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Snooker

It's going to be difficult to watch live, I would think, as it's going to be streamed on Eurosport online and also via the Eurosport app.

I've just checked on Sky and it isn't being shown on either of the Eurosport channels on that platform.

It starts at 7.30pm and it looks like it's going to necessitate a trawl through the hooky online streaming sites!!,
.... the last one was shown on ITV 4 so maybe that is where this one will end up.;)
 
Stephen Hendry is relaxed about the prospect doling out one final snooker indignity to his great rival Jimmy White when the pair meet again in the first qualifying round for the World Championships in Sheffield on Monday.


The 52-year-old’s comeback after a seven-year absence from the tour was given an extraordinary new twist last month when he was paired with White – whom he famously beat in four world finals between 1990 and 1994 – on the first step back towards the Crucible.


Unlike Hendry, White has tried and failed every year to return since his last appearance in 2005, and another defeat to the seven-times winner is likely to send him to the Q School where he will have to fight to retain the tour card he has effectively held since 1980.
“I have been told the situation, and there is probably more on the match from Jimmy’s side than mine,” said Hendry.
“All of the great matches we had in finals, semi-finals, and we are actually playing probably our last ever match at the World Championship, who knows, and it is rock bottom, round one. It’s incredible.”


Hendry holds the edge with 36 wins from the pair’s 61 career meetings but White enjoyed some notable triumphs, including in the 1990 World Matchplay final, and also won their most recent meeting in the 2019 World Seniors Championship.
White, who is determined to avoid the prospect of asking snooker chiefs for a wild card to continue on the tour next season, also said he is not motivated by the prospect of payback for those world final near-misses.


He told Eurosport’s The Break podcast: “If I was to beat him 10 times in a row I still wouldn’t get revenge on all those world finals.


“I’ve put myself in a good position where I can stay on without asking for a wild card. If the worst comes to the worst, I will go to Q School.
“I still love playing and I still play to a good standard, but doing it in practice doesn’t mean anything. You have to produce it on the match table and I’m starting to do that in bits and pieces.” ;)
 

Snooker fans speculate ahead of Ronnie O’Sullivan ‘announcement’​


Nigel Slater / 4 hours ago


Snooker legend Ronnie O’Sullivan has revealed he will be making a statement on social media this week – sparking speculation from his thousands of supporters.
The six-times world champion, who will begin his defence of the World Championship next week, is to reveal ‘news’ on his Facebook page tomorrow (Tuesday) at 3pm.
At this stage there appears to be no indication or clue of what the announcement will be – which has led to plenty of speculation from snooker fans.
O’Sullivan, 45, in recent years has expressed his desire to do things away from snooker when he can, so the upcoming announcement may not be snooker related.
He has done previous book launches regarding healthy food and has spoken at length about his love for running and starred in television documentaries.
Earlier today a Facebook post from O’Sullivan reads: “Remember I’m gonna be live on here from 3 (pm) tomorrow. Want to reach as many of you in one go and this seems best way.”
A year ago he told Eurosport that his plan was to retire by the time he is 50-years-old.


Speaking in April 2020 he said: “I think I’ll give it one good crack maybe next year or the year after I might play some more and then by the time I’m 50 call it a day. At some point, I can’t go on forever.”


One comment to his post today said: “I really hope you don’t retire just yet.”


But another said: “He’s not going to retire! Maybe he’s going to be on Masterchef.” ;)
 
Stephen Hendry beats Jimmy White in World Championship qualifying - BBC Sport

That would have been a great match to watch regardless of the quality of play.
.... so it was Hendry who eventually came out on top by 6 frames to 3. He goes on to another three games I believe, to actually try and qualify and move on to the Crucible. Looks like Jimmy White has a much longer road to travel, and indeed his tour place definitely looks a bit dodgy. Been an interesting couple of weeks all the talk and speculation though. ;)
 

Ronnie O’Sullivan in new business venture which will delight snooker fans.​


A new shop is set to open in Sheffield which celebrates the life and playing career of Ronnie O’Sullivan.
The Ronnie O’Sullivan Snooker Shop will open at the city’s Meadowhall shopping centre from Monday, April 12, it has been reported.
The Star – Sheffield’s daily newspaper – says the store will include snooker memorabilia from his career and clothing.
On his Facebook page today, O’Sullivan wrote: “Shop is opening in Meadowhall Monday, being set up as we speak, really hope the fans enjoy seeing all my old trophies and some really special items.”
Shop is opening in Meadowhall Monday, being set up as we speak, just got sent these, really hope the fans enjoy seeing all my old trophies and some really special items.
The news comes the day after he teased thousands of his fans on social media with an ‘announcement’.
Prior to doing a Facebook Live video, O’Sullivan’s Facebook page featured images of his past as a snooker player – in a cheeky way to suggest he maybe retiring.
But O’Sullivan quickly denied that was the case during the announcement which stated he had agreed a new sponsorship deal with US technology firm ROKIT.
O’Sullivan will be playing in Sheffield next Saturday (April 17) when he begins his defence of his World Championship title he won in August last year. ;)
 

Stephen Hendry points out mental weakness after heavy defeat​


Nigel Slater / 8 hours ago


Stephen Hendry’s fairy-tale return to the Crucible will have to wait at least a little longer after he crashed out of the World Championship qualifiers.
The seven-times world champion, who beat his once arch-rival Jimmy White in the opening round, suffered a heavy 6-1 loss to Chinese player Xu Si.
Despite winning the first frame, Hendry was second best to the world number 82 – who now just needs to win two more games to make his Crucible debut.
Xu fired in breaks of 75, 79, 51, 66 and 72 as he won six frames on the bounce against one of the snooker’s greatest ever players.
The World Championship proper starts on Saturday, April 17.
This was just Hendry’s third match in his sensational comeback to the sport after initially retiring in 2012.
The snooker legend said he was keen to come back stronger next season but admitted that the mental side of his game had let him down.
Speaking to World Snooker Tour Hendry revealed at times he was thinking during the match whether he could pot certain balls, rather than playing a more natural game.
Hendry said: “I had two or three chances to go 2-0 up and from then on I didn’t offer any resistance to my opponent. He capitalised on all of my mistakes. It doesn’t matter how low a player is ranked, if you make it easy for them, they will still pot balls and win the frames.
“Hopefully with a few more competitive matches under my belt, before we come to this point next year, I’ll be able to have a bit more composure out there.
“Every shot seemed like a test. I was wondering if I was going to pot certain shots, that isn’t the way to think out there. You have to get on with it.
“I’ll certainly play in more events next year. If I am still not able to bring my cue action into a match situation then there is no point. The whole point is to see if I can play my natural game out there. We will give it a go next year and see what happens.” ;)


stephenh-hendry.jpg
 
World number one Judd Trump believes snooker is "stuck in a rut" and the sport has "fallen behind" in terms of its image.
The 31-year-old, who clinched the world title in 2019, has said that "not enough is being done on the whole image of snooker" and it must move with the times.

"It’s kind of stuck in a rut a little bit, it’s fallen behind some of the other sports and not enough is being done on the whole image of snooker," Trump told the Metro. "I’ve got the golf on and their clothing is all changing, becoming more lenient for the younger generation.
People don’t want to go around dressed in waistcoats nowadays, they did 40 years ago but snooker is falling behind, stuck in their own ways and other sports have moved on.
"I don’t want to be stuck in a waistcoat walking to the Crucible, it’s not cool to be wearing that nowadays, if I think that then I know people younger than me won’t want to be dressed like that either.
"Golfers are wearing hoodies, got Air Max shoes on. This was all good 30 years ago but to make new stars and make the game popular again in the UK and bring it back to where it was you need to move with the times.
"Keep the trousers, shoes, just maybe polo shirts or something more relaxed and different. You don’t need to be dressed in a five-piece suit every time you go to a game. It would attract more sports sponsors, it’s difficult to attract different sponsors when you’re doing the same thing year-in-year-out.
"To be honest, a lot of my friends aren’t big snooker fans. They just watch it for me and they don’t want to be seeing people dressed in waistcoats, it should be more appealing to young people.
"There’s not enough trying out new things in snooker for me at the moment, it’s all the same every season, not enough excitement, not enough different dimensions," he continued.
"It’s how they advertise games. A lot of younger players are coming through in this World Championship and the social media all seems to be about people who were popular 30 years ago.

They can’t keep these players in the spotlight forever, they haven’t done anything for 10-15 years. Everything they’re doing is 15 years out of date and not enough is being done to advertise the younger players in the game.
"Things are never going to change unless they take a risk on advertising to different people. Otherwise you’ll get to a point where the older generation of snooker fans will be gone and you’re stuck with nobody because they haven’t appealed to the younger generation now.
"I do like Eurosport’s coverage, [presenter] Andy Goldstein does an amazing job. I think the BBC need to mix it up a little bit more and get a few different personalities in the commentary box, maybe current players, get them in and ask them some stuff.
"There’s no talk about the Golden Age of golf when the Masters is on, or the Golden Age of tennis at Wimbledon, it’s just about the here and now. Snooker is too much about 20-30 years ago. Is the standard better now? Nobody cares. The standard is what it is now and all that matters is the tournament coming up."
The 2021 World Championship gets underway on April 17 and the Crucible is set to be at capacity for the final in Sheffield from May 2-3. ;)
 
Alan McManus has played his last competitive match of snooker, falling 6-3 to 18-year-old Bai Langning in World Championship qualifying on Friday afternoon.
The result means the Scot, a 2016 semi-finalist at the Crucible, has been relegated from the tour and has decided to call an end to his career.

"You've got to be realistic," he said.
I'm not good enough to compete at any sort of level that I'd like to so there's no reason for me to play on.
He told Betfred post-match: "I made the decision [to retire] before Christmas for quite a lot of reasons.
"Because of Covid and this year has been tough, I'm working at tournaments as well [as a pundit and commentator] so It's taken it's toll. I've not been able to play so there is no point in me playing. I'm pretty happy.
"It's been difficult doing both, playing and doing commentary, I'm 50 as well - 50 is a good old number. It's a young guy's game and you have to face up to that. I don't have a problem with that. That's all fine and well."
After Langning, playing in his first tournament of the year, took the opening frame, McManus raced into a 2-1 lead with breaks of 61 and 66.
Langning responded with a break of 54 before the Scot levelled once more, but momentum swung back the way of the Chinese player.
Langning won the remaining four frames on the spin, kickstarted by fine century, to seal his place in the third qualifying round where he will meet Ben Woollaston after effectively ending McManus' snooker career.
McManus' career highlight was in 1994, when he won a final-frame decider against Stephen Hendry to capture the Masters. ;)
 

Jimmy White given invitational tour card for next two seasons on World Snooker Tour​

Last updated on
4 hours ago4 hours ago.From the section Snooker

Jimmy White and Stephen Hendry
White (left) lost to old rival Hendry last week
Jimmy White has been given an invitational tour card for the next two seasons on the World Snooker Tour.
The Englishman, 58, lost to old rival Stephen Hendry last week in the first round of qualifying for this year's World Championship.
Defeat meant the six-time World Championship runner-up would drop off the tour at the end of the season.
The World Snooker Tour said it was recognising White's "outstanding contribution to the sport".
"Jimmy is one of snooker's one-time greats, not only in terms of his achievements on the table, but also in his massive worldwide popularity," WST chairman Barry Hearn and World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association chairman Jason Ferguson said.
"He has done so much to promote snooker through his playing style and charisma. He remains a great asset to our sport and we had no hesitation in offering him a tour card for the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons."
White said he was "very grateful for this opportunity".
He is one of four invitational tour card holders next season - seven-time world champion Hendry, 1997 champion Ken Doherty and two-time semi-finalist Marco Fu are the others. ;)
 

Mark Allen Slams Decision To Give Jimmy White World Snooker Tour Card​

Mark Allen Slams Decision To Give Jimmy White World Snooker Tour Card



Mark Allen has slammed the World Snooker Tour's decision to give 57-year old Jimmy White a tour card for 2021.
White, whose last win a ranking even came in the 2003/04 season, has been handed an invitational card to compete on the tour for the next two years.
WST chairman Barry Hearn and World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association chairman Jason Ferguson explained in a joint statement:
Jimmy is one of snooker's one-time greats, not only in terms of his achievements on the table, but also in his massive worldwide popularity.
He has done so much to promote snooker through his playing style and charisma. He remains a great asset to our sport and we had no hesitation in offering him a tour card for the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons.
However, world number 13 Allen certainly did not approve of the decision.
He took to Twitter to label White's inclusion on the tour as 'shocking', saying every player needs to earn their spot regardless of past achievements.
White was recently defeated in the first round of the World Championship qualifiers last week by Stephen Hendry, another player who was recently handed an invitational tour card.
Ken Doherty and Marco Fu have also been invited to take part in this season's tour. ;)
 

Judd Trump says snooker should follow golf’s lead in trying to move with the times​



April 13, 2021
by Matt Gault




trump-snookergolf-scaled.jpg



“I don’t want to be stuck in a waistcoat walking to the Crucible.”​

World number one Judd Trump believes snooker needs to do more to enhance its image and keep up with the times, specifically with regards to its traditional dress code.
The 31-year-old, who will this week begin his bid for a second World Championship title, believes the sport is ‘stuck in a rut’ and has called on snooker decision-makers to follow golf’s lead by relaxing some of the customs around clothing.


During a fascinating interview with the Metro, Trump said: “It’s kind of stuck in a rut a little bit, it’s fallen behind some of the other sports and not enough is being done on the whole image of snooker.
“I’ve got the golf on and their clothing is all changing, becoming more lenient for the younger generation.


“I don’t want to be stuck in a waistcoat walking to the Crucible, it’s not cool to be wearing that nowadays, if I think that then I know people younger than me won’t want to be dressed like that either.”


Trump believes that relaxing the dress code would be a step in the right direction towards modernising snooker and breathing new life into its popularity in the UK.


“Golfers are wearing hoodies, got Air Max shoes on,” he added.
“This was all good 30 years ago but to make new stars and make the game popular again in the UK and bring it back to where it was you need to move with the times.


“Keep the trousers, shoes, just maybe polo shirts or something more relaxed and different. You don’t need to be dressed in a five-piece suit every time you go to a game. It would attract more sports sponsors, it’s difficult to attract different sponsors when you’re doing the same thing year-in-year-out.”


Trump also admitted that a lot of his friends are not ‘big snooker fans’ and therefore watch his matches due to his involvement rather than a passion for the sport itself. ;)
 

Ronnie O’Sullivan calls Mark Selby a ‘bad loser’ ahead of World Championship.

“It sounded like he was a bit of a bad loser really. He didn’t really take it well.”​


Ronnie O’Sullivan has described Mark Selby as a “bad loser” following last year’s World Championship semi-final defeat to O’Sullivan.


‘The Rocket’ won a deciding frame shootout, having been 14-16 down, to win 17-16 and advance to the final. He went on to clinch his sixth World Championship, and first since 2013.
However, after the game, Selby accused his opponent of being “disrespectful” by the way he was playing early on in that semi-final.


“I felt like it was a little bit disrespectful the way he played,” Selby told BBC Sport back in August.


“Every time I got him in a snooker he just went down and hit the ball at 100mph and it could have gone anywhere.


“Whether he was just in that frame of mind but felt it was a little disrespectful for me at the table.”


Ahead of this year’s World Championship, which begins at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield this weekend, O’Sullivan has described Selby as a “bad loser” and admitted that the incident has affected their relationship.
“I didn’t realise that result had affected him as much as it had,” O’Sullivan told Sporting Life.


“Sometimes you can want something too bad, and then it’s hard to brush off a defeat, let alone a defeat how he felt like he was defeated.


“After listening to his after match interview, it sounded like he was a bit of a bad loser really. He didn’t really take it well.


“I was a bit surprised. I thought he would have given me a bit more credit for hanging in there and playing three amazing frames at the end and getting the victory. It seems he didn’t take it in that spirit.


“That’s for him to get over. It doesn’t seem like he’s able to get over it really. They can be tough matches, I’ve had one or two of them in my career. They linger on for a bit. Hopefully, he gets his head around it and moves on from it.”
The 45-year-old was asked whether it was the way he had fought back during that semi-final that had rattled Selby.


“Oh yeah. A hundred per cent. I didn’t realise at the time because obviously you’re on such a high and you’ve won,” O’Sullivan replied.


“But actually, if you were to sit down and listen to his interview and listen to some of the things he’s said, you’d have to go that’s coming from somewhere. It’s obviously bothered him to a certain extent.


“Listen, it would bother me I think, if I had one hand on the trophy, and all of a sudden someone has just come along and taken it away from you.
“It’s not an easy one to get over, but until he gets over it and it’s properly put to bed, it’s a little bit difficult. I suppose it has changed the relationship in many ways because it’s affected him.


“I’d rather he’d won, been happy, and he would have been in a good place. Until he gets himself through that, I don’t know. It’s something he needs to get over for him to move on.” ;)
 

Mark Joyce earns Crucible showpiece against Ronnie O’Sullivan​

Ronnie O’Sullivan will open the defence of his Betfred World Snooker Championship title on Saturday against debutant Mark Joyce at the Crucible.​

Veteran Joyce, 37, turned professional in 2006, but had never previously made it through to the showpiece tournament, securing his place with victory over Brazil’s Igor Figueiredo in the last qualifying round.
Elsewhere, in Thursday’s draw, former champion Stuart Bingham, another who came through qualifying, will meet Sheffield-based Ding Junhui, while world No 1 Judd Trump plays Liam Highfield.
Australian Neil Robertson is viewed as a leading contender to win a second world title following an impressive campaign so far – beating O’Sullivan in the Tour Championship final – and will take on Liang Wenbo.
Three-time former champion Mark Selby, this year’s fourth seed, has a first-round match against Kurt Maflin, while 2020 runner-up Kyren Wilson meets Gary Wilson, a former semi-finalist.
Debutant Sam Craigie faces three-time former champion Mark Williams and veteran John Higgins plays Tian Pengfei as he begins the quest for a fifth world crown.
Masters champion Yan Bingtao faces qualifier Martin Gould, Northern Ireland’s Mark Allen plays Lyu Haotian and Ricky Walden will play 16th seed Anthony McGill.
Two-time finalist Ali Carter comes up against Jack Lisowski, while Barry Hawkins meets Matthew Selt and David Gilbert will take on Chris Wakelin.
Veteran Mark Davis came through qualifying to reach the Crucible for the 12th time in his career and plays Shaun Murphy, the 2005 world champion, in the first round. ;)
 
This seems to be more a news reel so here are my assessments for the World Championship 1st Round. Thesse are based on ratings I keep of snooker players, the ratings are based on the last 2 year results in all competitions, I include the 128 pros and past pros for the 2 seasons previously plus players on the Qualifying school who are likely to enter many tournaments as top ups. Currently 189 players are included.

I use a rating system similar to ELO and the frame scores in games, so the games with more frames have a higher waiting. Having kept these for many years it is very rare that O'Sullivan is not top. There was a short period of a couple of months when Selby at his prime was top and then Trump has now taken over. O'Sullivan is currently 4th, as bad as he has ever been. Higgins 2nd, Robertson 3rd.

The odds are in the first 2 columns are my assessments using the Binomial theory. Then the best Bookmaker odds from Oddschecker, less a few bookies I have never used. What I find is that something that looks great value is Too Good to be True!! Those in blue are the value based on myodds.

I would say on current ratings O'Sullivan, Selby, Kyren Wilson, Maguire, Lisowski are below their normal ratings
Higgins, Dott, Craigie (improving attitude?), Gary Wilson are above their normal ratings

Obviously the virus has affected some players and helped others but the form is always a little cyclical. I expect Selby rating ids really higher as he had terrible season last year and his rating is yet to recover, a flaw with the rating method I guess.

I like Craigie, he has had a quiet season until recently and if he could get his head sorted i think is a genuine top 16 player of the future. Williams also in great form but Craigie is a bet for me.

Lisowski rating dragged down by recent WST Pro series performance but even so I would have Carter favourite for this.
Jamie Jones and Bingham are also interesting at the odds.

Maflin I think is inflated by Selby's poor rating which as i say should be higher.

Wenbo is a big price against Robertson and could be interesting.

Otherwise some of the odds on shots are slight value.

Good luck

Kevin
 

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This seems to be more a news reel so here are my assessments for the World Championship 1st Round. Thesse are based on ratings I keep of snooker players, the ratings are based on the last 2 year results in all competitions, I include the 128 pros and past pros for the 2 seasons previously plus players on the Qualifying school who are likely to enter many tournaments as top ups. Currently 189 players are included.

I use a rating system similar to ELO and the frame scores in games, so the games with more frames have a higher waiting. Having kept these for many years it is very rare that O'Sullivan is not top. There was a short period of a couple of months when Selby at his prime was top and then Trump has now taken over. O'Sullivan is currently 4th, as bad as he has ever been. Higgins 2nd, Robertson 3rd.

The odds are in the first 2 columns are my assessments using the Binomial theory. Then the best Bookmaker odds from Oddschecker, less a few bookies I have never used. What I find is that something that looks great value is Too Good to be True!! Those in blue are the value based on myodds.

I would say on current ratings O'Sullivan, Selby, Kyren Wilson, Maguire, Lisowski are below their normal ratings
Higgins, Dott, Craigie (improving attitude?), Gary Wilson are above their normal ratings

Obviously the virus has affected some players and helped others but the form is always a little cyclical. I expect Selby rating ids really higher as he had terrible season last year and his rating is yet to recover, a flaw with the rating method I guess.

I like Craigie, he has had a quiet season until recently and if he could get his head sorted i think is a genuine top 16 player of the future. Williams also in great form but Craigie is a bet for me.

Lisowski rating dragged down by recent WST Pro series performance but even so I would have Carter favourite for this.
Jamie Jones and Bingham are also interesting at the odds.

Maflin I think is inflated by Selby's poor rating which as i say should be higher.

Wenbo is a big price against Robertson and could be interesting.

Otherwise some of the odds on shots are slight value.

Good luck

Kevin
... not so much of a news reel but without a lot of contributors, I try my best to keep the snooker column alive and kicking. You are certainly welcome to pen your thoughts and ideas on here and I like your ratings which would stimulate interest here. Thanks for calling in and hope you return for further input. Cheers. ;)
 
I will add more to the thread, no problem, didn't know it was here!
.... good to hear that you will return. I have been plodding a lone furrow for a while now, just trying to keep it going until other contributions. Look forward to further input. Cheers. ;)
 
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