Murphy is adamant it’s tactical and he’s trying to drag Hawkins down but I reckon that is bollocks. He looks shot of confidence and doesn’t trust the table. His body language is awful, he looks beat already this isn’t some Ebdon style psychological battle.
Redcafe Snooker
- Thread starter Ronnie O'Sullivan
- Start date
I'm sure I heard from Mark himself that he has started to be much more aware of how important mind games/matchplay/mentality etc is to his success hence why he may have become abit more emotionless.
You say he is boring, fair enough, I think he is far from it now.
He got off the piss didn't he?
Final could be going all the way. Hawkins played some lovely stuff the last couple of frames.
Shame Hawkins couldn’t take it to a decider, finally found his rhythm but left it too late in the end.
Credit to Trump, tough route to the final but his quality showed.
Credit to Trump, tough route to the final but his quality showed.
Very sad to hear of the passing of Terry Griffiths.
A top, top player in his day - one of only a handful of players to have won all three of the Triple Crown events.
And a fantastic coach, one of the most popular in the game.
He always came across as such a likeable guy too, RIP Terry.
A top, top player in his day - one of only a handful of players to have won all three of the Triple Crown events.
And a fantastic coach, one of the most popular in the game.
He always came across as such a likeable guy too, RIP Terry.
Not snooker, but closest thread to it.
Anyone been watching the mosconi cup?
Jayson Shaw is an absolute bellend, I have no doubt he'd be a Liverpool player or John Terry's best mate if he played football.
Walks about like some big hard man, he's just a feckin dweeb.
Anyone been watching the mosconi cup?
Jayson Shaw is an absolute bellend, I have no doubt he'd be a Liverpool player or John Terry's best mate if he played football.
Walks about like some big hard man, he's just a feckin dweeb.
Got it on he's playing now.
Always makes me laugh how seriously some of these take it. I know they get paid more for winning but the entertainment of some attitudes is part of the draw.
Earl the Pearl had to be watched back in the day he was enthralling.
Aye Earl was atleast funny in a madman kind of way. Shaw just thinks he's like a heavyweight boxer and world famous. Seen him celebrate a flukey as hell 9 ball the other day, like he meant to do it.
What channel is this on?
Sky Sports HD
Shoot out from tomorrow!
Tom Ford wins the Shootout… in his hometown of Leicester.
Great final hour or so, pleased for Tom to be a ranking event winner.
Having said that, still a mockery of the game that it’s a ranking event but there you go!
Great final hour or so, pleased for Tom to be a ranking event winner.
Having said that, still a mockery of the game that it’s a ranking event but there you go!
The tournament should be used as an advert for why there should be responsible selling of alcohol.
So true
Absolute shambles from Matthew Selt against a young opponent who was on a century
Defending champion O'Sullivan withdraws from Masters
BBC Sport
Not great for the sport with his recent behaviour and now this, especially for ticket holders for his match against John Higgins!
But the show goes on, seems like his gradual slide away from snooker is gathering pace.
On the other hand, I'm more interested in the tournament now that it won't be the Ronnie show.
Snooker needs to do something to excite the casual like Darts has. I suppose that's been helped with the rise of Littler. They really need a new phenom to take the game by storm.
Same here!
Had the Masters on along with our match. Robertson wow, phenomenal once he went 5-1 down to win 5 in a row.
Williams vs Ding
Wow!
Have to say it's been a brilliant start to the Masters.
Wow!
Have to say it's been a brilliant start to the Masters.
What does everyone think about the standard of snooker these days?
There’s too many of these journeyman types guys still around like Carter and Hawkins who never really have any chance of winning something significant. Even someone like John Higgins is just on his last legs.
I should add I still enjoy watching it, buts its like every tournament the same players turn up and their job is just to lose at one stage or another.
There’s too many of these journeyman types guys still around like Carter and Hawkins who never really have any chance of winning something significant. Even someone like John Higgins is just on his last legs.
I should add I still enjoy watching it, buts its like every tournament the same players turn up and their job is just to lose at one stage or another.
It's still very high but it does feel like we're at or at least approaching a crossroads - not least because Barry Hearn is almost certainly going to break all of his promises and betray the entire sport by taking the World Championship to Saudi Arabia or somewhere else with money but no snooker players in the top 1,000 in the world.
But also because if you look at the world rankings Ronnie is still there at 3, Selby at 5, Williams at 6, Murphy at 7 (20 years this year from his Crucible win), Ding at 9, Ali Carter at 11... the list goes on.
There's no Luke Littler type coming up through the rankings, at least not in England anyway.
There is still a lot of money to be made at the very top end of the sport but I do think it has become less fashionable and while new darts academies are popping up everywhere and more people are playing than ever, snooker has the opposite problem with clubs shutting and participation numbers falling.
If the Worlds do leave the UK then the backside will fall out of snooker in this country and in ten years time I wouldn't mind betting the entire top ten if not more will be Asian players.
Another disappointing match this afternoon as Trump demolishes Hawkins.
But also because if you look at the world rankings Ronnie is still there at 3, Selby at 5, Williams at 6, Murphy at 7 (20 years this year from his Crucible win), Ding at 9, Ali Carter at 11... the list goes on.
There's no Luke Littler type coming up through the rankings, at least not in England anyway.
There is still a lot of money to be made at the very top end of the sport but I do think it has become less fashionable and while new darts academies are popping up everywhere and more people are playing than ever, snooker has the opposite problem with clubs shutting and participation numbers falling.
If the Worlds do leave the UK then the backside will fall out of snooker in this country and in ten years time I wouldn't mind betting the entire top ten if not more will be Asian players.
Another disappointing match this afternoon as Trump demolishes Hawkins.
Good summary!
Snooker been on the decline in the UK for a while now. So many clubs have closed over the last 10-15 years and very few youngsters taking up the game. It's hard to see how it has a future once this generation have finished.
Its probably the weakest top 16 line up for the Masters I can remember for many years.
Its probably the weakest top 16 line up for the Masters I can remember for many years.
Sadly, I agree with all of that.
It's not on its own - pretty much everything that I previously enjoyed has either ended, or been changed / changing beyond recognition and in ways that mean they no longer appeal anywhere near as much to me as they look to target very different demographic of supporters.
Snooker was one of the last that's been hanging in there on the surface - but with the very obvious fact that it was inevitably heading in the direction described sooner rather than later. As ChrisNelson says, it feels like its pretty much at that crossroads now and is fully heading in that inevitable direction of soon being very Asian based and dominated.
The WST have done little to try to address the declining levels in the UK - such as funding snooker halls to help provide facilities for the next generation of UK players to practice - as the long term aim has clearly been to push it towards the Asian markets and then let it be mostly based there. Sadly, that's clearly imminent now and so I'm sure will become yet another thing that I take steps back from and follow far less.
I still think the lineup this year is very strong.
If you look at the QF's - bearing in mind there's no Ronnie, it's already got three cracking matches lined up (Robertson vs. Murphy, Allen vs. Selby and Trump vs. Ding) with possibly the last two World Champions (Brecel and K. Wilson) to meet in the other, to be decided today.
Potentially 6 of the 8 quarter-finalists will be previous World Champions, with one runner-up too.
So I don't agree that it's particularly weak this year but I certainly think it's on a downward trajectory.
Have they tried to show one of the more fast paced and dare I say 'fun' events on free tv? Darts is fun for the neutral because it's fast paced and the atmosphere is electric. Something like the Masters or World Champs in Snooker is boring for the neutral, especially with the gentlemen outfit and etiquette. I'd have thought if they showed one of the other events and let people be a bit more loose it could draw in a younger crowd.
It's so sad that that does indeed seem to be how everything has to change, and move away from what existing fans love about it, in order to desperately try to appeal to 'new / younger' demographics.
It's the same with Cricket. Only chance of attracting a newer, younger crowd is thought to be reducing the game to Twenty20, then The Hundred, next will probably be something even shorter. All with more gimmicky things regarding rules, and loud and zany entertainments around the ground.
Something like the Snooker Shoot Out - with it's one ten minute frame, shot clock, drunk raucous crowd, etc - might well get some more viewing figures per programme on free to air TV than the longer formats due to the novelty factor. But I'm not sure how long term those fans will be - as it's so very different than the rest of the snooker tournaments and I can't see many who can only really be entertained by a shoot-out / The Hundred type format really taking to the much slower, genteel longer formats of snooker and cricket.
It's a bit like all those sports in the Olympics that people 'get into' for a week or two every 4 years but then never bother about until the next one. And that's the same format of those sports being performed. This is complete chalk and cheese. There's an argument that a bit of positive free to air viewing can only be a good thing. But the danger can also be that they chase the money and start increasing the amounts of the shorter format, gimmicky versions that are more suited to the neutral viewer and start reducing the length or amount of the traditional longer formats that are beloved by actual fans of the sport.
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I think it's mostly the cost of playing the game. Same around me, all the halls are closed, there'd be huge setup costs involved, plus insurance, light, maintenance, staff. They aren't cheap facilities to setup and keep open.
The cost of playing darts is much much lower, for less than £100, you'd have a very good home setup. Costs next to nothing to go play in the local pubs and clubs either. You can get good darts relatively cheap and just upgrade and add to them over time.
Snooker, you're looking at the cost of the cue, rental fees for tables amongst other things. It's just too expensive for most people to even bother with. If you wanted to setup at home it requires a lot more space and hell of a lot more money.
Dumbing down the game to make it attractive to a younger audience may increase viewership, but if there's nowhere to play or the cost is too high then it won't really matter when it comes to increasing participation.
Yeah, good points.
Viewership wise, it's more the general issue facing everything - that reduced concentration spans, and increase amount of competition in a technological age, means that shorter, quicker, zanier formats are targeted rather than longer, more formal ones that require more patience and time commitment from the supporters / viewers.
But the big issue more specific to Snooker (in the UK, not Asia) is participation when it comes to future generations of players. As you say, the cost of that for more general businesses makes Snooker halls not worth it, which is why they've declined. It really needed some official ones funded by the WST built around the country, but they've not bothered as the plan has clearly been for some time to push the tour more and more towards Asia and increasingly move it away from the UK.
Same in Ireland.
There's very few places to actually play it, a few pubs around used to have tables and it was 50p for 30mins on the lights. Then it went up to €5 per hour. I know of 1 pub that still has one and it's only because the guy running it was very close to being a pro player at one point. I think a lot of the clubs now are members only, so there's very little scope for casual players to go and pick up the game.
There was one in my local community centre, but the tables were all removed, they're all stored in a squash hall that now can't be used for squash either. The old snooker room gets used for fitness classes and indoor bowls.
I think it's the same for all sports, if the facilities are there and accessible, then you will get people interested. If there were very few football pitches and the cost of playing was too high, you wouldn't have high participation levels.
Obviously, I think a lot of older fans and I'd include myself in that now, prefer the longer formats. But, they're going to have to do something to improve the appeal as well as participation. In the 20+ years I've been watching it it's nearly always been the same handful of players in the top 10 over and over every year.
Ronnie is probably the last young player to come through and have the sort of impact we're seeing Littler have with darts.
I was really basing it on form and the fact the likes of Chris Wakelin is in it, it's weak in that respect. Obviously on paper the names through are proven winners, but I terms of form, only Kyren and Judd are the real standout players over the past few seasons.
The standard has been good so far though, I think because it's wide open, they all fancy they can win this, so hopefully it continues.
Some high level safety play here from the two Marks. This is what I call snooker.
That miss with the rest by Ding to go 4:2 up it's playing on his mind. Trump with the upper hand now I think.
Murphy with the 147!!!
There are no easy 147s, but that was a virtually perfect table for Murphy.
True, but cracking opening red. Could see how determined he was having messed up another opportunity earlier this week. They were perfectly placed, but his cue ball control was outstanding, made it look easy.
Totally agree. He made that swerve look easy.