other sport) has continued to perform to such a level as he has, well in to his 40s.

There have been occasions in the past ten years or so where he's had a mini slump and people have said he's on the decline only for him to come back and win the Worlds again.

As you say, he will never accept being an also-ran, he will just quit before that happens or at least dedicate himself purely to exhibitions rather than competitions.

The only thing that will be eating away at him is not pulling clear of Hendry with an eighth title at Sheffield, while most would agree he's the best ever that would end any debate.

While the snooker world will miss his ability and flair, it certainly won't miss his attitude and constant complaining towards the sport that earned him so much money!
 
ChrisNelson said:
I thought when I logged on this morning you'd be here with a Stan Moody comment :) phenomenal result for the lad and he seems a good kid too, hopefully he can carry it on.

Shame to see Neil Robertson go out as I was hoping he'd have another deep run but it didn't help that the Selby match went on so late and both matches on table one went to a decider.

Some cracking matches in both the L32 and L16 today (with some players having to play twice) including Higgins v Dott, Davis v Trump (Maguire awaits the winner), Fu v Wilson and Lyu v Gilbert.
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:lol:

Yeah, real shame for Robertson.

And very frustrating as that's a game he should have won, but as you say being second on, and having to hang around until the first match finally ended so late, didn't help at all. And the standard of the tables (and overall temperature of the room) doesn't seem great either. All added to a poorer quality, bitty match that suited the opponent much more - and he got better as it went on and he gained belief, whereas Robbo just got worse and worse (his long potting became dreadful!)

Stan Moody's got a decent draw in the next round - Oliver Lines or Sunny Akani. Can just as easily lose it of course, but it's as winnable a match as any of them can hope for at the last 16 stage.

Don't hold out much hope for Ben Mertens v Mark Allen - though Allen doesn't seem in the best of moods / mindsets so far. And, similarly, Liam Davies' chances v Brecel very much depend on which Luca turns up. If he's on form, Davies hasn't much chance either. If it's one of his disinterested days, then Liam has a chance to benefit from it.

I agree with Neal Foulds when he said last night that it should really be organised so that both or neither of the players have to play twice in a day, rather than one having to do it and his opponent not. The likes of Maguire will be hoping Judd has a lengthy battle this afternoon while he's resting and awaiting the winner.
 
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