Minor Tournaments Discussion 2018/19.

ArmaniJeanss

Here We Go Again.
Riga Masters kicks off the TV season on Friday, live coverage on Eurosport from 1.30pm. Its a quick 3 day event, field of 64, best of 7 most of the way. Quite a few big names missing, though World Champion Mark Williams is playing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Riga_Masters#Main_draw

Arthur Daley

I see MJW provided his opponent with a walkover in the end.

ArmaniJeanss

Arthur Daley wrote: »

I see MJW provided his opponent with a walkover in the end.

I think its the opposite, i.e., Williams got a walkover. He's still in the outright betting anyway.

ArmaniJeanss

A bank holiday Monday bonus for us tomorrow as we'll see the first day of the World Open from Yushan on Eurosport in the morning and afternoon. Continues until Sunday. £150K to the winner.
Draw here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_World_Open_(snooker)

No Ronnie or Higgins, and Shaun Murphy lost his qualifier but everyone else seems to be there.

Inviere

Selby out of this already...not ideal so early on in the season

Joe_ Public

Inviere wrote: »

Selby out of this already...not ideal so early on in the season

Didnt see the match but heard Selby was complaining about slow play which is odd given both players recorded very similar ASTs.

Inviere

Joe_ Public wrote: »

Didnt see the match but heard Selby was complaining about slow play which is odd given both players recorded very similar ASTs.

Isn’t that a tactic he himself has used against O’Sullivan in the past? Not blatantly slow, but enough to affect Ronnie

Joe_ Public

Inviere wrote: »

Isn’t that a tactic he himself has used against O’Sullivan in the past? Not blatantly slow, but enough to affect Ronnie

Yeah, as much as I like and admire Selby, just seems a bit rich for him to be calling others on slow play, tactical or otherwise. Unless Noppon was really taking the p!ss or something, not having seen it can't be sure.

Inviere

Joe_ Public wrote: »

Yeah, as much as I like and admire Selby, just seems a bit rich for him to be calling others on slow play, tactical or otherwise. Unless Noppon was really taking the p!ss or something, not having seen it can't be sure.

Yeah haven’t seen the match myself, I’m assuming it was borderline taking the urine if he complained about it. Williams got through today too

Joe_ Public

Inviere wrote: »

Yeah haven’t seen the match myself, I’m assuming it was borderline taking the urine if he complained about it. Williams got through today too

Yes, hard to know without watching it.

Saw a bit of the Williams match, Lisowski will be kicking himself. At 3-1, Williams gets a massive fluke, but in the next, just clearing up the colours to go 4-2 up, Lisowski takes on the simple pink right handed and misses. Talented player, should win a title or two, but that kind of sums up whats lacking in him for me.

Inviere

Think Williams won his five on the bounce did he?

Joe_ Public

Inviere wrote: »

Think Williams won his five on the bounce did he?

Yep, 0-3 to 5-3. Lisowski head went kapow.

ArmaniJeanss

MJWs golden 40s continues as gets to another big final, up against David Gilbert.

zuutroy

And another comeback from 9-5 to win 10-9 :eek:

Frank O. Pinion

The Shanghai Masters starts next Monday on Quest HD. I enjoyed watching Ronnie win it last year, defeating Trump in the final. After over 10 years as a ranking tournament, it's switching to a new format, as a non-ranking 24-man invitational event. Winner's prize is £200,000.

Ronnie O'Sullivan (defending champion) v Neil Robertson/Chinese Wildcard 1
Shaun Murphy v Stuart Bingham/Chinese Wildcard 3
Judd Trump v Kyren Wilson/Liang Wenbo
John Higgins v Ryan Day/Chinese Wildcard 2
Mark Selby v Luca Brecel/Zhou Yuelong
Ding Junhui v Mark Allen/Xiao Guodong
Barry Hawkins v Stephen Maguire/Chinese Wildcard 4
Mark Williams v Anthony McGill/Yan Bingtao

Players on the left above got a bye into Round 2. All rounds until the semis are best of 11, semis are best of 19, and the final is a best of 21.

Joe_ Public

Watching the Chinese events I’m often struck by the small arenas and lack of atmosphere. This one is no exception. The sport is obviously popular there but for whatever reason this does not seem to percolate into the tournaments themselves. From what I can see anyway.

Peter File

Big win for Ding against Selby this afternoon. 6:5.
Semi final lineup is good with wilson v O'Sullivan tomorrow and Ding v Hawkins on Saturday

zuutroy

Ronnie looks in good form. He'll surely get the 1000 centuries this season. If he keeps last season's pace he would go it at the World Grand Prix in February but hopefully he'll get ahead of that and do it at the Masters final!

Peter File

A final frame decider on now for Ding and Hawkins now to decide who O'Sullivan tomorrow.

Inviere

Absolutely majestic. That last red was outrageous

zuutroy

Not a bad final today. Though Ronnie won it in 2nd gear. Poor old Hawkins just can't seem to get over the final hurdle against the top guys. It's almost like he's too nice. I don't think you'd see any of the really top guys smiling after giving away 26 points in fouls.

ArmaniJeanss

Higgins & Selby play the last session of their China Open final this afternoon on Eurosport. Higgins 5-4 up, best of 19.

Joe_ Public

Dissapointing tournament for me. Higgins en route to the title with a tournament high break of 85. Doubt there are too many modern examples of a player winning a ranking title without having a century break along the way.

OneEightSeven

List of tournament broadcasters if you want to see which tournaments are on free-to-air TV: http://www.worldsnooker.com/tournaments-broadcasters-2018-19/

Joe_ Public

Was focused on golf yesterday but kept one eye on the snooker. Didn’t look like great quality but was very tense and quite enjoyable. Selby missed a couple of crucial pots early on and would have been kicking himself had he not got it done I think.

Frank O. Pinion

Jimmy Robertson won his first ever ranking title on Sunday, defeating Joe Perry in the European Masters final, winning £75,000 and 75,000 ranking points. Next up is the English Open, starting next Monday on Eurosport and Quest.

El_Duderino 09

I’m in Barnsley and there were 2 young Chinese lads with snooker cues at breakfast all dressed up to play.

Is there an event in Barnsley this week? A qualifier or something? I checked the world snooker website but it’s so useless I wonder if they’re trying to discourage people from firing out what’s on.

Cheers

Joe_ Public

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

I’m in Barnsley and there were 2 young Chinese lads with snooker cues at breakfast all dressed up to play.

Is there an event in Barnsley this week? A qualifier or something? I checked the world snooker website but it’s so useless I wonder if they’re trying to discourage people from firing out what’s on.

Cheers

Yes qualifying round for international championship in China later this month. It’s probably there somewhere on WS website but it is a very poor site alright.

El_Duderino 09

Joe_ Public wrote: »

Yes qualifying round for international championship in China later this month. It’s probably there somewhere on WS website but it is a very poor site alright.

I wonder if the matches are on in Barnsley.

Are those kind of qualifiers open to the public? I’m in Barnsley for the rest of the week and it won’t It would be a great way to spend an evening or 2.

Joe_ Public

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

I wonder if the matches are on in Barnsley.

Are those kind of qualifiers open to the public? I’m in Barnsley for the rest of the week and it won’t It would be a great way to spend an evening or 2.

Sure would. They’re not just open to public but there’s not usually a cover charge for qualifyiers or just a token couple of quid at most and you can pick your table. It’s the Barnsley metrodome so should be easy to find I’d say.

Joe_ Public

Don’t know how to post link using phone but if you go to main menu on WS site, click on sessions it’ll show all weeks matches and times. Fergal playing Jimmy in 45 minutes and is on the live video so will be worth a watch.

El_Duderino 09

Joe_ Public wrote: »

Sure would. They’re not just open to public but there’s not usually a cover charge for qualifyiers or just a token couple of quid at most and you can pick your table. It’s the Barnsley metrodome so should be easy to find I’d say.

That’s great! It’s only a 15 min walk from the hotel! That’s my evening sorted if it’s still on when I finish

Joe_ Public

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

That’s great! It’s only a 15 min walk from the hotel! That’s my evening sorted if it’s still on when I finish

Good stuff. Best of 11 kicking off 7.30 so doubt evening session would be done and dusted before 11 at the earliest so should be good for a few frames anyway!

Arthur Daley

As soon as I went on to world snooker website it showed the qualifers in Barnsley on opening page. May be that it only comes up when it starts and goes live, but you need to dig a bit if planning ahead. Especially for qualifiers in Barnsley for the hardcore crew. LoL

El_Duderino 09

I just shared an elevator with Michael White in the premier inn I’m staying at!

And people told me Barnsley was boring as shyte!

El_Duderino 09

Just watched Jimmy White beat Fergal O Brien in a last frame decider

Alan McManus is still on in his decider too. My dad would **** if he was alive to see White and McManus playing at the same time!

Joe_ Public

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

Just watched Jimmy White beat Fergal O Brien in a last frame decider

Alan McManus is still on in his decider too. My dad would **** if he was alive to see White and McManus playing at the same time!

That was actually a fantastic 76 break by jimmy to win that match, could have gone for the century but just stopped on the yellow for some reason, might have called a foul on himself, not really sure. Really rolled back the years in any case. Some shocking misses by both players throughout the course of the match it has to be said though!

El_Duderino 09

Joe_ Public wrote: »

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

Just watched Jimmy White beat Fergal O Brien in a last frame decider

Alan McManus is still on in his decider too. My dad would **** if he was alive to see White and McManus playing at the same time!

That was actually a fantastic 76 break by jimmy to win that match, could have gone for the century but just stopped on the yellow for some reason, might have called a foul on himself, not really sure. Really rolled back the years in any case. Some shocking misses by both players throughout the course of the match it has to be said though!

I think he called a foul against himself. He wasn't having a good game. Just wanted to end it I'd say. The frame before was almost an hour long and had a high break of 14 I think. Very poor snooker from both.

Other way it was great to be there.

The star of the night session was Lou Honghao. He beat Michael White 6-1. He put together some really nice breaks and and looked like one to watch for the future. He wore a black glove on his bridge hand which was strange.

Joe_ Public

Saw a couple wearing gloves last week so maybe it’s a growing fad. Ross Muir I think was one but it might be more of a Chinese thing given the higher humidity they face over there. Think Selby sometimes wears one in China or has done in the past anyway. Doubt it’ll ever catch on that much and hopefully it won’t.

ArmaniJeanss

English Open starts today and continues throughout the week on Eurosport.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_English_Open_(snooker)
Ronnie back, unbeaten this season (may not have played many events).

Joe_ Public

And third whitewash of the season for Ken. Battle to retain his tour card not going very well at the moment to put it mildly.

ArmaniJeanss

Ronnie winning the hearts and minds of the people of Crawley.

Frank O. Pinion

Ronnie won his second round match 4-0. Oh yeah, he made a 147 in the fourth frame to win the match. Maybe it's the magic piss smell.

zuutroy

7 minutes...he's slowing down with age.

Arthur Daley

Un Nooh made a nice and pacy maximum the other day also. Included a nice little plant to middle half way through.

He missed the black for the 147 a few years back at the UK, and was a bit of a celeb for the week, for the way he handled it at the time. I remember Chris Evans had him on the TFI friday reboot.

Joe_ Public

Ronnie been exposed a bit tonight, no way he couldn’t have known he fouled that red. Not very convincing in his post match interview I think.

Spudman_20000

Watched it there, and it's so obvious it's hard to believe he could think he'd get away with it, which makes me think he didn't actually realise what he did.

In fairness to Ronnie, he's not a cheat and I've seen him call plenty of foul on himself down the years.

I think a lot of people calling him out on this often have a axe to grind and don't like him as a player anyway.

Joe_ Public

I’m not sure you have to have an axe to grind to find the defence of him less than credible here. He’s hit that red a fair whack and if he doesn’t see it, he’s got to hear it. And if he doesn’t see or hear it, he’s got to feel it.

Can’t see into or read his mind, but whatever shred of doubt I had about it was erased with his post match interview. Suffice to say I don’t believe he will be troubling the oscars judging panel with a that “performance”. When he called the commentator out for not having it stopped, I was convinced he was just spoofing. That’s my take on it anyway for what it’s worth.

El_Duderino 09

That Leo Honghao might be a serious one to watch. He only turned pro this year. I watched him in Barnsley last week where he walloped Michael White 6-1. He hit 2 centuries in that match too.

This week he gets to the semi final. That must move him up the rankings significantly. I know some of the Chinese fellas can burn bright early and go off the boil, but I’ll be keeping an eye on this guy.

hetuzozaho

Joe_ Public wrote: »

I’m not sure you have to have an axe to grind to find the defence of him less than credible here. He’s hit that red a fair whack and if he doesn’t see it, he’s got to hear it. And if he doesn’t see or hear it, he’s got to feel it.

Can’t see into or read his mind, but whatever shred of doubt I had about it was erased with his post match interview. Suffice to say I don’t believe he will be troubling the oscars judging panel with a that “performance”. When he called the commentator out for not having it stopped, I was convinced he was just spoofing. That’s my take on it anyway for what it’s worth.

I think with the cue resting on the rest as he moves it away and him focussing on the object ball then the white, I could accept the didn't notice hitting the red.
But like you say we can't read his mind.

I'm a massive O Sullivan fan, my favourite player ever, and I found the interview after strange for some reason too. But maybe it's a difficult situation to react in even if you hadn't done anything wrong.

On a side note, he's been awfully rude on the couch all week in my opinion.

Looking forward to today's matches anyway.

Inviere

Absolutely benefit of the doubt for me, he’s called much worse on himself before. With tv cameras there too, it was always going to be picked up