Redcafe Snooker

Awesome tournament, awesome final. Deserving winner, and fair play to Higgins for making a match of it. Riveting stuff. :)
 
Surprised Neil Robertson only has 1 World Championship. I thought he was the best player of the Selby/Ding generation so he must be quite disappointed with only 1.
 
Surprised Neil Robertson only has 1 World Championship. I thought he was the best player of the Selby/Ding generation so he must be quite disappointed with only 1.
When he is on form he is superb but he is very inconsistent, I am also surprised he hasn't pushed on for more.
 
Robertson is an incredibly frustrating player. He was so obsessed with his century of centuries in 2013/14, and he achieved it yet won only one ranking title that season.

He is nowhere near the player he was during that year, having won only a further 3 ranking events and he doesn't have the consistency in his game to win the World Championship again. Having said that, he is one of a long list of players against whom you could level that comment.

Still one of the best potters in the game but it's difficult to see him doing a Mark Williams and coming back to win the big one in the twilight of his career (although he is 6 years younger than Williams).
 
I once saw an incredibly weird interview with Robertson after a game of snooker. He just wanted to talk about some online game he was playing and he was angry that the hotel that the players were staying in had dodgy WiFi. It was so bizarre. I'm sure I later heard a commentator actually say that Robertson had gotten addicted to gaming and as a result had been practicing snooker less.

I can't recall if it was genuinely a big deal or not though.
 
I once saw an incredibly weird interview with Robertson after a game of snooker. He just wanted to talk about some online game he was playing and he was angry that the hotel that the players were staying in had dodgy WiFi. It was so bizarre. I'm sure I later heard a commentator actually say that Robertson had gotten addicted to gaming and as a result had been practicing snooker less.

I can't recall if it was genuinely a big deal or not though.

Yeah I think he's done interviews saying he played certain games for days on end without lwleavi the room, let alone practice, it seems his focus has conplcompl shifted from snooker, shame as he was unstoppable, thought he was younger than he was too.
 
Second 147 already made at the English Open this year. Un-Nooh's second career maximum a few days back, and now Ronnie's 15th just now.
 
Is this Yuan Sijun guy as good as these Youtube highlight reels seem to suggest? That is, very good.

Very good young player and probably making better progress than Yan Bingtao at the moment. He was a QF’ist in China recently and has just knocked Mark Allen out of the English Open.

Selby also out 4-3 to Woolaston on the final black but Ronnie looked irresistible earlier with a big 130+ before his 147.

Have to feel for Thepchaiya who now has to share the maximum prize. This is someone who has missed the final black for a 147 twice, and also hit 14 reds and blacks in another frame this week!
 
Very good young player and probably making better progress than Yan Bingtao at the moment. He was a QF’ist in China recently and has just knocked Mark Allen out of the English Open.

Selby also out 4-3 to Woolaston on the final black but Ronnie looked irresistible earlier with a big 130+ before his 147.

Have to feel for Thepchaiya who now has to share the maximum prize. This is someone who has missed the final black for a 147 twice, and also hit 14 reds and blacks in another frame this week!

I’m still backing Bingtao to come good. He’ll be the anti-Ding Junghui. All the talent is there and this crazy belief/confidence but it’s just not quite in a rhythm yet. Once he establishes himself and starts winning he won’t stop.
 
Maybe the smell of piss just gets him going.
 
Very interesting moment when Ronnie hit the red when removing the cue/ rest from the table. No foul given. You have to give Ronnie the benefit of the doubt and say it was such a small tickle that he may not have felt it and he was already looking elsewhere. I’d like to think most players would call that on themselves. Anyway it’s helped him back to 3-3. How’s your nerve Luo?
 
Very interesting moment when Ronnie hit the red when removing the cue/ rest from the table. No foul given. You have to give Ronnie the benefit of the doubt and say it was such a small tickle that he may not have felt it and he was already looking elsewhere. I’d like to think most players would call that on themselves. Anyway it’s helped him back to 3-3. How’s your nerve Luo?

Was unlucky with that red in the last frame, you can't afford to give Ronnie an inch. 4-3 now and whatever happens Luo has given a great account of himself.
 
Good battling win in the end for Ronnie. Says in the post match interview he thinks Luo is the best of the bunch coming through.

Didn’t know anything about the foul until they showed him and said the commentator Dave Hendon should have intervened which I don’t agree with. But you can tell from his demeanour he’s being honest and feels bad about it.

Hopefully if Maguire can get the win there will be 2 good semi-finals tomorrow.
 
Im surprised nobody saw it to be honest, I actually rewound it straight away because I thought something happened but it was a fantastic game.
 
Fantastic performance from Mark Davis, 46 years old and just beat Ronnie 6-1 to reach his first Ranking final after 27 years as a pro.

Tomorrow’s final should be a good one against Stuart Bingham.
 
Bingham is probably glad Ronnie is out so Davis will have good odds to win.
 
Fantastic final in progress in Crawley. Really hope Davis can get over the line.

Currently he’s 7-6 up on Bingham, first to 9 wins the Steve Davis Trophy.
 
Fantastic final in progress in Crawley. Really hope Davis can get over the line.

Currently he’s 7-6 up on Bingham, first to 9 wins the Steve Davis Trophy.

Lovely break to clinch the last frame from Davis. Very solid.
 
Good win for Bingham in the end. Mark Davis a class act in defeat and very good interview with Andy Goldstein.

I hope Davis, now that he’s got the monkey off his back and reached a Ranking final can go on and reach some more.

Week off now before the International Championship starts.
 
International Championship started today in China. The fantastically inconsistent Mark Selby through after 6-5 win over Li Yuan on day one.

He’s won it the last 2 years but his form on the tour in general does not befit a 3 time World Champion.

He goes through to play recent UK Senior Championship winer Ken Doherty in round two.
 
This is what I mean about his inconsistency. Anyone who's seen him over the last few months would have said that match should have been much closer. It's like every now and again he just gets a bit of a shock and plays well again for a few matches.

He cleaned up a 6-0 win in the end, as did Judd Trump against Alan McManus, another good result. Sonny Akani knocked out Mark Williams 6-3.

Some cracking matches scheduled for tomorrow including Carter v Maguire, Selby v Milkins, Perry v N. Robertson and Holt v Trump.
 
Quarter Finals day in China, Jack Lisowski has got his revenge on his old pal Judd Trump for beating him in the English Open recently, he's through to the Semi's as is Mark Allen who whitewashed Ali Carter.

Selby v N. Robertson and O'Donnell v Stevens to start shortly. Matthew Stevens, perhaps rather surprisingly in his first QF for 4 years.
 
He was in such a poor form that I wondered if he might drop out of the Tour. And now semi-final of one of the biggest tournaments in the calendar.

Robbo was excellent yesterday, last four frames with hardly any mistakes in them.

Hard to happen, but really wouldn't mind Lisowski - Stevens final.
 
The comeback king is at it again! Mark Allen has really struggled to get out of the traps this week and he fell 0-3 behind against Matthew Stevens but has fought back to lead 5-3.

Semi-finals are best of 17 and Neil Robertson faces Jack Lisowski later, that should be a really close match the way they are both playing.

Back to back tournaments starting Monday with the Champion Of Champions in Coventry followed by the Northern Ireland Open in Belfast. I was hoping to get tickets and travel to Belfast at short notice but unfortunately illness knackered that up and it's a bit late to arrange now with work etc...
 
Mark Allen took the International Championship with a 10-5 win over Neil Robertson in the Final.

Straight in to the Champion of Champions today at Coventry. I like the format of this tournament, the players are split in to groups of 4 with one group playing each day. 2 semi-finals in the afternoon followed by the Group Final in the evening, the Group winners going in to the overall semi-finals.

Some of the first round matches and potential Group Finals are top notch, including O'Sullivan vs. Higgins tomorrow if they both win and even potentially Murphy vs. Ding this evening.

On Thursday it's Selby vs. N. Robertson and Hawkins vs. Allen so whichever way that Group goes it will be entertaining.