European Masters 21st-27th September on Eurosport

zuutroy

New season properly kicks off tomorrow. Heaps of televised snooker on between now and Christmas, though most of it will be in an empty Marshall Arena. Most of the big guns back in action again including Ronnie.

He goes against Daniel Wells on Tuesday evening. Trump on Monday evening against the 14 year old lad Boiko from Ukraine.

Best of 9 most of the way then best of 11 for the semis and best of 19 for the final so reasonable length matches.

Here's hoping that by the time the Crucible rolls around in April the world will be in a better state than it is now

Inviere

zuutroy wrote: »

Trump on Monday evening against the 14 year old lad Boiko from Ukraine.

Whats this?? A 14 year old?

zuutroy

Inviere wrote: »

Whats this?? A 14 year old?

He finished 2nd in the WSF Open and earned a 2 year tour card. One of the great hopes for the future apparently.

Inviere

zuutroy wrote: »

He finished 2nd in the WSF Open and earned a 2 year tour card. One of the great hopes for the future apparently.

Interesting, I'd not heard of him.

The Nal

Inviere wrote: »

Whats this?? A 14 year old?

Turns 15 today. Not really a contest yesterday. Robbo had to pull out the stops though. Jimmy White bottled it unsurprisingly.

Ronnie on tonight.

zuutroy

Ronnie's match is off as Wells tested positive for Covid. So did Gary Wilson, and Elliot Slessor has to withdraw as a close contact of Wilson.

The Nal

zuutroy wrote: »

Ronnie's match is off as Wells tested positive for Covid. So did Gary Wilson, and Elliot Slessor has to withdraw as a close contact of Wilson.

Ah berlix. Suppose we better get used to this sort of thing.

bradolf pittler

Gotta feel bad for Slessor.
Huge scrap for ranking points and prize money with the lower ranked players and every tournament counts.
To be forced to withdraw when you dont even have covid is very unfortunate.
Him and Wilson will be travelling in seperate cars in future

bradolf pittler

Just noticed Corks Aaron Hill will face Ronnie if he beats Andy Hicks.Talk about motivation.....

zuutroy

bradolf pittler wrote: »

Just noticed Corks Aaron Hill will face Ronnie if he beats Andy Hicks.Talk about motivation.....

Which he has just done, finishing off with his first pro century.

Rothko

Very good first frame there by Aaron Hill.

zuutroy

He's looking very good.

El_Duderino 09

Lovely start. He's looking very self assured

Rothko

3-1 now. Could be a big upset on the cards.

zuutroy

Brilliant performance.

Rothko

Absolutely delighted for Hill.

Hodors Appletart

that was great fair play

kept his cool after the fluke

VillaMad

Fantastic for the young lad.

El_Duderino 09

It wasn't vintage from either of them but great result. Really dogged performance and held his nerve.

Faded Glory

Very impressive, like Hendry at his age, fearless and aggressive

Chalk McHugh

Watched the full match and was very impressed with this young Cork man. He has a lovely cue action and has already showed he has plenty of bottle. Move over Ken and Fergal, there's a new sheriff in town. Brilliant win against the game's greatest player. Finally us Irish snooker fans may have another top player to follow.

Joe_ Public

Not sure I've seen a player so tense over a shot as Aaron was over that pink to centre. Hand on heart, i didnt think he'd pot it but he nailed it and was a frame and match winner. Ronnie gave him some help but still had to pot them. Fair play and just great to have a real prospect from these parts on the scene again. Been way too long already.

begbysback

Fair play lad, missed a couple of basic blacks, and Ronnie was absolute tripe, but for an18 year old to have the balls to put it up to Ronnie, amazing.

Joe_ Public

Was talking to a lad from cork a few months back and he told me Aaron didnt take the game up till he was 14. Not sure I'd believe that but i know he was on the books at cork city and was a decent footballer so I'd say it was that he didnt get serious about snooker till he was that age. Either way, i just hope he settles into it and makes sure he's there for the long haul. Attitude seems great so i doubt he'd let tonight go to his head or get too far ahead of himself. Stevens next which is just as tricky a match as Stevens will use all his experience to nerve him out of it. Not sure we'll get any live feed for it, though.

refusetolose

https://twitter.com/WeAreWST/status/1309251765288787972

Nuts102

begbysback wrote: »

Was heading towards comedy rather than depth, kind of a paradox of your insightful comment?

Yes I removed my post it was obvious you were joking

Joe_ Public

Stephen Hill on talking to Claire Byrne right now, very proud dad as you can imagine. Incredibly Aaron was 14 when he took up the game, find that just amazing as he was all ireland champion his first year. Obviously just a prodigious talent to achieve all he has in 4 years.

El_Duderino 09

Joe_ Public wrote: »

Stephen Hill on talking to Claire Byrne right now, very proud dad as you can imagine. Incredibly Aaron was 14 when he took up the game, find that just amazing as he was all ireland champion his first year. Obviously just a prodigious talent to achieve all he has in 4 years.

If he's that new to the game then you'd imagine he has a lot of catching up to do in terms of strategy and general sneakiness that older pros use to their advantage. Hopefully he can add that to his game and become a top pro

Joe_ Public

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

If he's that new to the game then you'd imagine he has a lot of catching up to do in terms of strategy and general sneakiness that older pros use to their advantage. Hopefully he can add that to his game and become a top pro

Yeah, true. A couple of people had told me that before and i found it really hard to believe but then his dad confirms it in interview this morning. I'm guessing he must have played a lot of pool growing up maybe. He was all ireland champion at 14 so talent must have been very immediately apparent. Its actually quite remarkable really.

Edit: you're spot on about learning all the tricks of the game to become a top pro. That can only come with time and experience and, naturally, plenty of beatings. His attitude seems good and has good folk around him so plenty of reason for hope.

Dodge

Full game here if anyone wants to watch it

https://youtu.be/_Nsh9STEBUc

El_Duderino 09

Joe_ Public wrote: »

Yeah, true. A couple of people had told me that before and i found it really hard to believe but then his dad confirms it in interview this morning. I'm guessing he must have played a lot of pool growing up maybe. He was all ireland champion at 14 so talent must have been very immediately apparent. Its actually quite remarkable really.

Edit: you're spot on about learning all the tricks of the game to become a top pro. That can only come with time and experience and, naturally, plenty of beatings. His attitude seems good and has good folk around him so plenty of reason for hope.

Yeah I'd imagine there's a role for coaching in learning that stuff too. The Glasgow boys have formed a practice group which they call "The Unit" (Higgins, Maguire, McGill and maybe Dott). That's a serious school of hard knocks. They can all play (and lose and learn) a lot in that group without the consequence of being knocked out of a tournament. And I think it showed in McGill's world championship run and Maguire's great form in the nations championship and Higgins general very high performance. I don't suppose Hill has anything like that quality of opponent so he'll have to work hard to improve his game. Really hope he can do it.