2012 UK Championship

First topic message reminder :

Draw here under the column "Last 32":

http://www.prosnookerblog.com/calendar/201213-drawsheets/uk-championship-2012-tournament-draw/

Or alternatively:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_UK_Championship_%28snooker%29

Couple of crackers in the first round such as Day v Ding, Dott v Gould and Bingham v Lisowski. I can definitely see Gouldie winning v Dott. Also a welcome return to TV for Hitman Holt; it's been a while

Luca Brecel will be hoping to make an impact against Ricky Walden but the winner should play MJW which is a scary prospect.

Potential Winners? The big guns probably: Higgins, Trump, Selby and Robbo. My outside tip is Stephen Maguire but I can't see a winner coming from outside those 4. I think Higgins is now the man everyone wants to avoid, like Ronnie previously was, and is in some good form so will be very difficult to stop.

Honorable mentions to Steve Davis who plays Ali Carter, Premier League Champion Stuart Bingham who is playing the snooker of his life and Christopher "Dominic" Dale because he's wonderful.

Round 1
Trump 6-5 Joyce
Carter 6-2 Steve Davis
Bingham 6-2 Lisowski
Maguire 6-2 O'Brien
King 6-3 Williams
Walden 5-6 Brecel
Gould 5-6 Dott
Murphy 6-3 Milkins
Higgins 6-4 Holt
Mark Davis 6-1 Yupeng
Stevens 6-1 Dale
Allen 3-6 Fu
Robertson 6-1 Ford
Hawkins 6-4 Wenbo
Ding 4-6 Day
Selby 6-3 White

Round 2

Joyce 2-6 Carter
Bingham 6-4 Maguire
King 4-6 Brecel
Dott 2-6 Murphy
Higgins v Davis
Stevens 6-4 Fu
Robertson 6-2 Hawkins
Day 4-6 Selby

Quarter Finals

Carter 6-4 Bingham
Brecel 5-6 Murphy
Davis 6-4 Stevens
Robertson 6-4 Selby

Semi-Finals (Best of 17)

Carter 8-9 Murphy
Davis 4-9 Selby

Final (Best of 19)

Murphy v Selby

I was playing that earlier actually. Great game.

Stevens gets a horrible kick when presented with a good chance to take us to a decider and Davis is away to wrap this up.

Davis wins. Unstoppable (except by Robbo )

Well there's an implosion if ever I saw one. After the MSI, Robbo's game fell to pieces and his highest break was (I think) 32. Don't know what I was on about earlier about Selby being unable to grind out wins. Perhaps he can't grind out trophies like Higgins can but he can certainly grind out match wins.

The Special Juan wrote:Well there's an implosion if ever I saw one. After the MSI, Robbo's game fell to pieces and his highest break was (I think) 32. Don't know what I was on about earlier about Selby being unable to grind out wins. Perhaps he can't grind out trophies like Higgins can but he can certainly grind out match wins.

can't believe robbo lost after leading 4-0, he's normally so reliable and solid especially when he has a good lead over anyone, fair play to mark, probably favourite now for the title

He's a great runner and I'm at a loss as to what happened. Was there something up with his eye(s)? I saw him squinting a bit after playing one pot near the end.

Murphy v Carter a real match of matchplay. Carter's becoming more and more like Higgins every time I see him but I hope he doesn't become too negative.

Shaun's long game has been very good all match but I reckon Carter will win it because of his (currently) superior safety game.

7-4 Ali, his match to lose now as he is in again. Shaun's game has gone awry as he should have won the first game but played a really poor positional shot

8-4 Ali. He's fair getting the run of the ball!!

8-7 now It's amazing what no pressure does to a player.

Looks all the world for 8-8.

Oh Ali............... Loses 9-8.

I'm putting it out there. I like Shaun Murphy.

I just don't think he deserves the criticism he gets.....

Shaun's a great player to watch in full flow but I just can't warm to him, even though he's a decent enough guy. Maybe it's down to that nasty business with Maguire a few years back (although in all fairness Maguire did call him "fat" )

Murphy is one hell of a great cueist but like Juan, i just cant warm to his personality.
He will go on and win now

I really like Carter and felt that he should have achieved so much more with his talent.

Murphy has always come across as a wee bit condescending to me.

As arrogant as they come in my mind but the man is a joy to watch in full flow thats for sure.

Yeah I remember him blowing the field away in the 05 WC's and am surprised he hasn't won more majors with the obvious talent he has.

Complacency perhaps?

Probably. Like Mags, he achieved a lot quite young and hasn't really lived up to it since, although he's made another World final and was in last (this) years Masters final. He won the PTC finals too but aside from that just a load of semi-final places.

I'll be cheering on Selby though; good guy.

A lot of negative stuff is said about Selby but i dont mind him. He can be at times slightly tiresom to watch but he is also quite an interesting player to watch.

Selby's apparent "slowness" doesn't bother me and I find him to be arguably the best professional in the game. Always impeccably dressed, is great around the table, interacts with the audience and I've never seen him tank a match.

He reminds me of Ken Doherty (early years) for some reason. Ken is my favourite player of all time and i see alot of Doherty in Selby. Possibly why i always like to keep track on his progress.

Like Doherty, if Selby gets dragged into a long snooker exchange, always has that ability to keep his concentration. I definitely have him down as a future world champion and am suprised he hasnt won one already to be honest.

I knew it would turn out to be a damp squib in the end. Selby is just much, much better than Davis and the longer format hasn't helped. Murphy v Selby will be really good tomorrow.

Interesting from Selby; he had a different walk-on song this afternoon (All Night Long, I think) but is back to his original choice (Underdog).

Davis spurns 2 chances (1 great chance) and Selbinator leads 7-2.

Lucky we dont get to see a lot of their personality's down under but I thought Murphys comeback from 8-4 was fantastic. To turn around that sort of form in one session is short of a miracle, particularly when these days even half a mistake (such as leaving the white on the baulk cush and leaving one red on a half a mile away) can lose the frame.

That sort of consistency must be rare.

8-3 and only playing to about 70-80% of his potential...

I actually like Murphy on and off the table to be honest.

I really want to see Selby win today but I think Murphy will because he's looked sharper than Selby who's never really gotten out of 2nd gear. I'll say Murphy 10-7 but come on Mark!!

P.S: I miss the longer format of this tournament in the early rounds.

Hoping for a Selby win , dont really like SMurphy if im honest he has a face i would like to punch

If you combine Murphy's potting with Selby's safety you get the best player ever. The question is: "Is Selby's potting better than Murphy's safety?"

Interesting final so far. Not that much between them.

From what I've seen Shaun's looked better so I imagine Selby will be delighted with 4-4 should it happen.

Not been the best tournament I can remember; there's been a lot of scrappy frames which, although interesting, grow tiresome.

I didnt like that Selby continued a few frames ago with only the pink and black on the table but he is allowed to.

Smurph has probably been the better player today so i would say a 5-3 scoreline would be appropriate

Smurph!!! Love it.

4-4 it is, a late night beckons which may favour Selby because if he can keep Murphy off the table he can win this.

Yeah, i can see this one going late. I dont get why they cant start earlier

Those stairs are a bit extreme!! I'd be finished after walking down them.

Selby in danger of throwing away the 1st frame........

Mmmmmm ominous. 5-4 Smurphy.

Mon Smurf!

Selby should be 7-4 up but is only 6-5 up. "It's a funny old game"

So Murphy listens to Celine Dion!! Brilliant.

9 - 6 to Selby , surely Smurph can't stage another comeback can he ?

Well done Selbinator, didn't think he had it in him but boy did he.

The Special Juan wrote:If you combine Murphy's potting with Selby's safety you get the best player ever. The question is: "Is Selby's potting better than Murphy's safety?"

Not really as they both lack the pinpoint precision cueball control needed to reel off century break after break in the manner of a Stephen Hendry or a Ronnie O'Sullivan playing in their prime.

Well done to Selby, the biggest win of his career

gboycottnut wrote:

The Special Juan wrote:If you combine Murphy's potting with Selby's safety you get the best player ever. The question is: "Is Selby's potting better than Murphy's safety?"

Not really as they both lack the pinpoint precision cueball control needed to reel off century break after break in the manner of a Stephen Hendry or a Ronnie O'Sullivan playing in their prime.

exactly mark got out of position so many times last night but his potting was great which helped unlike shaun who couldn't get going last night. i predicted the 'terminator' john higgins or mark or shaun to win the tourny so i was happy either was last night. i was a bit dissappointed for shaun as it is the second time in a major , first being wc final 09 where he didnt perform to his potential. mark deserved his win last night as he is a great scrapper and the better tactical player out of the 2.

mark just needs the wc to complete his collection of the 3 bbc majors

Selby at his peak can rattle off the centuries, although maybe not as regularly as Ronnie, Higgins, Hendry etc. There was one year at the Crucible where he hammered in 4 or 5 in a row v Hendry though. That was phenomenal.

The Special Juan wrote:Selby at his peak can rattle off the centuries, although maybe not as regularly as Ronnie, Higgins, Hendry etc. There was one year at the Crucible where he hammered in 4 or 5 in a row v Hendry though. That was phenomenal.

yep that was in 2011 wc, 2nd round. that year mark got the record number of centeries
that season afaik. it was tough viewing seeing stephen beaten really badly that year in the wc, he did to stephen what stephen did regularly to opponents in the 90s .