World Snooker Championship 2023

[Tinman]

Jimmy is turning into Ronnie Wood

[HarryDee8]

I liked what Selby had to say at the end. "It is just a game" and there's more to life.

 

Just don't hear that much anymore

[shen]

8 minutes ago, HarryDee8 said:

I liked what Selby had to say at the end. "It is just a game" and there's more to life.

 

Just don't hear that much anymore

Imagine the uproar if PL footballers said this. The way football fans follow their club religiously, especially in England, I don't think it would go down well...

[leicsmac]

4 minutes ago, shen said:

Imagine the uproar if PL footballers said this. The way football fans follow their club religiously, especially in England, I don't think it would go down well...

Imagine if someone like Madders had said it as part of the post-match comments yesterday.

 

It's true though. With respect to Bill Shankly, football - or practically any other sport - isn't a matter of life or death.

[Facecloth]

33 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

Imagine if someone like Madders had said it as part of the post-match comments yesterday.

 

It's true though. With respect to Bill Shankly, football - or practically any other sport - isn't a matter of life or death.

I don't think it's a fair comparison because Maddison is part of a team, a team that was around long before he was and hopefully will be long after he's gone. He has teammates who have to pick up the slack if he's not, and there are fans who will still follow that team when he's left. Selby only has himself to answer too. If he doesn't want to try, if he cares less about winning, then that's his perogative. His fans won't carry on supporting team Selby when he quits, he doesn't have a teammate who has to cover for his lacklustre displays. Also Selby has won everything, so maybe that's why he feels more relaxed. Someone like Mark Allen clearly felt he wasn't doing himself justice and decided to get fitter and put more effort in.

[leicsmac]

6 minutes ago, Facecloth said:

I don't think it's a fair comparison because Maddison is part of a team, a team that was around long before he was and hopefully will be long after he's gone. He has teammates who have to pick up the slack if he's not, and there are fans who will still follow that team when he's left. Selby only has himself to answer too. If he doesn't want to try, if he cares less about winning, then that's his perogative. His fans won't carry on supporting team Selby when he quits, he doesn't have a teammate who has to cover for his lacklustre displays. Also Selby has won everything, so maybe that's why he feels more relaxed. Someone like Mark Allen clearly felt he wasn't doing himself justice and decided to get fitter and put more effort in.

Fair enough then, imagine if it was Andy Murray after losing a Wimbledon final, for instance. I reckon he'd still get a certain amount of pelters for it - though probably not as many as footballers, for the exact reasons you describe here tbh.

 

I do maintain that there are those who do take sport a mite too seriously.

 

[Facecloth]

16 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

Fair enough then, imagine if it was Andy Murray after losing a Wimbledon final, for instance. I reckon he'd still get a certain amount of pelters for it - though probably not as many as footballers, for the exact reasons you describe here tbh.

 

I do maintain that there are those who do take sport a mite too seriously.

 

Think it depends on what's they achieved. Kyrgios gets pelters for not caring, but he's not had anywhere near Murrays success.

[leicsmac]

4 minutes ago, Facecloth said:

Think it depends on what's they achieved. Kyrgios gets pelters for not caring, but he's not had anywhere near Murrays success.

That's a fair point too, and Selby (and Murray) certainly have enough credit in the bank there now.

 

However, I still do think the general point about some folk taking sport too seriously at times still stands (sorry if I'm being repetitive there).

[Facecloth]

11 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

That's a fair point too, and Selby (and Murray) certainly have enough credit in the bank there now.

 

However, I still do think the general point about some folk taking sport too seriously at times still stands (sorry if I'm being repetitive there).

For the sportsperson it's often what's they've dedicated their life to, for the fans it's a passion or escapism away from the troubles of everyday life. Nothing wrong with caring about essentially meaningless things. God forbid people care about things they enjoy.

[leicsmac]

2 minutes ago, Facecloth said:

For the sportsperson it's often what's they've dedicated their life to, for the fans it's a passion or escapism away from the troubles of everyday life. Nothing wrong with caring about essentially meaningless things. God forbid people care about things they enjoy.

Absolutely, and that shared passion is why almost all of us are here in the first place.

 

Just need to know where the line is.

[Facecloth]

3 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

Absolutely, and that shared passion is why almost all of us are here in the first place.

 

Just need to know where the line is.

I think people generally do. Selby obviously going through some tough times lately, and I think we all would say work comes behind health. Those 4 times he's topped the world will have meant everything to him, as will last night to Brecel, but equally I'm sure they'd swap it all for health of themselves and those they love, and I'm sure we'd all be the same regarding success in our own jobs. Think you are kind of finding an issue that isn't there. These are just people enjoy success in the public eye, but they are still human and the same way we'd enjoy success in our lives, they'll be hit by the lows too. 

 

My Dad died 5 weeks before Leicester won the league. Obviously losing a parent is devastating, but just over a month later our football club achieves the impossible and me and my sister are all smiles. It lifted us up in our worst moment. Football and sport might not be life or death, but it sure helps people through. If Selby is going through something then you can't deny that 147, just for a moment washed it all away.

 

Football/sport might be unimportant, but its the most important of all the unimportant things.

[leicsmac]

10 minutes ago, Facecloth said:

I think people generally do. Selby obviously going through some tough times lately, and I think we all would say work comes behind health. Those 4 times he's topped the world will have meant everything to him, as will last night to Brecel, but equally I'm sure they'd swap it all for health of themselves and those they love, and I'm sure we'd all be the same regarding success in our own jobs. Think you are kind of finding an issue that isn't there. These are just people enjoy success in the public eye, but they are still human and the same way we'd enjoy success in our lives, they'll be hit by the lows too. 

 

My Dad died 5 weeks before Leicester won the league. Obviously losing a parent is devastating, but just over a month later our football club achieves the impossible and me and my sister are all smiles. It lifted us up in our worst moment. Football and sport might not be life or death, but it sure helps people through. If Selby is going through something then you can't deny that 147, just for a moment washed it all away.

 

Football/sport might be unimportant, but its the most important of all the unimportant things.

Maybe, though the hooliganism issues in the past and present might say differently. That is what happens when some take the tribal side of sport too seriously, though some people might say that those idiots are/were just looking for a fight and football is the excuse, not the justification.

 

Believe me, I think our viewpoints roughly align in that sport has the power to lift peoples spirits in the most wonderful way and that is important, I would just caution against those who would use it as the only centre of their own lives and pivotal for their own well-being. Perhaps that's rarer than I believe, but even so...

[Facecloth]

18 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

Maybe, though the hooliganism issues in the past and present might say differently. That is what happens when some take the tribal side of sport too seriously, though some people might say that those idiots are/were just looking for a fight and football is the excuse, not the justification.

 

Believe me, I think our viewpoints roughly align in that sport has the power to lift peoples spirits in the most wonderful way and that is important, I would just caution against those who would use it as the only centre of their own lives and pivotal for their own well-being. Perhaps that's rarer than I believe, but even so...

Definitely of the opinion that football hooligans aren't really fans. They just attached themselves to something in order to cause trouble and they would do the same if the could find something else as popular.

[SouthStandUpperTier]

40 is a stupidly low minimum age limit for the World Seniors Championship imho. Ronnie, John Higgins, Mark Williams and Shaun Murphy would be eligible if they wanted to play. Mark Selby would be eligible next year. Should be for over 50s only.

[Nalis]

1 hour ago, SouthStandUpperTier said:

40 is a stupidly low minimum age limit for the World Seniors Championship imho. Ronnie, John Higgins, Mark Williams and Shaun Murphy would be eligible if they wanted to play. Mark Selby would be eligible next year. Should be for over 50s only.

I agree, should be over 50s.

 

This is from wiki which is marginally fairer:

 

From 2019 the tournament was opened back up to players on the main tour who were over 40 but ranked outside the top 64 in the world rankings. The tournament was played at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.

[SouthStandUpperTier]

17 hours ago, Nalis said:

I agree, should be over 50s.

 

This is from wiki which is marginally fairer:

 

From 2019 the tournament was opened back up to players on the main tour who were over 40 but ranked outside the top 64 in the world rankings. The tournament was played at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.

I see. I wasn't aware of that. Thanks. So basically Ronnie, Higgins, Murphy, Williams and co. would only be eligible if they were bad enough? 🤔

[Nalis]

3 hours ago, SouthStandUpperTier said:

I see. I wasn't aware of that. Thanks. So basically Ronnie, Higgins, Murphy, Williams and co. would only be eligible if they were bad enough? 🤔

Ha yeah thats exactly it, bit silly really

[Legend_in_blue]

Tony Drago showing how us how it's done.  Great entertainer.  

[kingfox]

Might as well post this in here regarding the Chinese match fixing scandal, hearing started last week.

If that article is correct, then it’s pretty much what I expected. Wenbo & Hang were the ringleaders and got others to fix & bet on matches. 
 

Doubt we’ll be seeing Bingtao & Xintong for a while, especially Bingtao. 

[The Bear]

1 hour ago, kingfox said:

Might as well post this in here regarding the Chinese match fixing scandal, hearing started last week.

If that article is correct, then it’s pretty much what I expected. Wenbo & Hang were the ringleaders and got others to fix & bet on matches. 
 

Doubt we’ll be seeing Bingtao & Xintong for a while, especially Bingtao. 

Cheers for posting it. Liang Wenbo was the ringleader then unsurprisingly, intimidating all the others.

 

Bingtao didn't do anything more than the rest of them? Why especially him? 

[kingfox]

12 hours ago, The Bear said:

Cheers for posting it. Liang Wenbo was the ringleader then unsurprisingly, intimidating all the others.

 

Bingtao didn't do anything more than the rest of them? Why especially him? 

From that article it seems Bingtao fixed four matches?

 

Slightly stronger than some others.

[FOXYTALK]

Should be banned for life. 

[The Bear]

1 hour ago, kingfox said:

From that article it seems Bingtao fixed four matches?

 

Slightly stronger than some others.

Lu Ning did 4 as well. 

[kingfox]

27 minutes ago, The Bear said:

Lu Ning did 4 as well. 

He’ll be no loss for the tour