2013 World Snooker Championship

First topic message reminder :

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP FIRST ROUND

(Seeded players are in brackets)

(1) Ronnie O'Sullivan v Marcus Campbell

(16) Ali Carter v Ben Woollaston

(9) Stuart Bingham v Sam Baird

(8) John Higgins v Mark Davis

(5) Shaun Murphy v Martin Gould

(12) Graeme Dott v Peter Ebdon

(13) Matthew Stevens v Marco Fu

(4) Judd Trump v Dominic Dale

(3) Neil Robertson v Robert Milkins

(14) Ricky Walden v Michael Holt

(11) Mark Williams v Michael White

(6) Stephen Maguire v Dechawat Poomjaeng

(7) Mark Allen v Mark King

(10) Ding Junhui v Alan McManus

(15) Barry Hawkins v Jack Lisowski

(2) Mark Selby v Matthew Selt

Kenny wrote:great chance for 4 - 4

or maybe not

Methinks this is his "bad" session and Juddley must make it out 4-4. He won't play this poorly tomorrow.

Kenny wrote:

Kenny wrote:great chance for 4 - 4

or maybe not

Or then again

I want a t-shirt with "Careless" written on the front of it.

I'm looking for a bet on Ronnie not coming back out tomorrow

I'll give you evens

4 - 4 about right ?

Definitely. That was a nice session of snooker with a lot of tactical battles, great pots and some nice tactical play.

4-4, well done Judd, 3 frames in a row against the Rocket.

I think Judd will be the happier of the two TBH. No big breaks, but he snatched a few frames. Ronnie looked more comfortable in the balls. If anything Judd outdid him in the tactical battle though.

Neither player played their best, but each played some tremendous shots.

Ronnie's shot off the pink was class. And you could pick half a dozen pots of Judd, but I'll go for the one he stroked in when tight on the cushion at the start of the 7th.

An intriguing match.

Brilliant stuff from Juddley. Showed great self confidence and belief.

Gives him plenty to think about and I don't think he will like that at all.

Lurch vs Elmer Fudd tonight.

I'll watch a bit but can't say I'm massively enthused by it for which I'm slightly disappointed in myself.

Hopefully once they get going I'll be more interested.

I don't think he likes thinking in all honesty....

I think tonight will be a competitive but scrappy match. I'm looking forward to it though.

Judd Trump must be the modern day John Spencer in terms of his ability to pot balls from a long distance, which was Spencer's trademark during his prime in the 1970's. Also just as was the case with Spencer, Judd isn't that great in the area and fine art of cue ball control when break building.

I shall be flicking between the snooker and darts again tonight

I'll have darts on the TV and snooker on the laptop until MVG wins/I get bored of arras. Also, Basel, Fenerbahce and Benfica are playing tonight and no one else.

oh yes forgot about the footie , so footie on the tv darts / snooker on the laptop

C'mon Ricky!!

Great start. 3/4 shots have been guff.

Ranking event winners this season:
Walden
Hawkins
Higgins
Trump
Selby
Carter
Maguire
Allen
Ding
Robertson


A bit unfair to suggest they're not worthy of being WC semi-finalists, they're in a pretty elite group

It's funny how every major ranking event this season has been won by someone different. I laugh at people who say things along the lines of "there's something wrong if these two are making the final". Both are well accomplished players.

Ricky's sprinting around the table tonight!! 1-0 to him

Ricky's obviously been reading some of the comments on here (including by myself)... That was a great little break.

I stand by what I said earlier. Tell me why Barry Hawkins turned pro in 1996, has entered the world championship since 2005 and until this year had only won two matches at The Crucible?

Ricky Walden similarly has struggled at The Crucible. Until this year he had yet to win a match at The Crucible.

The Special Juan wrote:My own view on it is that there are a lot of players of similar ability nowadays but very few stand-out dominant players. It's sort of the opposite of the start of the 00s; there are more contenders for titles these days (snooker's not ruled by Higgins, Ronald, MJW and Hendry) but at the end of their careers, will any be worthy of standing alongside those 4? I think Selby might but there's a long, long way to go.

The difference between Selby and most other players is that he is able to win when not playing anywhere near his best (e.g. when he won the masters he was poor in early rounds). I think Robertson had been the stand-out player since beginning of the year - seen a few of his matches, pot success been up around 92-93% in most of them, won china, final of masters, ran into unstoppable ding in PTC GF. Allen and Ding have the potential to be dominant - Allen v Higgins in world open semi and Ding at PTC were the best performances I've seen this season - but neither has the consistency. Trump and Higgins were dominant early season but both faded badly recently. I spoke about Murphy earlier in the thread and he's probably been the most consistent but hasn't won anything.

TBH I kind of prefer it atm where there are 8-10 top tier (ish) players than just 3-4 winning all the tournaments.

CaledonianCraig wrote:I stand by what I said earlier. Tell me why Barry Hawkins turned pro in 1996, has entered the world championship since 2005 and until this year had only won two matches at The Crucible?

Ricky Walden similarly has struggled at The Crucible. Until this year he had yet to win a match at The Crucible.

1996 is misleading, he didn't play any ranking events until 2002. He's clearly been steadily improving, and obviously winning for the first time earlier this year will have made a huge difference.


Ricky has surprised me more, since when he's not on form he's absolutely terrible, but he has played decent and had an easy draw.

I see they just brought up a graphic to highlight that lol

CaledonianCraig wrote:I stand by what I said earlier. Tell me why Barry Hawkins turned pro in 1996, has entered the world championship since 2005 and until this year had only won two matches at The Crucible?

Ricky Walden similarly has struggled at The Crucible. Until this year he had yet to win a match at The Crucible.

Barry Hawkins Crucible draws:

2006 - Doherty
2007 - O'Brien (in a decider)
2008 - Carter (in a decider)
2009 - Dott
2010 - Higgins
2011 - Allen (second round decider)
2012 - Stevens - (second round)

He's not had the best of Crucible draws.

Hawkins has been to The Crucible seven times (previous to this) and won two matches. Walden I won't be so critical of as he has only been to the Crucible twice. Walden has the greater potential whilst Hawkins has always struck me as something of a journeyman. If he oozed talent he would have progressed deep into the worlds way before his eighth attempt.

Anyone losing to Fraggle O'Brien

The bad draws are not an excuse of course, I might add.

The Special Juan wrote:

CaledonianCraig wrote:I stand by what I said earlier. Tell me why Barry Hawkins turned pro in 1996, has entered the world championship since 2005 and until this year had only won two matches at The Crucible?

Ricky Walden similarly has struggled at The Crucible. Until this year he had yet to win a match at The Crucible.

Barry Hawkins Crucible draws:

2006 - Doherty
2007 - O'Brien (in a decider)
2008 - Carter (in a decider)
2009 - Dott
2010 - Higgins
2011 - Allen (second round decider)
2012 - Stevens - (second round)

He's not had the best of Crucible draws.

Fair enough but to be the best you have to beat the best and Barry just hasn't shown himself capable of that. That may seem harsh but it is what the very best players do.

I know what you mean Craig, he reminds me of Bingham in that he's really taken advantage of having a lot of tournaments these days.

How dare you Azzy!! That's one time Masters finalist Fergal O'Brien you're talking about

I don't think anyone was claiming that he oozes talent but he obviously has a great safety game and he's now got very good temperament and a lot of bottle which is hugely underrated

He says having Terry as a coach has really helped him develop his game more and take it up a level (I paraphrase).

i would just smash into all them reds

he didn't hit it hard enough

Has someone set the table up crooked? Looks like what used to happen on my bedroom table if one of the books under the table leg slipped out!

Looked like there was a big pocket for the one further out

Don't get me wrong I still enjoy the match here but they lack the magic of Hendry V Williams or Higgins V O'Sullivan etc etc.

I just read on Wiki that Greasy Joe had never won a match at the Crucible prior to his 1986 success.

That kick might not be a terrible result

Blimey, it's another frame from the Hibbz bedroom World Championships!

Fascinating viewing mind you. I love the scrappy tactical stuff.

Ricky will be pleased to be 3-1 up but slightly annoyed that he went off the boil slightly. Hawkins has not started at all.

Ricky's long pot success needs a little boost I think...

This is as scrappy as I thought it would be

Two more centuries in this match than the other semi so far. "Just sayin'"

Ricky's guaranteed a 2 frame lead going into tomorrow. Hopefully he can take the last of the evening and take a firm hold of this match.

dont know why but i hope Ricky does win this , nothing against Hawkins though

Because Ricky is just wonderful!! (If that reason doesn't sway you, he'll probably have a better chance in the final than Hawkins.)

Sir Ricky Walden wins the session 6-2 then. Barry should just put it down to "one of those session" and if he takes the first couple tomorrow then he's right back in it. He certainly won't play worse than that tomorrow.

The commentators were complaining about the table playing poorly tonight so we'll see what happens in the first session of the other semi-final.