Redcafe Snooker

The first final of the new season takes place tonight with Yan Bingtao facing Mark Joyce in the final of the Riga Masters.

The winner will pick up their first ranking title.

The tournament didn’t get off to the best start with some top players including Kyren Wilson and Neil Robertson missing their matches due to being grounded by the heatwave.

The road to the Crucible starts here!
 
Judd Trump becomes the first player since Ronnie in 2008 to win the first ranking tournament entered after becoming World Champion.

He defeats Shaun Murphy 10-3 in the final of the International Championship in Daqing. He could well be the player to stop again this season now the monkey is off his back.
 
Shanghai Masters currently playing the Last 16 and there's some cracking matches:

Ronnie O'Sullivan vs. Zhang Yi
Kyren Wilson vs. Xiao Guodong
John Higgins vs. Barry Hawkins
Neil Robertson vs. Ding Junhui
Mark Williams vs. Shaun Murphy
Mark Selby vs. Jack Lisowski
Mark Allen vs. Liang Wenbo
Judd Trump vs. David Gilbert

Although to be fair it was a strong field from the start, players such as Ali Carter, Stephen Maguire and Stuart Bingham didn't even make it this far.

It seems a lot of the top players have started the season in good form.
 
Victory for Ronnie 11-9 over Murphy in the final. Second season in a row Ronnie starts his campaign with a victory in China.

Back there on 23rd September for the China Championship. Seems odd scheduling to me but hey ho.
 
The new season is really starting to step up now... Judd Trump has started this season how he finished last, he is the World Open champion.

Now back to back tournaments, Champion of Champions followed by Northern Ireland Open. Interesting format as always for the CoC, 2 Group Semi-Finals in the afternoon followed by the Group Final in the evening, then the winners playing each other in the overall Semi-Finals on Friday & Saturday before the Final on Sunday.

Matches of note include Shaun Murphy against Reanne Evans today and while she might find herself a bit out of her depth, she will hope that the 2013-2016 Murphy shows up as he lost in the first round each time. He has picked up a little bit since then, winning in 2017 and reaching the Semi-Finals last year.

Thursday is the day to have tickets for - O'Sullivan vs. Jimmy White followed by Higgins vs. Bingham in the afternoon.

There's also a potential grudge match on Wednesday if Trump & Wilson both win their Semi-Finals.

Live all week on ITV4!
 
ChrisNelson said:
The new season is really starting to step up now... Judd Trump has started this season how he finished last, he is the World Open champion.

Now back to back tournaments, Champion of Champions followed by Northern Ireland Open. Interesting format as always for the CoC, 2 Group Semi-Finals in the afternoon followed by the Group Final in the evening, then the winners playing each other in the overall Semi-Finals on Friday & Saturday before the Final on Sunday.

Matches of note include Shaun Murphy against Reanne Evans today and while she might find herself a bit out of her depth, she will hope that the 2013-2016 Murphy shows up as he lost in the first round each time. He has picked up a little bit since then, winning in 2017 and reaching the Semi-Finals last year.

Thursday is the day to have tickets for - O'Sullivan vs. Jimmy White followed by Higgins vs. Bingham in the afternoon.

There's also a potential grudge match on Wednesday if Trump & Wilson both win their Semi-Finals.

Live all week on ITV4!
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Fantastic, thanks Chris. Have to catch some of these.
 
ChrisNelson said:
The new season is really starting to step up now... Judd Trump has started this season how he finished last, he is the World Open champion.

Now back to back tournaments, Champion of Champions followed by Northern Ireland Open. Interesting format as always for the CoC, 2 Group Semi-Finals in the afternoon followed by the Group Final in the evening, then the winners playing each other in the overall Semi-Finals on Friday & Saturday before the Final on Sunday.

Matches of note include Shaun Murphy against Reanne Evans today and while she might find herself a bit out of her depth, she will hope that the 2013-2016 Murphy shows up as he lost in the first round each time. He has picked up a little bit since then, winning in 2017 and reaching the Semi-Finals last year.

Thursday is the day to have tickets for - O'Sullivan vs. Jimmy White followed by Higgins vs. Bingham in the afternoon.

There's also a potential grudge match on Wednesday if Trump & Wilson both win their Semi-Finals.

Live all week on ITV4!
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Love watching Judd play. So glad hes won a world title. Being a Jimmy White fan (who isn't) I was worried Judd might not ever win one. Kind of see him as a natural heir to the great man.
 
RedFish said:
Love watching Judd play. So glad hes won a world title. Being a Jimmy White fan (who isn't) I was worried Judd might not ever win one. Kind of see him as a natural heir to the great man.
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The way he's been playing over the last year, pretty much since his brother started travelling with him there's no reason why he can't go on and win multiple World Championship titles.

There isn't really anyone coming through the way he was 10 years ago, certainly not in Britain anyway. China has produced some good young players over the last 5 years but they're very inconsistent and I'm not sure if I'd tip any of them as future World Champions just yet.

Then of course there is the old guard who aren't going anywhere just yet, Selby isn't everyone's cup of tea but he's a hell of a player on his day.
 
O'Sullivan currently getting owned by his mate Jimmy White who is 2-0 up and 30 points up, although he has just missed a black off the spot.

Ronnie playing like he's playing his mate down the club - he is playing his mate but he needs to realise it's a serious match.

First to 4 and Ronnie is lucky he's still in the match.
 
Looking forward to the snooker over the next week or two. Real shame round one isn't available free to air, would be nice to have on in the background while at work.
 
Parma Dewol said:
Looking forward to the snooker over the next week or two. Real shame round one isn't available free to air, would be nice to have on in the background while at work.
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If you like snooker I highly recommend the Eurosport Player. They always cover 2 tables ahead of the TV coverage, and an additional one once it goes to air.

For someone like me who watches it all the time it's a godsend. There's usually no commentary and reduced camera angles but it's still fine for watching.
 
So one of the biggest events isn’t on tv for half the length of it, ridiculous. Just had a look and there’s highlights of the luge World Cup on euro 1 :lol: and British super bike highlights which finished mid October.:wenger:
 
spwd said:
So one of the biggest events isn’t on tv for half the length of it, ridiculous. Just had a look and there’s highlights of the luge World Cup on euro 1 :lol: and British super bike highlights which finished mid October.:wenger:
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I agree mate it's daft, should at least be on red button early doors.

But Eurosport have a big interest in snooker these days and they have decided to confine the early stages to their app.

Which is fine unless the wi-fi is down in your village like it was in mine last night!

I see Mark Williams, probably my most disliked player on the circuit has won again today and declared he "hates snooker" and "prefers golf".

Well I have a simple solution Mark, do us all a favour and retire.
 
ChrisNelson said:
I agree mate it's daft, should at least be on red button early doors.

But Eurosport have a big interest in snooker these days and they have decided to confine the early stages to their app.

Which is fine unless the wi-fi is down in your village like it was in mine last night!

I see Mark Williams, probably my most disliked player on the circuit has won again today and declared he "hates snooker" and "prefers golf".

Well I have a simple solution Mark, do us all a favour and retire.
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Still very stupid, especially as it’s £7 a month, feck that, I’ve got 2 Eurosport channels through sky which I’m sure they get money from so I’m not spending any more.

As for that daft cnut Williams, I’ll miss his cretinous 1 handed shots and closed eyes shots if he fecks off, not!
 
Ronnie was basically given a pass today. I watched a bit of the Fu match, before the programme switched to something else. That was a really good game.
 
Trump loses 3-6 to Nigel Bond :eek: I reckon it's Ronnie's to lose again now although Selby & Robertson will have something to say about that.
 
Fair play to Bond, didn't believe he would actually get over the line, until he did! Massive upset already, hope it gives some of the underdogs some more belief in the upcoming games.
 
Last 16 starts today in York:

Wednesday 1pm
John Higgins v Stuart Bingham
Mark Allen v Kurt Maflin

7pm
Li Hang v Liang Wenbo
Yan Bingtao v Neil Robertson

Thursday 1pm
Ronnie O'Sullivan v Ding Junhui
Gary Wilson v Nigel Bond

7pm
Michael White v Stephen Maguire
Matthew Stevens v Mark Selby



I'm going tomorrow afternoon and of course a normal person would head straight for Table One to see Ronnie vs. Ding.

But I've seen both of them before, Ronnie on several occasions so there's just a little part of me thinking shall I head over and watch Wilson v Bond.

I've never seen Wilson and Nigel Bond was born and raised not far from me. I have a feeling I may have seen him at the Crucible in the mid 90s, which is of course when he enjoyed his biggest success reaching a final and semi-final in successive years having reached the QF's in the previous 2 years.
 
Robertson out as well! Hoping for a cracking contest between Ronnie and Ding this afternoon.
 
Ronnie vs. Ding more than lived up to its billing. Cracking match and Ding did so well to get over the line, great to see him looking like he's back to his best.

With Trump, Robertson and O'Sullivan all out, it's going to be a very interesting set of quarter finals!
 
Fell asleep just after midnight so missed the ending. With Selby out the draw is now wide open. Today's quarter finals:

13:00
Ding Junhui v Liang Wenbo
John Higgins v Yan Bingtao

19:00
Stephen Maguire v Matthew Stevens
Mark Allen v Nigel Bond
 
sallycinnamin said:
Selby v Stevens could be midnight by the time this finishes.
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Stevens found some form out of nowhere.

Watching Higgins vs Yan. Been quite scrappy so far.

EDIT: One of the scrappiest games of snooker I've watched. Great pots followed by shocking misses.
EDIT2: A fly has found its way in between a cluster of red balls. :D
 
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Fair play to Ding, thought he was brilliant throughout the tournament, and a worthy winner of the UK Championship. Great to see him back to his best, and all credit to Maguire for making a match of it right 'til the end.
 
Last night took me back to 2004 when I saw Maguire play at York, the year he went on to win it.

I think he used his best snooker up against Allen in the semi-final.

Ding was definitely a worthy winner but whether he has a World Championship in him I'm not sure. Over longer matches there is more opportunity to bottle it!



On more general matters I see Ronnie has ejected the toys from the pram again. He says that World Snooker were incorrect to describe his non-appearance at the Masters as being for 'personal reasons'.

But the question is why? Because with a ranking of 3, by 'snooker' reasons he was qualified. So therefore by definition the reason he is not attending is a personal one i.e. he has specifically chosen not to play. So he can't really have any argument with World Snooker's choice of words.
 
ChrisNelson said:
Last night took me back to 2004 when I saw Maguire play at York, the year he went on to win it.

I think he used his best snooker up against Allen in the semi-final.

Ding was definitely a worthy winner but whether he has a World Championship in him I'm not sure. Over longer matches there is more opportunity to bottle it!



On more general matters I see Ronnie has ejected the toys from the pram again. He says that World Snooker were incorrect to describe his non-appearance at the Masters as being for 'personal reasons'.

But the question is why? Because with a ranking of 3, by 'snooker' reasons he was qualified. So therefore by definition the reason he is not attending is a personal one i.e. he has specifically chosen not to play. So he can't really have any argument with World Snooker's choice of words.
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I know there's this narrative about Ronnie but come on man, he didn't throw his toys out of the pram at all. He was asked a question on Eurosport and very calmly said there wasn't anything wrong, which is what "personal reasons" would usually imply. He just said he felt like doing other stuff during the Masters and someone else should get his spot. Now you can argue whether you feel that's okay or not, but at Ronnie's age and when he's already won so much, he might feel like he needs to skip it if the motivation isn't completely there. Why does that have to be called throwing his toys out of the pram? He's often a contrarian but on the other hand doesn't always get judged fairly.
 
Ainu said:
I know there's this narrative about Ronnie but come on man, he didn't throw his toys out of the pram at all. He was asked a question on Eurosport and very calmly said there wasn't anything wrong, which is what "personal reasons" would usually imply. He just said he felt like doing other stuff during the Masters and someone else should get his spot. Now you can argue whether you feel that's okay or not, but at Ronnie's age and when he's already won so much, he might feel like he needs to skip it if the motivation isn't completely there. Why does that have to be called throwing his toys out of the pram? He's often a contrarian but on the other hand doesn't always get judged fairly.
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Ok fair enough maybe toys out of the pram didn't quite fit the crime on this occasion.

However what I said about personal reasons stands. He qualified and made a personal decision not to enter, so I'm not sure how he's justified in disputing the wording of the statement from World Snooker.
 
Ainu said:
I know there's this narrative about Ronnie but come on man, he didn't throw his toys out of the pram at all. He was asked a question on Eurosport and very calmly said there wasn't anything wrong, which is what "personal reasons" would usually imply. He just said he felt like doing other stuff during the Masters and someone else should get his spot. Now you can argue whether you feel that's okay or not, but at Ronnie's age and when he's already won so much, he might feel like he needs to skip it if the motivation isn't completely there. Why does that have to be called throwing his toys out of the pram? He's often a contrarian but on the other hand doesn't always get judged fairly.
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Regarding Ronnie, genius often comes with a touch of madness :drool:
 
Ronnie 2-1 down to Dominic Dale. Needs the black to win, easy drop near the middle pocket. Whacks it instead, white goes off the table 7 points and frame to Dom. He's really not thinking about snooker this year. :(
 
Dumbstar said:
Ronnie 2-1 down to Dominic Dale. Needs the black to win, easy drop near the middle pocket. Whacks it instead, white goes off the table 7 points and frame to Dom. He's really not thinking about snooker this year. :(
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Beat James Cahill 4-0 today in 32 mins and 11 seconds shot time, crazy! :lol::lol:
 
Thing is people are raving about the performance against Cahill but it wouldn't even get near an all time top 10 Ronnie performance list.

His opponent was just awful, he knew eyes would be on him because he knocked Ronnie out in Sheffield but he just wasn't at the races. Ronnie took advantage.

But he did miss a black off its spot and a couple of other easy pots so it wasn't exactly a master class.

Of course he keeps making it so everyone is talking about him and not the tournament because heaven forbid it isn't all about Ronnie.

First of all there was the smashing the black in to the middle pocket for no reason, missing it and losing the frame (against Dale). Now if he's the 'snooker genius' everyone says that was a pretty dumb move.

Then yesterday, refusing to shake hands and insisting on fist bumps with the referee and his opponent. Absolutely nothing to do with OCD about cleanliness, just keeping him in the headlines.

Think of all the professional snooker matches played over the last 100 years, and all of a sudden in 2019 handshakes aren't good enough for him?

And he says he always opens doors with a tissue so as not to contract germs - again absolute rubbish.

I really wish he would just concentrate on his snooker and cut out all the crap.
 
The scottish open is being shown on freeview by the way, on the "Quest" channel.
 
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