2019 World Snooker Championship (Mod Note Post One)

Exclamation Marc

sligeach wrote: »

It was a good Championship when you look back over the highlights there.

Remember, Trump just squeaked through the 1st round after being miles behind. Could easily have been a different story.

Such fine margins. Even Higgins v Gilbert was on a knife edge and could have gone either way. Great tournament for drama and what ifs.

Lavinia

This is it wrote: »

He used most of his winning speech to do nothing but praise John Higgins. He was asked a question and gave an honest answer, his father was his inspiration. Nothing wrong with that.

Sure he is ''praising'' the opponent he just beat, makes him even greater yeah



Sorry but no.


And don't get me wrong, I'm following snooker for over 20 years and love the game so I watched this too regardless...

kerry37

Trump just served up some of the best snooker that's ever been seen in a world final and theres people bithciing about him. Suppose you cant keep everyone happy

Exclamation Marc

Lavinia wrote: »

Sure he is ''praising'' the opponent he just beat, makes him even greater yeah



Sorry but no.


And don't get me wrong, I'm following snooker for over 20 years and love the game so I watched this too regardless...

Sounds like you're going to hate Trump no matter what he said or did.

Say Your Number

Was away for the last hour, what am I supposed to do now

Ah it's dissapointing that it's finished early, but the last session of Higgins Gilbert and the session this afternoon are two of the best sessions of Snooker I've ever seen, will a player ever post 5 centuries in a World Final and still be well beaten, players have played worse than that and come closer to winning, the final score definitely doesn't reflect the match, insane standard.

Trump really has come on, even up to a year he was still taking on those brainless shots, he was frightening last night, if he keeps that up he could well be a dominant force for the next decade.

This is it

Lavinia wrote: »

Sure he is ''praising'' the opponent he just beat, makes him even greater yeah



Sorry but no.


And don't get me wrong, I'm following snooker for over 20 years and love the game so I watched this too regardless...

What answer to the question would've been reasonable to you?

Exclamation Marc

Say Your Number wrote: »

Was away for the last hour, what am I supposed to do now

Ah it's dissapointing that it's finished early, but the last session of Higgins Gilbert and the session this afternoon are two of the best sessions of Snooker I've ever seen, will a player ever post 5 centuries in a World Final and still be well beaten, players have played worse than that and come closer to winning, the final score definitely doesn't reflect the match, insane standard.

Trump really has come on, even up to a year he was still taking on those brainless shots, he was frightening last night, if he keeps that up he could well be a dominant force for the next decade.

Mmmm. The extra few seconds he gives himself to think seems to have given him the ability to think about shots better and maybe fully assess the risk. That's an opinion from my armchair anyway!

Elmer Jones

kerry37 wrote: »

Trump just served up some of the best snooker that's ever been seen in a world final and theres people bithciing about him. Suppose you cant keep everyone happy

His surname just draws all the cranks to him.

Say Your Number

Exclamation Marc wrote: »

F*ck personalities. Great snooker is what matters, it's not a personality contest.

Yesterday was one of the best final days of snooker I've ever seen. And today was brilliant too. Rather that than have two incredible personalities who struggle to hit highs.

I'd have liked it a little closer maybe in terms of frames but I'd take that quality of final again.

It gets on my nerves when people lament a lack of "characters", I don't care if they are most boring humans imaginable, if they we see stuff like we've seen the last few days I'll keep watching, do they have to do a dance after every pot or something.

The last few World Championships have been brilliant, but the worrying thing is there doesn't seem to be any young lads coming through, what'll it be like in 10/15 years time.

PauloMN

Congratulations and well done to Trump, a deserved champion. Wanted Higgins to win but no complaints losing against a player like that.

First of many world titles I think, I don't watch any snooker outside of the world championship, but compared to a few years ago his game has come on so much. Fantastic player and his performances over the past week have set down a marker.

Birdnuts

Parrot said he was like Alex Higgins at this best during the final - very good comparison IMO. Hopefully we get many years of this "naughty" snooker:D;)

Scorpion Sting

Well done to Trump. He was on fire and nothing Higgins could do to prevent him from winning comfortably. The first of many World titles for Trump I'd say.

zuutroy

Say Your Number wrote: »

It gets on my nerves when people lament a lack of "characters", I don't care if they are most boring humans imaginable, if they we see stuff like we've seen the last few days I'll keep watching, do they have to do a dance after every pot or something.

The last few World Championships have been brilliant, but the worrying thing is there doesn't seem to be any young lads coming through, what'll it be like in 10/15 years time.

Sport has always been about people and characters, heroes and villains. The thing that originally got me, and a lot of people that grew up in the 80s and 90s, into snooker was the flawed genius against ruthless winning machine storyline. Snooker will fall off a cliff in the west if the fabled Chinese domination ever comes. Not too many over this way are going to be all that interested in 2 emotionless Chinese lads battling it out, both from a city of 10 million people that we've never heard of.

Exclamation Marc

Trump is the first player to amass over £1,000,000 in a single season. I know that's a product of increased prize money too but such a great return on that form.

Joe_ Public

zuutroy wrote: »

Sport has always been about people and characters, heroes and villains. The thing that originally got me, and a lot of people that grew up in the 80s and 90s, into snooker was the flawed genius against ruthless winning machine storyline. Snooker will fall off a cliff in the west if the fabled Chinese domination ever comes. Not too many over this way are going to be all that interested in 2 emotionless Chinese lads battling it out, both from a city of 10 million people that we've never heard of.

That is quite true i think. Its been something lacking in snooker of late that we havent really had a true rivalry develop, like a higgins (alex) v davis or a hendry v white or ronnie v higgins (j) in the noughties. I thought we might get a judd v ronnie sustained rivalry developing over the past few years, but it never really happened for one reason or another. Would be great if some young players did come through and lay down a marker to judd or whoever is on top in a few years. Hard to know how the future pans out.

Snooker in the 80s was definitely built on larger than life characters, not just those at the top either. The Alex-Davis rivalry actually wasnt much of a rivalry at all when you consider how one sided it was, but there was always drama of one sort or another.

I would quibble a bit, though, with the "emotionless" chinese statement. It might refer accurately enough to Ding and fit the basic asian stereotype, but then you have Liang Wenbo, Yan Bingtao, Zhao Xintong, Yuan Sijun and others i'm sure who are all fairly flamboyant and expressive players around the table. What they lack, i believe, is the kind of safety and tactical play that Trump has shown he excels at and Alex did too back in the day. But hard to say how that whole far east thing is going to play out, a few years of UK dominance left yet i'd say.

Say Your Number

zuutroy wrote: »

Sport has always been about people and characters, heroes and villains. The thing that originally got me, and a lot of people that grew up in the 80s and 90s, into snooker was the flawed genius against ruthless winning machine storyline. Snooker will fall off a cliff in the west if the fabled Chinese domination ever comes. Not too many over this way are going to be all that interested in 2 emotionless Chinese lads battling it out, both from a city of 10 million people that we've never heard of.

If these two emotionless Chinese lads play to the same level we've seen over the last few days then I can't wait to see it.

Hotblack Desiato

Even though Higgins lost by so many frames, the standard of snooker he was playing was very high.

At one point the graphic showed both players with a pot success rate of 92% yet Trump had twice the frames of Higgins. Margins are so fine.

To rack up five centuries and yet still lose, only winning eight frames, shows you what Higgins was up against.

DJIMI TRARORE

Pity there is no Irish players coming through,we always had someone to follow

melon_collie

Say Your Number wrote: »

It gets on my nerves when people lament a lack of "characters", I don't care if they are most boring humans imaginable, if they we see stuff like we've seen the last few days I'll keep watching, do they have to do a dance after every pot or something.

The last few World Championships have been brilliant, but the worrying thing is there doesn't seem to be any young lads coming through, what'll it be like in 10/15 years time.

I agree completely. The last few world champs have been excellent. It annoys though me that the analysists talk about how popular the game is, waiting lists for tickets, popularity at a high, etc

It's all bullsh1t. What the game needs here i.e. in Ireland and UK is people going to clubs and playing the game. The game is going to die here unless that happens. It's the elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about. And I don't think that World Snooker and RIBSA are doing enough. It's great that all the prize money is increasing for the pros but how much of that is feeding down to grass roots level to promote the game, fund clubs, etc?? Feck all.

In a few years the majority of players on the tour will be from the East and middle East. The game is thriving in those parts of the world

melon_collie

DJIMI TRARORE wrote: »

Pity there is no Irish players coming through,we always had someone to follow

Aaron Hill is a very good young player who hopefully will continue to devlop and make it onto the pro tour. Keep any eye out for him

DJIMI TRARORE

melon_collie wrote: »

Aaron Hill is a very good young player who hopefully will continue to devlop and make it onto the pro tour. Keep any eye out for him

Just had a quick look at irish snooker rankings,we've actually produced quite a few decent U18,U21 Euro and world champs but they are notcoming through at senior level yet. The likes of Boileau are now 22/23 and a few Cork lads seem to be the only possibilities

Say Your Number

I remember seeing something about a young lad from Kilkenny being a hot prospect about 15 years ago, what happened to him?

seanhynes

Say Your Number wrote: »

I remember seeing something about a young lad from Kilkenny being a hot prospect about 15 years ago, what happened to him?

Think you’re referring to Davy Morris,he was qualified for this comp 2/3 years ago but I haven’t seen him in ages think he lost his tour card and got it back via Q School and then dropped off the tour again, he is infact fav for the Irish Amateur Championships

gormdubhgorm

Joe_ Public wrote: »

I would quibble a bit, though, with the "emotionless" chinese statement. It might refer accurately enough to Ding and fit the basic asian stereotype,

What about Ding crying in the masters final v Ronnie 2007

Ding crying when winning the Shanghai Masters 2016

Hotblack Desiato

melon_collie wrote: »

It annoys though me that the analysists talk about how popular the game is, waiting lists for tickets, popularity at a high, etc

They're not wrong though, it's getting harder and harder to get Crucible tickets and the substantial increases in pricing reflect the demand. A world championship venue with less than 1000 seats is going to be in high demand.

It's all bullsh1t. What the game needs here i.e. in Ireland and UK is people going to clubs and playing the game. The game is going to die here unless that happens. It's the elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about.

You're not wrong, either. I played snooker 3 or 4 days a week in Ricardo's during most of my mis-spent student days :pac: but where I'm living 16 years now, there's a snooker hall up the road I've never set foot in. I might bring the kids in there and see if I can spark off a bit of interest (the younger one will need something to stand on!) They did watch a bit of the final, but kids' attention spans these days are measured in minutes.

Hotblack Desiato

gormdubhgorm wrote: »

What about Ding crying in the masters final v Ronnie 2007

Yeah, there's some cheap racial stereotypes floating around and it's not something I like to see.

gormdubhgorm

I was never in the Crucible before is as good as they go on about. Or is the place a bit on the pokey side?
I know they done up the crucible about 2010. But the way some of the commentators go on you would swear the venue is the best place on the planet.

Is the place a decent venue?
Is the view good from everywhere?

Hotblack Desiato

Can't remember who it was but one of the BBC commentators claimed the view from the back row is perfect. (And on the rare occasions the camera pans into the audience, you can see right to the back row...)

As a theatre it's pretty unusual, the name "Crucible" reflects not only the tradition of steelmaking in Sheffield but also its circular shape. The audience surround the arena on three sides.

IIRC no seat is more than 20m away from the "stage".

It's definitely on my bucket list!

Exclamation Marc

gormdubhgorm wrote: »

I was never in the Crucible before is as good as they go on about. Or is the place a bit on the pokey side?
I know they done up the crucible about 2010. But the way some of the commentators go on you would swear the venue is the best place on the planet.

Is the place a decent venue?
Is the view good from everywhere?

I loved it and I've been to an inordinate amount of venues for gigs and most sports you can name. Easy access, centrally located, staff and security are superb. The staff give the impression that working there is something they're proud of so you don't get crappy service.

View is pretty brilliant from nearly everywhere. You're never too far away bar maybe two rows diagonally far back. Zero tolerance of messing or people being d¡cks which is great. Super comfortable too and never an issue getting served in either the merch stand, bar or shop.

It's now one of my favourite venues.

On the topic of tickets, I think they're fairly easy to come by outside of the semi and the final (unless you're prepared to queue). It's just a matter of knowing when they go on sale. A guy I travelled with picked up Quarter final tickets three hours after they went on sale today and theres still decent amounts of tickets there. The issue is just committing a year in advance.

My only (major) quibble is the amount of 'premium' tickets from this year. The first five rows being premium (or the inordinate VIP) is fine generally, but not when there's only nine rows that aren't premium behind it. 33% of seats being premium is a cash grab and it's disgraceful.

AllForIt

gormdubhgorm wrote: »

I was never in the Crucible before is as good as they go on about. Or is the place a bit on the pokey side?
I know they done up the crucible about 2010. But the way some of the commentators go on you would swear the venue is the best place on the planet.

Is the place a decent venue?
Is the view good from everywhere?

I find it quite annoying the way it's so cramped and I don't even play there : )
Lots of bottles of water were accidentally knocked over this year.

Alan McManus ran a little comp to guess the total width of the playing area of the arena. The winner and answer was announced today, it's 10m 55cm. I guessed 10m 25cm.

https://twitter.com/alan_mcmanus/status/1118850747003699200