Snooker 2024

[purpleronnie]

Just now, Sir Steve Howard said:

I'll have what you're having mate, has been an incredible match so far. Ding could/should have 3 centuries by now

Agreed, are sure he's watched the right match?

[Raj]

Si kos mark William's in last frame shoot out.

Kids a cool dude

[The Bear]

Amazing young player. Has that something special about him. Plays the right shots, very composed, and hard to beat. 

 

Gonna be top 3 in the world after the next 5 seasons IMO. 

[kingfox]

To produce his highest break of the match in the decider just shows the class of Si Jiahui. A couple of recovery pots were needed, but the way he struck the cue ball was delightful. 
 

We’ve seen him play better, we’ve seen him score better, but other elements of his game really shone through in that match. 

[Nalis]

If Si plays even at 80% he'll beat Jak Jones with a session to spare in the 2nd round.

Edited 23 April 2024 by Nalis

[Super_horns]

Few of the seeded players out or in trouble.

 

Been a competitive first round

[EastAnglianFox]

Williams now teasing retirement by saying he’ll miss playing “here” and he’s loved every minute.

 

ill put it down to being interviewed so quickly after a 10-9 defeat than anything else 

[Nalis]

17 minutes ago, Super_horns said:

Few of the seeded players out or in trouble.

 

Been a competitive first round

Read somewhere the record for seeds going out in the first round is 8. We're at 6 so far.

[TiffToff88]

8 hours ago, Sir Steve Howard said:

I'll have what you're having mate, has been an incredible match so far. Ding could/should have 3 centuries by now

 

8 hours ago, purpleronnie said:

Agreed, are sure he's watched the right match?

Perhaps I was just unlucky to pick it up at the moment I did (it was the final frame before the lunch interval). From what I saw they were both missing some pretty simple shots

[Lionator]

Trump wins this tournament from here imo. Allen and Kyren Wilson will be licking their lips with the draw too. 

[Nalis]

This Ding Lisowski match is a brilliant battle

[Jimothy]

Into a decider in the Ding Lisowski match.

[Super_horns]

9 minutes ago, Facecloth said:

Into a decider in the Ding Lisowski match.

Looks like Lisowski has it in the decider.

 

Well played to both players.

Edited 24 April 2024 by Super_horns

[Nalis]

5 minutes ago, Facecloth said:

Into a decider in the Ding Lisowski match.

Two brilliant long pots from Lisowski. He was losing position shot by shot after the first long one, he looks a bit more comfortable with this run. 2 reds and colours away from victory now.

[Nalis]

Good man Jack, shame their had to be a loser in this, I like both players

[Raj]

Ronnie looks like hes got a bye playing Page who just looks defeated already.

[SouthStandUpperTier]

Jackson Page sounds like the name of a Mortal Kombat character.

[purpleronnie]

3 minutes ago, SouthStandUpperTier said:

Jackson Page sounds like the name of a Mortal Kombat character.

Got his walk-on music sorted...

 

 

 

So close...

[Nalis]

Mark Allen is the classic sports person who had a conscious decision to make to either play more cautiously and be in the top 3 challenging for big tournaments, or stick with his natural all out attack and be a world number 8-14 type player winning the odd tournament here and there but risk never really challenging for worlds.

 

Obviously gone for the former, can't really blame him but the difference in entertainment value is night and day between the two.

 

Weight loss and financial issues would have played a part too no doubt.

Edited 24 April 2024 by Nalis

[The Bear]

2 hours ago, Nalis said:

Mark Allen is the classic sports person who had a conscious decision to make to either play more cautiously and be in the top 3 challenging for big tournaments, or stick with his natural all out attack and be a world number 8-14 type player winning the odd tournament here and there but risk never really challenging for worlds.

 

Obviously gone for the former, can't really blame him but the difference in entertainment value is night and day between the two.

 

Weight loss and financial issues would have played a part too no doubt.

He's done a fair bit of tinkering with his cue action too to make it a bit longer, particularly on the long shots. 

[Lionator]

Do the players have a union in snooker? Seems like that’d be a better idea form progressive change than Barry Hearn and Ronnie having complete ownership over everything. 

[The boy Linacre]

On 22/04/2024 at 19:33, kingfox said:

Precisely, you’d need binoculars. 
 

The Crucible holds 980, sitting near the back isn’t the greatest experience. 
 

If it does move, how big do you go? They’ll probably look at the Hong Kong tournament, that did 9,000 so just imagine what the World Championship could do. 
 

But the intimacy of The Crucible is what makes the World Championship so special, would a bigger venue create that feeling, I have doubts. 

Generally I am a traditionalist BUT the Ally Pally shows what moving to a bigger venue can give an event, the atmosphere sounds great especially the semi finals & finals weekend.  That looks to have been a real move on from the second Wembley venue which I believe wasn't particularly popular.  Loved by all by sounds of it.

Post 50 years would be the time to move but as everybody said, in the UK NOT Globally.  Even I think its time to move on.

I went half a dozen years in the 90's including the 98 final Higgins vs Doherty, haven't been since.

What I now know is they are trying to squeeze out what turnover they can with the Century Club & VIP & Premium tickets etc for the front half of the venue, so you are now sitting further back unless you want to pay big wedge.  But its hard for them and as Hearn said on the Beeb yesterday its about money & profit, not what people want to hear BUT if they aren't going to or watching Snooker they will be doing the same for another sport.  When Football was in the doldrums in the mid 80's Snooker was in the papers (thanks Tony Knowles), Footy's back being the  big dog, Snooker is very hard to find in the written press.

Got to get the venue right (not London) but 2-3k with the banking & the round right could be a winner, what about the KP isn't the plan to build a 6k venue, that might be in 3 years?

Love the champs every year though, pure theatre 

[The boy Linacre]

Further to that point above, I am actually going this year to the Crucible.  Anybody suggest best place to park, was looking at Ponds Forge Sports centre & walking, just over half a mile I think?

Anybody been recently?

 

[Nalis]

3 hours ago, Lionator said:

Do the players have a union in snooker? Seems like that’d be a better idea form progressive change than Barry Hearn and Ronnie having complete ownership over everything. 

Agreed. Ronnie would change his mind every 2 minutes anyway.

[kingfox]

40 minutes ago, The boy Linacre said:

Generally I am a traditionalist BUT the Ally Pally shows what moving to a bigger venue can give an event, the atmosphere sounds great especially the semi finals & finals weekend.  That looks to have been a real move on from the second Wembley venue which I believe wasn't particularly popular.  Loved by all by sounds of it.

Post 50 years would be the time to move but as everybody said, in the UK NOT Globally.  Even I think its time to move on.

I went half a dozen years in the 90's including the 98 final Higgins vs Doherty, haven't been since.

What I now know is they are trying to squeeze out what turnover they can with the Century Club & VIP & Premium tickets etc for the front half of the venue, so you are now sitting further back unless you want to pay big wedge.  But its hard for them and as Hearn said on the Beeb yesterday its about money & profit, not what people want to hear BUT if they aren't going to or watching Snooker they will be doing the same for another sport.  When Football was in the doldrums in the mid 80's Snooker was in the papers (thanks Tony Knowles), Footy's back being the  big dog, Snooker is very hard to find in the written press.

Got to get the venue right (not London) but 2-3k with the banking & the round right could be a winner, what about the KP isn't the plan to build a 6k venue, that might be in 3 years?

Love the champs every year though, pure theatre 

The Crucible is such a niche venue though, as I stated in my post, the intimacy of The Crucible is partly why the World Championship is so special. Can another venue have that effect, in my opinion it would pretty much have to be a carbon copy of The Crucible to make it work.
 

But regarding Hearn’s comments yesterday, he’s stated numerous times in recent years, that a purpose built venue for Snooker is what he wants in Sheffield. This talk is nothing new, but of course it’s been ramped up because the contract is running out, plus the likes of Saudi & Qatar are supposedly sniffing around. Is this just Hearn’s tactic of pushing the blame onto Sheffield, should it move after 2027.

 

In a perfect World the World Championship would stay somewhere in the UK, but of all the overseas names that are being branded about, you could make a seriously good case for moving it to China. Somewhere like Saudi or Qatar would make it lifeless, the fear of it going there will only ramp up in the coming years. 
 

1 hour ago, The boy Linacre said:

Further to that point above, I am actually going this year to the Crucible.  Anybody suggest best place to park, was looking at Ponds Forge Sports centre & walking, just over half a mile I think?

Anybody been recently?

 

Regarding this, I always go by train, but parking wise Ponds Forge is probably your best bet, it’s only down the road from The Crucible 👍🏻