34 Days of back to back snooker begins today !

Mervyn Skidmore

[Deleted User] wrote: »

:pac: From the sublime to the absurd - snookering himself with respotted blue :pac:

That's exactly like something I would do.

Mervyn Skidmore

Mervyn Skidmore wrote: »

That's exactly like something I would do.

I'd be happy just to pot the blue myself, as am only an armchair fan :pac:

A lot of big talk up to two or three years ago about all these Chinese players about to come good; but with the exception of maybe Yan, very little really.. Doing alright though this year to be fair - must be Ding's Sheffield academy bringing them on. Off the top of my head, apart from Yan, I don't think many have gone deep in tournaments; well up until very recently that is.... I guess Ronnie's right about something

Joe_ Public

[Deleted User] wrote: »

A lot of big talk up to two or three years ago about all these Chinese players about to come good; but with the exception of maybe Yan, very little really.. Doing alright though this year to be fair - must be Ding's Sheffield academy bringing them on. Off the top of my head, apart from Yan, I don't think many have gone deep in tournaments; well up until very recently that is.... I guess Ronnie's right about something

Think it's difficult for them having to relocate at very young age and earn their way in uk, but would have expected one or two more making it bigger by now. A few bright spots this year, Zhou Yeulong could be a prospect i think. Another 10 years and i'm sure it will have changed considerably - higgins, williams, robbo, selby will be gone and where is the home grown talent to replace them? The chinese will fill the gap i reckon.

gormdubhgorm

Deleted User wrote: »

A lot of big talk up to two or three years ago about all these Chinese players about to come good; but with the exception of maybe Yan, very little really.. Doing alright though this year to be fair - must be Ding's Sheffield academy bringing them on. Off the top of my head, apart from Yan, I don't think many have gone deep in tournaments; well up until very recently that is.... I guess Ronnie's right about something

He has to be right at some stage, with all the mouthing he does.
A stopped clock right twice a day.

gormdubhgorm

Never mind that Selby fella, Higgins still King of matchplay snooker.

gormdubhgorm

Ken still playing with the same bandy 40 year old cue.
Amazed pros do that these days.

http://www.cuesnviews.co.uk/Snooker/cuestories.htm

Henryq.

[Deleted User] wrote: »

A lot of big talk up to two or three years ago about all these Chinese players about to come good; but with the exception of maybe Yan, very little really.. Doing alright though this year to be fair - must be Ding's Sheffield academy bringing them on. Off the top of my head, apart from Yan, I don't think many have gone deep in tournaments; well up until very recently that is.... I guess Ronnie's right about something

At this stage I think we can give up on the Chinese revolution

If it was going to happen it would have happened by now

robinwing

gormdubhgorm wrote: »

Ken still playing with the same bandy 40 year old cue.
Amazed pros do that these days.

http://www.cuesnviews.co.uk/Snooker/cuestories.htm

The guy who runs that is a great pal of Dominic Dale , who is a cue guru or cuehead himself

Muppet Man

gormdubhgorm wrote: »

Ken still playing with the same bandy 40 year old cue.
Amazed pros do that these days.

http://www.cuesnviews.co.uk/Snooker/cuestories.htm

Jaysis... Yellow and green text on a green background. Makes baby jesus cry.

Joe_ Public

gormdubhgorm wrote: »

Ken still playing with the same bandy 40 year old cue.
Amazed pros do that these days.

http://www.cuesnviews.co.uk/Snooker/cuestories.htm

Some great stuff on that site, hadn't visited it for years. That's probably half my day gone now working my way through those links!

The Nal

Muppet Man wrote: »

Jaysis... Yellow and green text on a green background. Makes baby jesus cry.

Looks very GeoCities alright. Old school!

Henryq.

Henryq. wrote: »

At this stage I think we can give up on the Chinese revolution

If it was going to happen it would have happened by now

Don't know about that.. There's about 5 Chinese in the top 32, and a few of them have reached semis this year... No one's expecting them to be up there with Ronnie, Robbo, Judd, and Selby.. but they could well fare as well, or better than Allen, Murphy, Wilson et al..

At this stage you're definitely right; in that none of them have torn up many trees, but I'll wait another 3 years before I admit I'm wrong... The rate of progression is there it seems, and making incremental gains. Whether that stagnates, or improves; I'd be favouring the latter myself.

gormdubhgorm

Deleted User wrote: »

Don't know about that.. There's about 5 Chinese in the top 32, and a few of them have reached semis this year... No one's expecting them to be up there with Ronnie, Robbo, Judd, and Selby.. but they could well fare as well, or better than Allen, Murphy, Wilson et al..

At this stage you're definitely right; in that none of them have torn up many trees, but I'll wait another 3 years before I admit I'm wrong... The rate of progression is there it seems, and making incremental gains. Whether that stagnates, or improves; I'd be favouring the latter myself.

All it will take is one Chinese fella to win a world title and the whole thing will really spark. If the likes of Dott and Bingham can do it, law of averages by population it is going to happen.

Plus easier for Chinese players to settle now than previous generations - a Chinese snooker community is established.

I would say in about 20 years the world championship could be staged in China and John Parrott won't like it - even though most of his wins were outside the UK! (Irony of it always amuses me)

Joe_ Public

There is only one UK player under 25 in the top 64 of the rankings now. Before they disbanded it last year, you had to go back to Sam Craigie in 2010 for the last british winner of the world u/21 championship. There's only one way things can logically go given these trends and just a question of when not if. Snooker is declining here and don't see how that will change anytime soon, sadly.

Saw Trump got unlucky there, and got stuck amongst the reds... Wonder what the rule is in the unlikely, but not completely implausible situation where the white is touching two or more reds, and it's impossible to play away from any of them without pushing another... Never seen it myself..

Holt 1 - 0 up atm, and Judd well ahead in frame 2.. Holt at the table with 2 reds left and needs a snooker to tie..

1 apiece.

snooker.org a good site for following scores on other matches (usually), as it updates every 30 seconds the exact scores.. But, for some reason it's not recognizing any matches starting until 2pm.. Est must be European standard time, but still, there's currently 2 matches in progress so one would expect to see live updates.. I think it's fine most of the the time apart from early morning/afternoon matches..

Li Hang 1-0 up against Ballrun..

Holt not playing well at all..

2 nil to Li Hang just now

Judd cruising here.. 2-1 a formality

mrunsure

Joe_ Public wrote: »

There is only one UK player under 25 in the top 64 of the rankings now. Before they disbanded it last year, you had to go back to Sam Craigie in 2010 for the last british winner of the world u/21 championship. There's only one way things can logically go given these trends and just a question of when not if. Snooker is declining here and don't see how that will change anytime soon, sadly.

In some ways it wouldn't be a bad thing if the sport wasn't dominated by British players. If we get more players from different countries competing then it gets more credibility as an international sport. That's happening a little now with more players coming through from continental Europe.

Holty flowing nicely in frame 4 - on a break of 42, and looking good to get a few more.

Looking like 2 apiece here. Bar one or two inexact positional shots, Michael looking quite composed.. Gwan Holty!

Lovely from Michael.. Total clearance of 136 to make it 2-2.

Joe_ Public

mrunsure wrote: »

In some ways it wouldn't be a bad thing if the sport wasn't dominated by British players. If we get more players from different countries competing then it gets more credibility as an international sport. That's happening a little now with more players coming through from continental Europe.

But snooker is not in rude health here, despite what the bbc might tell you sometimes, and that's a problem. Take judd, kyren and lisowski out of it and there's nothing really emerged from the uk within the past 10 years that's left a mark. Who's the next generation? Louis Heathcote, Jamie Cahill? Possibles but there's not great numbers there. I've great hopes for our own Aaron Hill but you'd want a couple of those arriving every odd year, not one a decade. I agree a better global spread is a good thing, but that's not going to do much on its own to stop the decline in the games traditional heartland.

Only Luca and Ursenbacher from the Europeans spring to mind... And Brian Ochoiski from France.. Brecel the only one of the three looking like a proper top 16 player though.. Dunno does Maflin count, not that he's exactly a Worldshaker :P

mrunsure

Deleted User wrote: »

Only Luca and Ursenbacher from the Europeans spring to mind... And Brian Ochoiski from France.. Brecel the only one of the three looking like a proper top 16 player though.. Dunno does Maflin count, not that he's exactly a Worldshaker :P

Ben Mertens is an exciting prospect from Belgium. Boiko from Ukraine as well, although his first season as a pro has been disappointing so far. I wouldn't count anyone like Maflin who grew up in the UK or Ireland.

Joe_ Public

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Only Luca and Ursenbacher from the Europeans spring to mind... And Brian Ochoiski from France.. Brecel the only one of the three looking like a proper top 16 player though.. Dunno does Maflin count, not that he's exactly a Worldshaker :P

If brecel had a bit of table craft and didn't feel as if he had to break the pocket every pot, i'd give him a chance of making an impact. Struggling to see it, though. Vafaei from iran was one player i always liked but just not seeing the development in his game yet. All these players can pot but fall short when it comes to proper matchplay which is why i suspect the vets will have the edge over them for a few more years yet.

Joe_ Public

Lost control of the white there holt and it cost him frame and, possibly, match.

mrunsure

mrunsure wrote: »

Ben Mertens is an exciting prospect from Belgium. Boiko from Ukraine as well, although his first season as a pro has been disappointing so far. I wouldn't count anyone like Maflin who grew up in the UK or Ireland.

Yeah, Maflin's an Englishman really - just Scandinavian (Norway/Sweden? one of them) by passport/ place of residence, or whatever..