2019 Masters

xi5yvm0owc1s2b · 20-01-2019 8:33pm

Clearance badly needed here.

The Royal Scam · 20-01-2019 8:36pm

Always liked Trump and he is playing very well. It is just so strange seeing Ronnie being normal.

sligeach · 20-01-2019 8:39pm

BBC's fawning over Ronnie is sickening and it's disrespectful to Judd.

Joe_ Public · 20-01-2019 8:40pm

11 frames for the first ton! Been a match of surprises this...

Joe_ Public · 20-01-2019 8:46pm

If that wasn’t a push dunno what is...

omb0wyn5ehpij9 · 20-01-2019 8:53pm

Joe_ Public wrote: »

If that wasn’t a push dunno what is...

I thought it was a push shot too

Joe_ Public · 20-01-2019 8:57pm

Axl Jealous Squeegee wrote: »

I thought it was a push shot too

Even the sound seemed wrong but they never give them anyway, can’t recall last time I saw a foul given for a push.

Anyway we’re in mike hallett territory now, it’s just about done you’d have to say.

Say Your Number · 20-01-2019 9:24pm

In that piece on BBC about 147s during the interval, Jimmy White was boasting about making 70,000 pound more than Hendry at the 1992 WC, I imagine he would swap every penny he made that year to get his hands on the trophy.

Muppet Man · 20-01-2019 9:29pm

It would some rediculous come back...

omb0wyn5ehpij9 · 20-01-2019 9:30pm

Joe_ Public wrote: »

Even the sound seemed wrong but they never give them anyway, can’t recall last time I saw a foul given for a push.

There was one given the other night I think!

tomoliver · 20-01-2019 9:44pm

Trump to mess up and lose the frame

Arthur Daley · 20-01-2019 9:45pm

Fair play Judd Trump

Joe_ Public · 20-01-2019 9:48pm

Say Your Number wrote: »

In that piece on BBC about 147s during the interval, Jimmy White was boasting about making 70,000 pound more than Hendry at the 1992 WC, I imagine he would swap every penny he made that year to get his hands on the trophy.

Biggest winner there was jimmys bookie!

AllForIt · 20-01-2019 9:48pm

Disappointing final really given the line up. Never would have though the match would be virtually won by the afternoon session.

liamoreilly · 20-01-2019 9:54pm

...I'm pretty sure Ronnie just gave his medal to a fan...Definitely handed it over, and she seemed shocked as hell so not sure...

omb0wyn5ehpij9 · 20-01-2019 9:56pm

liamoreilly wrote: »

...I'm pretty sure Ronnie just gave his medal to a fan...Definitely handed it over, and she seemed shocked as hell so not sure...

I noticed that too!

xi5yvm0owc1s2b · 20-01-2019 9:58pm

Arthur Daley wrote: »

Fair play Judd Trump

By far the better player today, and a deserved win.

liamoreilly · 20-01-2019 10:03pm

Axl Jealous Squeegee wrote: »

liamoreilly wrote: »

...I'm pretty sure Ronnie just gave his medal to a fan...Definitely handed it over, and she seemed shocked as hell so not sure...

I noticed that too!

...I also noticed Barry Hearn talking in that direction, probably trying to get it back lol...

Inviere · 20-01-2019 10:10pm

Judd looked destined to win from his first match, by far the best player of the tournament. Gave Ronnie an absolute thumping, and has taken a huge step forward in terms of how he goes about the game. Took him a while, but if can sustain this level, he could develop into the player to take the mantle from Ronnie. He actually reminded me of the Ronnie of old today, clinical, aggressive, clean, tight, controlled, and downright dangerous in all areas of the game. A well deserved win.

Joe_ Public · 20-01-2019 10:48pm

93% pot success, 68% long potting success, 81% safety success.

Those are pretty exceptional figures for a major final. The safety figure really stands out, reckoned Judd could play safety if he wanted but that’s a level I’ve never seen from him before.

Augurs well for coming months but there’s going to be some pressure on him at the crucible, bbc will be ramping up the trump hype. Is this finally the year etc I hope he can cope with it.

Arthur Daley · 20-01-2019 10:59pm

Joe_ Public wrote: »

Augurs well for coming months but there’s going to be some pressure on him at the crucible, bbc will be ramping up the trump hype. Is this finally the year etc I hope he can cope with it.

Yes was thinking he could head into the Crucible in really good shape following a strong season, but there will also be multiple stories for the BBC to chew on. Selby's No.1 position, MJW should soak up a lot of attention in his title defence. The twilight of Higgins career, does he have another title in him after the last two finals, and Ronnie of course.

Joe_ Public · 20-01-2019 11:11pm

Arthur Daley wrote: »

Yes was thinking he could head into the Crucible in really good shape following a strong season, but there will also be multiple stories for the BBC to chew on. Selby's No.1 position, MJW should soak up a lot of attention in his title defence. The twilight of Higgins career, does he have another title in him after the last two finals, and Ronnie of course.

Yes that is true. My one worry about judd is he’s now second favorite in the bookies and I’m not sure he’s at his best when that level of expectation is on him. Maybe he’s mature enough to brush all that off. Fascinating prospect for sure.

I wonder do people really believe higgins is a front line contender this year. Wouldn’t rule it out completely but just way season is gone I’d be amazed if he could even match last year. Same with MJW to lesser extent but which of the younger set can step forward? Not sure on that.

Arthur Daley · 20-01-2019 11:21pm

Higgins looks done, and very tough for MJW to even get to final again. But with the Crucible the experience and familiarity counts for a lot it seems. If this 10 minute practice drill pre match is rolled out in the crucible it may help a few of the outsiders settle early which might swing things slightly in their favour over a longer match.

Still 3 months for Selby say, to string a bit of form together. Mark Allen went out day one in a tight one, but he's a possible contender now too. Really looking forward to Sheffield now, this was an entertaining old week of snooker

Joe_ Public · 20-01-2019 11:35pm

Lot of one sided matches this week but it had its moments for sure. I’d hope Allen would be a big contender for the worlds, disappointed with his performance against wilson last year but think he’s come on a bit again this year. Selby I don’t know really and also Ronnie in that bracket, the grind of Sheffield just doesn’t suit him anymore but steve peters might yet work the oracle. Wish it was April already!

Frank O. Pinion · 20-01-2019 11:40pm

liamoreilly wrote: »

...I'm pretty sure Ronnie just gave his medal to a fan...Definitely handed it over, and she seemed shocked as hell so not sure...

Not the the first he's done that at all. Nowadays he just hands his second place medal to some random person in the crowd, usually some young kid if he sees one.

sligeach · 20-01-2019 11:50pm

If O'Sullivan had won, it would have been a joke. He played average snooker all week against average players. Thank God Trump was there to put an end to the farce, and proper battered him without being flawless himself. Imagine Ronnie had won, the tripe that would have been printed, when he's been average at best.

Trump was head and shoulders above everyone all week. Fully deserved.

Joe_ Public · 21-01-2019 12:02am

sligeach wrote: »

If O'Sullivan had won, it would have been a joke. He played average snooker all week against average players. Thank God Trump was there to put an end to the farce, and proper battered him without being flawless himself. Imagine Ronnie had won, the tripe that would have been printed, when he's been average at best.

Trump was head and shoulders above everyone all week. Fully deserved.

I suppose if ronnie had won he’d have had to play better than judd which would have been sublime so the “tripe” printed would have been a pretty accurate summation. He wasn’t sublime and didn’t win so no tripe will have to be printed. I think that’s about the size of it ;-)

Dante7 · 21-01-2019 1:32am

Big changing of the guard happening here. I fully expect Trump to dominate for the next few years now. He really has become the complete player this year by employing his brother as his full time training partner.

Some nonsense being spoken in this this thread about today's players not practicing enough. They practice more than any other generation. It's a running joke amongst the pros pretending that they are not really practicing, when they are all putting in 8+ hours a day. Except for Willo :-)

Joe_ Public · 21-01-2019 2:01am

8+ hours per day :-)

Judd spoke on tv the other day about spending 2 hours a day practicing. Guess he is lying about it! Used to practice on his own, presumably spotting balls himself and used work with Lisowski and Wenbo before that. Pretty moderate practice setup imo.

Have been listening to the judds going to dominate for next 5/10/15 years whatever talk for last 5 years or more now. Maybe he will, maybe he won’t. Nobody can predict the future and certainly not as far as Judd Trump is concerned. There’s not that many exciting young players scrambling for the top anymore, despite all their diligent 8+ hour days at the grind, so he certainly has every chance. Good luck to him.

Ultimate Seduction · 21-01-2019 3:24am

Disappointing to see so many "Ronnie never turned up" posts, here and on twitter.

I thought Judd played excellent, probably the best, most ruthless I've seen him. Ronnie didn't make too many mistakes, Judd gave him nothing all day. Anything Ronnie missed were very hard shots.

Was never too fond of trump for some unknown reason but was delighted for him tonight, the best player all week.

Frank O. Pinion · 21-01-2019 9:53am

Great win for Trump, but on the BBC and fans hyping up Trump as a possible World Champion this year, "if he carries this form to the Crucible", well there's a long time between now and then, and there's around 8 more tournaments at least that he'll be playing in. Also, while Stephen Hendry did it a few times in the 90s, in the last 20 years only one player has won The Masters and the World Championship in the same year. Mark Williams, 2003.

The Nal · 21-01-2019 9:59am

Joe_ Public wrote: »

8+ hours per day :-)

Judd spoke on tv the other day about spending 2 hours a day practicing.

Ronnie said he does 2/3 hours a fay 3 or 4.times a week. There was a big shift from quantity to quality about 15/20 years ago.

Spudman_20000 · 21-01-2019 10:45am

Trump was basically unplayable in the final. 93% pot success, 68% long potting success and 81% safety success are amazing stats, don't know who could have lived with him.

Will be interesting to see if Trump can maintain that level. He was very poor against Robertson in the semi's, and was fortunate that Neil was playing equally as bad.

The Nal · 21-01-2019 10:54am

Spudman_20000 wrote: »

Trump was basically unplayable in the final. 93% pot success, 68% long potting success and 81% safety success are amazing stats, don't know who could have lived with him.

Will be interesting to see if Trump can maintain that level. He was very poor against Robertson in the semi's, and was fortunate that Neil was playing equally as bad.

But he beat Kyren Wilson, Mark Selby, Neil Robertson and Ronnie O'Sullivan to win it. Fully deserved. Hes allowed an average session in there.

He does strike me as quite nervous still though, even during his speech last night.

Joe_ Public · 21-01-2019 11:17am

The Nal wrote: »

Ronnie said he does 2/3 hours a fay 3 or 4.times a week. There was a big shift from quantity to quality about 15/20 years ago.

That may be the case alright, I don’t know really. Wouldn’t even be convinced 8 hours every day would be a good thing, unless you’re an animal like hendry!!

There was an interesting discussion between ronnie and jimmy about the Chinese guys practicing setup on eurosport a while back. Ronnie used the word “robotic”, jimmy said something strange about “potting 50 straight blues before they’ve had their porridge.” It wasn’t really fleshed out at all, but thought it was interesting they’d be so critical.

There’s 128 players on tour and I’d imagine they all have different setups and ideas about practicing. Some more diligent than others. But what I strongly believe is that the generation after hendry, and including hendry too, had a far superior mentality for playing the game than you see in general among todays guys. They were better matchplayers, better clutch players, better prepared for the grind, especially when it comes to the longer matches.

Maybe nonsense, but that’s my view on it. Whatever the reasons behind it, I believe it to be the case.

Inviere · 21-01-2019 4:08pm

Ultimate Seduction wrote: »

Disappointing to see so many "Ronnie never turned up" posts, here and on twitter.

I thought Judd played excellent, probably the best, most ruthless I've seen him. Ronnie didn't make too many mistakes, Judd gave him nothing all day. Anything Ronnie missed were very hard shots.

Don't agree with that at all. Yes Judd was sublime at times. but there were definite chances for Ronnie that he fluffed. A certain red to the left middle springs to mind as one of the worst misses of the tournament. Not saying Ronnie could have held Judd back, but he had chances to go into the second session at 5-3 behind, instead of the insurmountable 7-1.

Sandor Clegane · 21-01-2019 5:52pm

Ronnie definitely had chances that he normally would of took, his safety play was also surprisingly poor.

Id be skeptical as to whether Judd can go on and dominate from here, I don't think he has the mentality, only two ranking titles in nearly a decade is poor for a guy who is constantly touted as the next best thing.

Joe_ Public · 21-01-2019 6:34pm

Sandor Clegane wrote: »

Ronnie definitely had chances that he normally would of took, his safety play was also surprisingly poor.

Id be skeptical as to whether Judd can go on and dominate from here, I don't think he has the mentality, only two ranking titles in nearly a decade is poor for a guy who is constantly touted as the next best thing.

I don’t entirely disagree with you but just to be fair to judd, he has won a lot more than that, it’s either 9 or 10 ranking titles at this stage. He’s a strange one because I don’t think he’s got the credit for what he actually has won (the stench of underachievment just seems too powerful) and then when he does win a big tournament, you get all this stuff about how he’s going to dominate for the next 10 years. Not much middle ground with him. A couple of months ago I was reading and hearing claims that he’d never win anything.

Also, I don’t believe saying ronnie underperformed yesterday is incompatible with saying judd played great. Both are eminently possible and I think judds standard is partly the reason why ronnie could not find his a game. That’s two big finals in a row judd has eclipsed ronnie, you’d nearly say he has his measure now. If only he’d stop losing to the likes of rory mcleod;-)

Sandor Clegane · 21-01-2019 9:09pm

Joe_ Public wrote: »

I don’t entirely disagree with you but just to be fair to judd, he has won a lot more than that, it’s either 9 or 10 ranking titles at this stage. He’s a strange one because I don’t think he’s got the credit for what he actually has won (the stench of underachievment just seems too powerful) and then when he does win a big tournament, you get all this stuff about how he’s going to dominate for the next 10 years. Not much middle ground with him. A couple of months ago I was reading and hearing claims that he’d never win anything.

Also, I don’t believe saying ronnie underperformed yesterday is incompatible with saying judd played great. Both are eminently possible and I think judds standard is partly the reason why ronnie could not find his a game. That’s two big finals in a row judd has eclipsed ronnie, you’d nearly say he has his measure now. If only he’d stop losing to the likes of rory mcleod;-)

Sorry I should of really said major ranking events, as in the UK Championship, Masters and The World Championships. These really are the main three that the big players want to win, he's under performed in these events.

Im not taking anything away from the win yesterday, I give him all the credit it was a great display, Judd was the main cause for Ronnies poor play IMO, consistently had him under pressure and limited his table time and when Ronnie did mess up of his own accord Judd punished him.

Look he's only 29, plenty of time, his mentality is the only thing id have questions over, if he can get that right he can win anything and everything, he has all the tools no one can say otherwise

Joe_ Public · 21-01-2019 10:15pm

Sandor Clegane wrote: »

Sorry I should of really said major ranking events, as in the UK Championship, Masters and The World Championships. These really are the main three that the big players want to win, he's under performed in these events.

Im not taking anything away from the win yesterday, I give him all the credit it was a great display, Judd was the main cause for Ronnies poor play IMO, consistently had him under pressure and limited his table time and when Ronnie did mess up of his own accord Judd punished him.

Look he's only 29, plenty of time, his mentality is the only thing id have questions over, if he can get that right he can win anything and everything, he has all the tools no one can say otherwise

Fair enough, should have twigged that’s what you meant. I often wonder if reaching that 2010 final and giving higgins a real scare was the best thing for him, the hypometer just ratcheted up from that point and it was tough for him to deal with. I often wonder too what judd could get from the likes of a terry griffiths, who has worked wonders for mark allen among others, but judd just seems to be a totally independent spirit with his own ideas about how he should prepare. Maybe he knows best himself, but I still wonder about it.

He’s nearly 30 and we still talk about him as being one of the younger generation! Hendry had 6 world titles or something in the bag by that point, funny how things and attitudes change!

Dante7 · 22-01-2019 2:45am

I really think that this is a huge turning point for Judd. I know we've heard it all before, but it is definitely different this time. He has given up the fast cars and playboy lifestyle and has really knuckled down. He got his brother Jack to quit his job and employed him full time and it has made a huge difference.

He has spanked Ronnie in two finals in a few months now. Ronnie won't fancy playing Judd now. I'd go as far as to say that Judd is the best in the world at the moment. I'd like to see what Selby does in the World's though.

Frank O. Pinion · 22-01-2019 10:38am

Sandor Clegane wrote: »

Sorry I should of really said major ranking events, as in the UK Championship, Masters and The World Championships. These really are the main three that the big players want to win, he's under performed in these events.

The Masters is not a ranking event. Part of the Triple Crown yes, but it has no bearing on the ranking list.

The Nal · 22-01-2019 10:47am

Joe_ Public wrote: »

Fair enough, should have twigged that’s what you meant. I often wonder if reaching that 2010 final and giving higgins a real scare was the best thing for him, the hypometer just ratcheted up from that point and it was tough for him to deal with. I often wonder too what judd could get from the likes of a terry griffiths, who has worked wonders for mark allen among others, but judd just seems to be a totally independent spirit with his own ideas about how he should prepare. Maybe he knows best himself, but I still wonder about it.

He’s nearly 30 and we still talk about him as being one of the younger generation! Hendry had 6 world titles or something in the bag by that point, funny how things and attitudes change!

Education too. Its just not acceptable to drop out of school to play snooker at age 14 anymore. The snooker career has shifted 10 years forward age wise. We'll never see a 21 year old World Championship winner again. Maybe not even a 25 year old winner.

Joe_ Public · 22-01-2019 11:28am

The Nal wrote: »

Education too. Its just not acceptable to drop out of school to play snooker at age 14 anymore. The snooker career has shifted 10 years forward age wise. We'll never see a 21 year old World Championship winner again. Maybe not even a 25 year old winner.

Yes, very good point. You can always get a freak or outlier I suppose, but if we keep closing snooker clubs and restrict the outlets to play, the odds of it happening keep going up I’d say.

The chinese do have some good ideas about combining education and snooker but problem for them is having to relocate to uk at a young age. Got to be a disadvantage that you’d imagine.

2019 Masters

Comments