34 Days of back to back snooker begins today !

Joe_ Public

Fair play to Lu. Seems an age since Ken was leading him 4-2 and had him in all sorts of bother! Hard to see him putting it up to Trump but you never know, i guess.

mrunsure

Joe_ Public wrote: »

Not impressed with hendry. If his game wasn't ready, or whatever the excuse, then why accept the card and deprive another player from getting it. If there's a better way of getting yourself ready other than by actually going out and playing competitive matches, then i haven't heard it.

I don't believe he's actually depriving anyone at the moment. There aren't enough professionals to fill the 128 draws at the moment, primarily due to players not able to travel to the UK, so the top up list from the Q School is being used.

mrunsure

Chalk McHugh wrote: »

Off all the commentators i find Studd and Hendon similiar voices. Cheers for clarifying it anyway.

I'm surprised to read confusion between these voices. Studd sounds very Home Counties with maybe a 80s radio DJ twang, whereas Hendon is from Birmingham with an obvious Midlands accent, although not quite as strong as Phil Yates.

Joe_ Public

mrunsure wrote: »

I don't believe he's actually depriving anyone at the moment. There aren't enough professionals to fill the 128 draws at the moment, primarily due to players not able to travel to the UK, so the top up list from the Q School is being used.

Yeah, there's always been a top up list every season, it's not really any different this year. It's why Ross Bulman from cork got into so many events last season as he was No.1 alternate from q school. But hendry accepted a 2 year tour card that would otherwise have gone to another player and i just don't think that reflects well tbh. Said many times i don't approve of those wild cards but at least ken and jimmy go out and use them. If ken had got his card and was making excuses why he couldn't play, I'd be pretty disappointed in him too quite frankly.

mrunsure

Joe_ Public wrote: »

Yeah, there's always been a top up list every season, it's not really any different this year. It's why Ross Bulman from cork got into so many events last season as he was No.1 alternate from q school. But hendry accepted a 2 year tour card that would otherwise have gone to another player and i just don't think that reflects well tbh. Said many times i don't approve of those wild cards but at least ken and jimmy go out and use them. If ken had got his card and was making excuses why he couldn't play, I'd be pretty disappointed in him too quite frankly.

They had already filled the 128 spots before Hendry got his invitational tour card, so adding Hendry meant 129 professionals for this season. This would have meant an additional qualifying round comprising of one match involving Hendry in the unlikely event of all 129 professionals being available for a particular tournament.

However, Andrew Pagett's tour card has been deferred due to ill health, meaning that there are 128 players on the tour after all.

So nobody has missed out as a result of Hendry's inclusion and lack of participation, although you could argue they could have given someone else a 2-year tour card after Pagett's deferral to make the numbers back up to 129. In practice, this would have made no difference to the participants although one more player could have had ranking points as well as prize money if they had been given a tour card.

Joe_ Public

mrunsure wrote: »

They had already filled the 128 spots before Hendry got his invitational tour card, so adding Hendry meant 129 professionals for this season. This would have meant an additional qualifying round comprising of one match involving Hendry in the unlikely event of all 129 professionals being available for a particular tournament.

However, Andrew Pagett's tour card has been deferred due to ill health, meaning that there are 128 players on the tour after all.

So nobody has missed out as a result of Hendry's inclusion and lack of participation, although you could argue they could have given someone else a 2-year tour card after Pagett's deferral to make the numbers back up to 129. In practice, this would have made no difference to the participants although one more player could have had ranking points as well as prize money if they had been given a tour card.

Ok fair enough points. Had forgotten the 129 factor tbh. But still not a fan of wild cards, one player is potentially missing out when you have 127 qualified and then award 2 wild cards, albeit hendrys one did seem something of an afterthought. I think you should still be playing, trying to earn points or else what is the actual point of taking it in the first place? I don't know what's going on with his game, obviously he's with the sight right guys and working on it, maybe it's all simply about the worlds and entering a couple of tournaments leading up to it to sharpen up. Just seems a bit strange to me anyway.

mrunsure

Joe_ Public wrote: »

Ok fair enough points. Had forgotten the 129 factor tbh. But still not a fan of wild cards, one player is potentially missing out when you have 127 qualified and then award 2 wild cards, albeit hendrys one did seem something of an afterthought. I think you should still be playing, trying to earn points or else what is the actual point of taking it in the first place? I don't know what's going on with his game, obviously he's with the sight right guys and working on it, maybe it's all simply about the worlds and entering a couple of tournaments leading up to it to sharpen up. Just seems a bit strange to me anyway.

I am also a bit sceptical about invitational tour cards, but I can see the business and entertainment value. When Hendry finally enters a tournament there will undoubtedly be great interest. When he decided to take up the tour card he said he would probably be entering the UK Championship, as it looked like Covid was becoming less of an issue back then and he probably assumed crowds would be back by now. He's getting a lot of ribbing about not entering at the moment.

Arthur Daley

Hendry is pretty miserable sitting on his card and not going out to play. All this no crowds nonsense. Didn't stop him playing in the World seniors back in August.

Joe_ Public

mrunsure wrote: »

I am also a bit sceptical about invitational tour cards, but I can see the business and entertainment value. When Hendry finally enters a tournament there will undoubtedly be great interest. When he decided to take up the tour card he said he would probably be entering the UK Championship, as it looked like Covid was becoming less of an issue back then and he probably assumed crowds would be back by now. He's getting a lot of ribbing about not entering at the moment.

I'm happy enough to see ken still on tour tbh, but i think they make a bit of a mockery of the having to earn your keep mantra you sometimes hear. But from a publicity perspective, I get that totally. Think hendry would have drawn selby if he'd entered here, if my sums are correct, so not too surprised he'd duck that. But to not play the scottish is less forgivable imo. Saw him getting a bit of ribbing from the BBC guys alright.

mrunsure

Joe_ Public wrote: »

I'm happy enough to see ken still on tour tbh, but i think they make a bit of a mockery of the having to earn your keep mantra you sometimes hear. But from a publicity perspective, I get that totally. Think hendry would have drawn selby if he'd entered here, if my sums are correct, so not too surprised he'd duck that. But to not play the scottish is less forgivable imo. Saw him getting a bit of ribbing from the BBC guys alright.

It would be weird for him to be playing for the Stephen Hendry Trophy in his first tournament! I wonder if he's only interested in playing in events where there would be a big TV audience? The Scottish Open isn't on the BBC or even ITV4.

Joe_ Public

mrunsure wrote: »

It would be weird for him to be playing for the Stephen Hendry Trophy in his first tournament! I wonder if he's only interested in playing in events where there would be a big TV audience? The Scottish Open isn't on the BBC or even ITV4.

No clue, though i'd have thought the usual way to get back into something would be in a smaller event where the focus isn't quite so intense and you can ease your way back into it. If he wanted the grand tv stage, then he's just missed it for whatever reason he's offering. I can only surmise it's a lot about sheffield but only he knows really.

mrunsure

Joe_ Public wrote: »

No clue, though i'd have thought the usual way to get back into something would be in a smaller event where the focus isn't quite so intense and you can ease your way back into it. If he wanted the grand tv stage, then he's just missed it for whatever reason he's offering. I can only surmise it's a lot about sheffield but only he knows really.

Thinking about it, he wouldn't even get onto TV (other than Eurosport covering the qualifiers) at the World Championship unless he qualifies for the main event, which is a big ask and the Masters is top 16 only. The ITV tournaments require you to be either a winner of a tournament or a high ranking top up (Champion of Champions) or top 32/16/8 on the 1 year list (World Grand Prix/Players' Championship/Tour Championship), so he is unlikely to get into those either. So really the UK Championship is the only big TV event where you can be on TV from the second round onwards.

Joe_ Public

mrunsure wrote: »

Thinking about it, he wouldn't even get onto TV (other than Eurosport covering the qualifiers) at the World Championship unless he qualifies for the main event, which is a big ask and the Masters is top 16 only. The ITV tournaments require you to be either a winner of a tournament or a high ranking top up (Champion of Champions) or top 32/16/8 on the 1 year list (World Grand Prix/Players' Championship/Tour Championship), so he is unlikely to get into those either. So really the UK Championship is the only big TV event where you can be on TV from the second round onwards.

No idea what he thinks his capabilities are these days, but qualifying for the big itv events would be a big stretch imo. No chance if you're not playing tournaments anyway so moot point. Don't know who he's practising with, but maybe with 6-7 solid months behind him, he figures he could make it through the world qualifiers. Hard to understand what the thinking is, though.

Good frame for Zhou here, albeit big fluke on blue and very close to in off on pink. Hopefully can make this competitive.

waynescales1

The colour of Neil Robertson’s beverage!

FR01

Joe_ Public wrote: »

No idea what he thinks his capabilities are these days, but qualifying for the big itv events would be a big stretch imo. No chance if you're not playing tournaments anyway so moot point. Don't know who he's practising with, but maybe with 6-7 solid months behind him, he figures he could make it through the world qualifiers. Hard to understand what the thinking is, though.

Good frame for Zhou here, albeit big fluke on blue and very close to in off on pink. Hopefully can make this competitive.

I wouldn’t hold out much hope of seeing Hendry play much this season if Milton Keynes stays as a venue , COVID depending of course. And looking at the standard at the events so far this season you can’t help but wonder is this all a stunt by Hendry to tie in with his Sightright involvement with Steve Feeney.

zuutroy

FR01 wrote: »

I wouldn’t hold out much hope of seeing Hendry play much this season if Milton Keynes stays as a venue , COVID depending of course. And looking at the standard at the events so far this season you can’t help but wonder is this all a stunt by Hendry to tie in with his Sightright involvement with Steve Feeney.

And to sell his crappy sweatshirts!

waynescales1

Neil Robertson playing the best snooker of his career. Every single time he enters a tournament he looks like a potential winner. He and Trump the 2 favourites every week these days. Constantly scoring heavily and looking very confident.

mrunsure

waynescales1 wrote: »

The colour of Neil Robertson’s beverage!

In his post match interview on Eurosport he said it was just a smoothie from Tesco.

mrunsure

Ronnie appeared to confirm his attendance at the Masters on Eurosport.

Joe_ Public

Interesting start this, not overawed this lad anyway. Playing the odd loose one but going for his shots and giving judd a bit to think about. Could even be two up.

He should have listened to Joe; Lu, and allowed for that right hand side when he went for the black. Missed it by a long way. Trump pulls ahead again with a few good shots there in frame 3. His confidence will be well up now. Not so good for Lu; who should be 2-1 up himself..

zuutroy

Trump is just outrageously good.

sligeach

Unlucky Trump with the black not dropping. Terrible camera work from the BBC. They didn’t show us where the cueball ended up. Was the maximum still on had the black dropped?

sligeach

sligeach wrote: »

Unlucky Trump with the black not dropping. Terrible camera work from the BBC. They didn’t show us where the cueball ended up. Was the maximum still on had the black dropped?

:pac: Snap.... Was watching Eurosport, and the exact same.. Caught a brief glimpse as frame was over; and camera was doing a distant yet brief pan of the table/ref, and it looked like he had a mid-range/longish red with white close to right middle, and a loose red somewhere above opposite corner black pocket.

Camerawork is annoying generally - low angles they use a lot makes it hard to tell if object ball is heading into pocket; or favourite to hit the jaws/knuckle, and wobble... Can't tell till last second...

What's worse, though, is when a player misses; and, fk me, we have to wait for the camera to pan to the player grimacing before we get the overview of table, and what damage has been done :mad:

Well done Lu.. Excellent blue, and what bottle on pink... Game on now!

waynescales1

Didn’t like how much Ning hesitated there, frustrating miss on the red.

Joe_ Public

6-2 was fair enough, should have been 3 for Lu. Nice enough player and hope he can build on that, see too many one offs from these young players. Remember Yuan Sijun being the coming chinese kid a couple of years ago but not heard much from him since.

ArmaniJeanss

Deleted User wrote: »

:pac: Snap.... Was watching Eurosport, and the exact same.. Caught a brief glimpse as frame was over; and camera was doing a distant yet brief pan of the table/ref, and it looked like he had a mid-range/longish red with white close to right middle, and a loose red somewhere above opposite corner black pocket.

Camerawork is annoying generally - low angles they use a lot makes it hard to tell if object ball is heading into pocket; or favourite to hit the jaws/knuckle, and wobble... Can't tell till last second...

What's worse, though, is when a player misses; and, fk me, we have to wait for the camera to pan to the player grimacing before we get the overview of table, and what damage has been done :mad:

Absolute bug-bear of mine over the years that the camera editor so often fails to understand the important aspect of the shot.
So you get a close-up of a ball going into a pocket whilst the crucial part of the shot is happening unseen.

gormdubhgorm

zuutroy wrote: »

Trump is just outrageously good.

Joe_ Public wrote: »

6-2 was fair enough, should have been 3 for Lu. Nice enough player and hope he can build on that, see too many one offs from these young players. Remember Yuan Sijun being the coming chinese kid a couple of years ago but not heard much from him since.

In the post match interview, Judd sounded like he was taking a leaf out of Ronnie's playbook.

He said he was mot treating it too serious, putting no pressure on himself, and trying to treat games like a practice match.

Joe_ Public

gormdubhgorm wrote: »

In the post match interview, Judd sounded like he was taking a leaf out of Ronnie's playbook.

He said he was mot treating it too serious, putting no pressure on himself, and trying to treat games like a practice match.

Amazing how well judd comes across now compared to 3,4 years ago when he often seemed a bit cocky and unlikable. He's a pure freak talent wise, a total one off when you consider his unorthodox style, but getting it together mentally has really pushed him into another stratosphere. Would want to be adding a few more world titles which is no given but not as if there's an obvious glut of emerging talent that's going to challenge him as of yet.