Redcafe Snooker

Another day, another bore off Ronnie look at me story:


http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/snooker/36136874

Snooker is hardly a blockbuster sport, it's well down the list of popular past times in this country and around the world. And he plays a lot fewer tournaments these days so really the spotlight is properly on him for 2 weeks of the year. Diddums.

Don't agree.

In fairness to Ronnie he obviously suffers mentally, and he has some key people around him to try and keep his emotions in check. It is very easy to have a go, but he loves the game and wants to win otherwise he would have jacked it in.

I get what he means about the pressure, look at those QF, hardly inspiring and I imagine virtually all snooker fans were gutted to see him go out last night, especially as he was actually playing really well. He took over from Alex Higgins and Jimmy as the entertainer, snooker needs entertainers for people to tune in, but other than Ronnie they just aren't stepping up when it matters.

Other sports are built around rivalries, and although it's hard to disagree with Hearn when he says snooker is in a good state, they all seem very robotic. I love snooker, but won't be tuning in as much over the next few days now Ronnie and Trump have gone, as a fan it's so unfortunate to see them both go in the same day.

Not being a 'blockbuster' sport means jack all, when in fact it's about the only main tournament that the BBC have rights to anymore, so of course it will bring pressure.

Snooker would be a lot worse off without him.
 
Yeah I get that he suffers mentally, he does like to drop that in to conversation. What I'm saying is why can't he just for once say the better player won? There always has to be a rant about the sport and his future in it. If you compare him to other sportsmen in this country, in terms of exposure he's well down the list. How often do you see or hear from him outside the months of April & May? Hardly at all. So this pressure is all invented. Maybe, just maybe at the age of 40 he's not quite the player he was and isn't good enough to get over the line anymore.
 
Ding and Williams both not playing brilliant but Ding is up 5-2.
 
Yeah I get that he suffers mentally, he does like to drop that in to conversation. What I'm saying is why can't he just for once say the better player won? There always has to be a rant about the sport and his future in it. If you compare him to other sportsmen in this country, in terms of exposure he's well down the list. How often do you see or hear from him outside the months of April & May? Hardly at all. So this pressure is all invented. Maybe, just maybe at the age of 40 he's not quite the player he was and isn't good enough to get over the line anymore.
Rubbish. He played very well against Hawkins and let's not forget he won the Welsh Open and Masters this year. He's still as good as anyone else in the game. As for your comment about why he can't just say the better player won, did you actually watch the clip in your own link? He started off saying Hawkins played a fantastic match and deserved the victory and how hard he found it to play against him. Then it cuts to a different part of the interview so obviously he was asked about that other stuff.
 
Another day, another bore off Ronnie look at me story:


http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/snooker/36136874

Snooker is hardly a blockbuster sport, it's well down the list of popular past times in this country and around the world. And he plays a lot fewer tournaments these days so really the spotlight is properly on him for 2 weeks of the year. Diddums.

Eh? It's the opposite if anything. He avoided a press conference because he knew he was likely to make a twat of himself and make the wrong headlines so he's released a short statement apologising and criticising himself for not handling the pressure as well as he wants to. There's nothing attention seeking about it, it's a low key apology and 'put the matter to bed' sort of thing. Stop being so precious and looking to criticise him for banal things. He does enough questionable things as it is for you to jump on his case.
 
Rubbish. He played very well against Hawkins and let's not forget he won the Welsh Open and Masters this year. He's still as good as anyone else in the game. As for your comment about why he can't just say the better player won, did you actually watch the clip in your own link? He started off saying Hawkins played a fantastic match and deserved the victory and how hard he found it to play against him. Then it cuts to a different part of the interview so obviously he was asked about that other stuff.

Yes - Barry Hawkins WON a fantastic match, but the headline on BBC Sport this morning was 'It's difficult being the figurehead' - all about Ronnie. So he's complaining about this yet he's made himself the headline by saying what he said. If he'd just concentrated on the match and not spouted that drivel then the focus would be off him a bit, which is what he claims he wants.
 
Yeah I get that he suffers mentally, he does like to drop that in to conversation. What I'm saying is why can't he just for once say the better player won? There always has to be a rant about the sport and his future in it. If you compare him to other sportsmen in this country, in terms of exposure he's well down the list. How often do you see or hear from him outside the months of April & May? Hardly at all. So this pressure is all invented. Maybe, just maybe at the age of 40 he's not quite the player he was and isn't good enough to get over the line anymore.

Snookers a funny one - because there's a fair bit of longevity to it, it's often not as simple as a player hitting their prime and mostly sustaining that level for the rest of their career. O'Sullivan is a good example: brilliant for most of the 2000's, but had some dips where he didn't win too much, but eventually saw a resurgence.

Williams is another one like that. Dominant in the early 2000's, but then faded away and hit a difficult period. He still saw a resurgence though, and rose up the rankings again. Higgins won a World title young in his career, and wouldn't win another one for nearly a decade or so and then managed to win another three.

You'd imagine there will come a point where Ronnie doesn't hit his best again, but he's probably still capable of it for another couple of years.

As for the personal issues, I think it's quite a difficult one. On the one hand, I can sort of see where you're coming from; Ronnie's temperament has often meant that he can be a bit of a dick sometimes to players during/after a particular match if he's in a bad way. Still, he does suffer from mental health issues and I think that's got to be respected and remembered.
 
So this pressure is all invented. Maybe, just maybe at the age of 40 he's not quite the player he was and isn't good enough to get over the line anymore.

He's always been quite mercurial that way. His comeback from 12-9 was top notch. But then pressure affects people differently. Even masters have their off moments and he admits he got it wrong tactically and when tactics and decision making are off, sheer skill will only go so far.
 
Yes - Barry Hawkins WON a fantastic match, but the headline on BBC Sport this morning was 'It's difficult being the figurehead' - all about Ronnie. So he's complaining about this yet he's made himself the headline by saying what he said. If he'd just concentrated on the match and not spouted that drivel then the focus would be off him a bit, which is what he claims he wants.
I'm sorry but this is just a bizarre reaction. You can't hold Ronnie responsible for the BBC's choice of headline. He gave full credit to his opponent. And I didn't hear any complaining or drivel, just an attempt to explain how he experiences pressure. Talk about looking for a stick to beat someone with.
 
I pray Barry loses at some point. I signed up to betfred for the £30 free bet to put a tenner on him when it was 40 to 1 odds, and they fecking banned me for not being able to confirm my age :s

If he wins I'll cry
 
I pray Barry loses at some point. I signed up to betfred for the £30 free bet to put a tenner on him when it was 40 to 1 odds, and they fecking banned me for not being able to confirm my age :s

If he wins I'll cry

He's 6-1 down at the moment surprisingly, so you'll probably get your wish.
 
Nothing against Hawkins but wish Ronnie would have won to make this QF more interesting. 7-1 down now, lost his way.
 
Nothing against Hawkins but wish Ronnie would have won to make this QF more interesting. 7-1 down now, lost his way.
Why does he do this smh... beats Trump, loses 10-1 next match to Ronnie. Beats Ronnie and starts bottling it again. It's annoying but can't complain as said above ^
 
Get in Ding! Hope he wins, never been that good at the world championships but hopefully is his year! :D
 
Ding with the potential to be the most successful Chinese person involved with snooker since the guy who owned a takeaway near Stephen Lee.
 
Today's matches:

10.00am
John Higgins (Sco) 5-3 Alan McManus (Sco)
Mark Selby (Eng) 10-6 Kyren Wilson (Eng)

2.30pm
Mark Williams (Wal) v Ding Junhui (Chn) (Finished)
Barry Hawkins (Eng) 1-7 Marco Fu (HK)

7.00pm
John Higgins (Sco) 5-3 Alan McManus (Sco)
Barry Hawkins (Eng) 1-7 Marco Fu (HK)

Seems odd that Hawkins & Fu have to play back to back sessions when there are an even number of matches but there you go! Expect Selby & Higgins to hold firm and go through, but still think there's a twist in the Hawkins v Fu match.
 
This was a pretty exciting day. Still going of course!

Angles 12-11 against Higgins, and Hawkins managed to came back from 1-9 to 9-10. Though, lost next two frames. Now in scrappy battle with only 4 colours left on the table in 22nd frame.
 
Some comeback from Hawkins. Still feel like Fu will just scrape though.
 
Fecking Fu on those final few balls.:lol:

Great clearance though. Did not expect Fu and McManus to get this far. First all Asian final perhaps?
 
I'd have won £50 if Higgins won it this year :(

stuck £2 on him back in October on a whim. Was looking so good as well!!
 
Semi-Finals (best of 33 frames) start today:

13:00 BST
Alan McManus (Sco) v Ding Junhui (Chn)

19:00 BST
Marco Fu (HK) v Mark Selby (Eng)
 
Wouldn't want to have tickets for the final session of McManus v Ding! Early days but Ding looks like he means business. Currently 5-0 up.
 
6-2 Ding leads could have been worse for Mc Manus. Brilliant session for Ding though.
 
Don't really watch much snooker but i do enjoy it when i do. Watched a BBC documentary about Alex Higgins the other night after reading in this thread. Was a good watch.
 
Looks like a nailed on Selby vs Ding final at the moment barring a surprise.
 
Great 5th frame, some very good safety escapes. 3-2 now.
 
Great session for McManus - Ding still leads but only 9-7, another session this evening.
 
Would really like to see Ding win it, I remember watching him when he first played in the masters when he was like 16. I was 16 at the time and it probably hammered it home that I wasn't going to make it big at anything.
 
Selby-Fu turning into an epic. Would a Fu-Ding final be the first all foreign one?