Snooker

A couple of days ago during an afternoon session the commentators hinted that the practice tables were playing very differently to the live table. That's all they could attribute it to.
Going to be fun getting home from Ally Pally if this one goes all the way for those that are there.

 

Funnily enough I went last night. First time I’d ever been to see Snooker live. Problem was is the venue is so hot and oppressive (and Selby is truly boring to watch) that I had a break from the arena for the 3rd frame like a lot of people did. We all missed the 147 as they wouldn’t let us back in mid-frame. Probably fair enough.

I left after the marathon frame to make it 4-4 as I couldn’t bear it anymore. Awful venue for snooker. And they clearly hadn’t cleared it up after the darts. I can see where O’Sullivan was coming from.

 

They rave about Ally Pally, but too soon after the darts two week p**s up for me, so no wonder it's a mess. O'Sullivan was right in a way, but then he moans about the venues not being big enough, so I don't think even he knows what he wants. Bring back the Wembley Conference Centre I say!

 

The semi tonight is pretty good so far, 4 centuries in a row, and a steal from Allen in the last frame to get him back in it. Great stuff.

 

My current thoughts are Ronnie could play with the wrong end of his cue tomorrow and not lose, but you never know. His head might not be there or something.

 

imagine what Ronnie would have done over the past 30 years if he wasn't a complete fruitcake. He should have about 20 world titles by now.

 

Great stuff. Love the way Ronnie dismissed his biggest fan Carter in his comments too. He couldn’t contain his fume.

 

New tournament announced in Saudi for March with a golden ball you can pot if you make a 147. It’s worth 20 points so you’d get a 167. So cancel my comments about how many 147’s I’ve seen. Counts for nothing now…

Yet more selling out to the Saudi’s. No s***s given as usual. One man and his dog in the crowd watching it too I’d expect. Eddie and Barry Hearn just want that extra dollar. Only a matter of time before the World championship ends up there if they offer enough and this tournament in March doesn’t completely crash and burn.

 

I do agree with this BUT I am happy that the players will do well out of it. They deserve bigger money and the majority of the tour (not including the smiling performing clown Murphy) much prefer playing abroad due to the fact they are treated like sports stars. Where other countries have embraced snooker, like China, the UK have pretty much turned their back on it. You could genuinely get crowds of 10-20k in China for the World Championships as opposed to 900 here. The game has to evolve somehow.

As for Matchroom, the players gave the keys to the kingdom to them years ago, again with the full backing of the smiling clowns. Some players stood up and said it wasn’t a good idea but they did it anyway. As Ronnie now says, he’s happy to collect the money from the ‘bank of Barry’.

 

I don't disagree with you on the money side of things, and yes in the UK - bigger tournaments aside (e.g. UK, Masters and Worlds) - crowd numbers are mixed to say the least. I thought Matchroom and co were meant to sort that out though in the UK when they and Barry came on board all those years ago? There are more tournaments than there were but it's still not gone as far as I would have thought by now. I wouldn't say the UK has turned it's back on snooker as such, it's just it is bigger in China now, more population, bigger marketing etc.. There is still reasonable interest here, which isn't bad considering it's not the 80's anymore. What is interesting is that they finally have a world champion from mainland Europe, yet don't seem to want to try and capitalise on that by testing the waters more across the channel. I don't begrudge the players getting their dollar though if they can, the top players tend to do pretty well, whilst your average pro often struggles to make ends meat. The disparity is quite high.

 

Where's the golden ball going to be placed? Back on the black spot?

 

Virgo will place it in a variety of trick shots to see if the player can pot as many balls as they can.

 

And again!