Minor Tournaments Discussion 2018/19.

Arthur Daley

Ken is £1,100 off 64 currently. Considering he was given a two year card last time, and for the sake of £1,100 and one place, I can't see world snooker not offering him one for a year anyway. It would be different if he was really uncompetitive and over 90 or 100 in the rankings. By that stage he'd probably pack it in himself. Fergal is provisional 57th and I would have thought he should be safe, but it depends on that first match in Sheffield again.

Jimmy is provisional 77th and about 40 grand back, be interesting to see what happens there.

Joe_ Public

I'm not sure why either Jimmy or Ken should be offered further wild cards, but you never know i suppose. It's hard to predict how the rankings will go, Ken has 8,000 to be docked before worlds, for Fergal its 16k as he reached last 32 two years ago. Fergal is ahead on the one year list though, so that's in his favour. It looks a bit tight to me anyway. I though Dominic Dale was retiring so if so, that would be one obvious contender out of the way. Would be terrible if both didn't make it and there was no irish player on the main tour next season.

Arthur Daley

Oh yeah, forgot about the 2017 worlds dropping off. But might expect them to reach that final qualifying round hopefully.

Frank O. Pinion

Anthony McGill was docked one frame in his match against Nigel Bond for waking up two minutes before the match was due to start.

"I got dressed in 60 seconds and ran down to the hotel foyer. I didn't even have a shower or brush my teeth. My shoelaces were still untied, it was like a movie scene."

McGill still won the match, 6-3.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/snooker/47772183

Frank O. Pinion

Doherty just needs one more frame to beat the current World Champ, he leads Williams 5-3. John Higgins lost earlier 6-2 to Joe O'Connor. Judd Trump is also behind 4-3, in his match against Robbie Williams.

Arthur Daley

Frank O. Pinion wrote: »

Doherty just needs one more frame to beat the current World Champ, he leads Williams 5-3. John Higgins lost earlier 6-2 to Joe O'Connor. Judd Trump is also behind 4-3, in his match against Robbie Williams.

And Ken wins 6-4. Great win

Glenman

Great result for Ken, must be doing a bit of practicing for World qualifers.

Pighead

Just catching up with the Judd match now. bad loss for him. Fair play to Williams for getting over the line. He missed a simple black to win 6-3. Judd then got it back to 5-5 and after a nervy final frame Williams edged it on the colours.

Go to about 2 hours and 53 minutes for the missed black from Williams.
https://youtu.be/XQpNqZvFX3g

Frank O. Pinion

Mark Selby and Shaun Murphy out in the qualifiers. Then Mark Williams, John Higgins, Judd Trump, Ding Junhui, Barry Hawkins, and Ryan Day out in the first proper round. Only 7 of the official Top 16 left in the tournament. After only two days, with how he's been playing recently, Neil Robertson has quickly become favourite for the event.

Last 32, top half:

Craig Steadman v Liang Wenbo
Sam Craigie v Ali Carter
Mei Xiwen v Neil Robertson
Mark King v Lu Ning
Alan McManus v Stuart Carrington
Stephen Maguire v Anthony McGill
Michael Holt v Luca Brecel
Hossein Vafaei v Joe O'Connor

Bottom half:

Robbie Williams v Li Hang
Jack Lisowski v Gerard Greene
Peter Ebdon v Stuart Bingham
Rod Lawler v Kyren Wilson
James Wattana v Lyu Haotian
Andrew Higginson v Ben Woollaston
Scott Donaldson v David Gilbert
Ricky Walden v Ken Doherty


If Robertson doesn't make it to the final, that top half is wide open. Stuart Bingham and Kyren Wilson are the favourites from the bottom half, but there's potential for a very interesting final four/final two.

Arthur Daley

It's a bit of a winner takes all feel to it. £225,000 to the winner, the 2nd biggest pot for a single tournament, but only £90,000 to the runner up and £45,000 for a semi finalist.

Frank O. Pinion

Arthur Daley wrote: »

It's a bit of a winner takes all feel to it. £225,000 to the winner, the 2nd biggest pot for a single tournament, but only £90,000 to the runner up and £45,000 for a semi finalist.

That's the way it is for most events, the winner's prize should be more than double runner-up. The prize money for this event per respective round is more than any other ranking event, bar the World Championship.

In other news, Jackie Chan and Ken Doherty doing a trick shot...

https://twitter.com/worldsnooker/status/1113034045682638848?s=21

Joe_ Public

Should have never doubted Ken. Obviously aware what is at stake and still a proper player when chips are down. When he screwed in off the green at 4-3 up when trying to lay a snooker, i thought that error would come back to bite him but he played really well from what i saw of it. Up to 58th provisionally and should, bar some unlikely results, be safe for his card now. Beat Ricky Walden and he'll have nailed it!

AllForIt

Pighead wrote: »

Just catching up with the Judd match now. bad loss for him. Fair play to Williams for getting over the line. He missed a simple black to win 6-3. Judd then got it back to 5-5 and after a nervy final frame Williams edged it on the colours.

Go to about 2 hours and 53 minutes for the missed black from Williams.
https://youtu.be/XQpNqZvFX3g

The look on Judd's face when he realized he'd lost. After his recent loss to Ronnie with that botched yellow, he looked like his world was crumbling down after all the hype and expectation about his resurgence.

Clive Everton made a very good point about Ronnie in the last Coral event - that he has no record of bottling it when he is faced with the finishing line. Whatever happens in the future regarding Trump that is one thing Ronnie is guaranteed to be better than Trump at - getting over the finishing line.

Glenman

Back to reality today for Ken after losing 6-1 to Ricky Walden. From a piece on the BBC website it seems that he is going to retire at the end of this season?

"I would love to play at the Crucible one more time, to say thanks for the memories and this is my last time," said the Irishman, who has reached the last 32 for the first time this season."

https://www.bbc.com/sport/snooker/47792858

Frank O. Pinion

Robertson through, beating Mei Xiwen 6-2. But another big name, Kyren Wilson out, losing 6-4 to Rod Lawler. And Stuart Bingham made a maximum, winning £27,000, during his 6-3 win over Peter Ebdon.

Last 16, top half:

Liang Wenbo v Sam Craigie
Neil Robertson v Lu Ning
Alan McManus v Anthony McGill
Luca Brecel v Hossein Vafaei

Bottom half:

Li Hang v Jack Lisowski
Stuart Bingham v Rod Lawler
Lyu Haotian v Ben Woollaston
Scott Donaldson v Ricky Walden


Possible Welsh Open final rematch with Robertson/Bingham. Jack Lisowski is actually third favourite after those two with the bookies to win the event.

Joe_ Public

Glenman wrote: »

Back to reality today for Ken after losing 6-1 to Ricky Walden. From a piece on the BBC website it seems that he is going to retire at the end of this season?

"I would love to play at the Crucible one more time, to say thanks for the memories and this is my last time," said the Irishman, who has reached the last 32 for the first time this season."

https://www.bbc.com/sport/snooker/47792858

I'm choosing to interpret that as him saying he hopes to play in the crucible one last time and then its sayonara, but not necessarily this year. He is approaching 50 now admittedly but appetite and game still seems in decent nick so see no reason why there isn't a couple of good years left in him yet. If he wants it, that is.

As regards this tournament, think it's pretty terrible. Poor atmosphere and top players clearly not sufficiently motivated in advance of the worlds. According to one of the commentators a player outside the top 64 could win this and be in the top 16 next week. Not playing like a big money tournament, tour is lopsided.

Frank O. Pinion

I like the drama, a low ranked player winning this and shooting up the rankings could create an interesting, underdog story for the World Championship, for that player automatically qualifying. Poor David Gilbert wouldn't like to see that at all, though.

AllForIt

Glenman wrote: »

Back to reality today for Ken after losing 6-1 to Ricky Walden. From a piece on the BBC website it seems that he is going to retire at the end of this season?

"I would love to play at the Crucible one more time, to say thanks for the memories and this is my last time," said the Irishman, who has reached the last 32 for the first time this season."

https://www.bbc.com/sport/snooker/47792858

That's disappointing. Was great to see him playing well against Williams.

As a non-professional you'd wonder why when you see someone playing so well they are they at the same time thinking about retiring. That's top level sport I suppose.

volono

I think its becoming more obvious that the tournament is poorly placed in the calendar, if it wasnt for the prize money on offer i don't think any of the big names would show up. Neil Robertson yet again is going on a big run and hecould easily win it. I feel it will be a detriment to him though leading into the world champs, can see him hitting a really flat spot and falling early in the big one. I hope one of the lesser lights snatches the top prize out there now tbh

Joe_ Public

AllForIt wrote: »

That's disappointing. Was great to see him playing well against Williams.

As a non-professional you'd wonder why when you see someone playing so well they are they at the same time thinking about retiring. That's top level sport I suppose.

He's played better this year than i've seen for a while, but i can see how the travelling might be a bit off putting at this stage of his life. You have to play every tournament if you're down the rankings and that's 6 or 7 trips abroad during the season, might not want to do it anymore. That's if he is intending to retire at all.

Frank O. Pinion

Quarter-Finals:

Sam Craigie v Neil Robertson (Fri, 7am)
Alan McManus v Luca Brecel (Fri, 7am)
Jack Lisowski v Stuart Bingham (Fri, 12:30pm)
Ben Woollaston v Scott Donaldson (Fri, 12:30pm)

Not a line-up one would have expected, but even with the surprise knockouts, there's still four of the Top 16 in the QFs, and still possible for 3 of the final four to be from the Top 16. I wouldn't be the biggest fan of his commentary, but it's great to see Alan McManus make the quarters, this is his best run in a tournament since the 2016 World Championship, where he reached the semi-finals.

waynescales1

Angles in the last 8? Good to see. I haven't been watching, I wonder is he still muttering to himself in his chair. He gave himself some talking to in the 2016 World Champs.

volono

waynescales1 wrote: »

Angles in the last 8? Good to see. I haven't been watching, I wonder is he still muttering to himself in his chair. He gave himself some talking to in the 2016 World Champs.

it guarantees his place in the top 64 as well i think , be great to see win it

Dante7

Pockets are buckets. Audience attendances are laughable. Chinese players don't call fouls on themselves. Betting irregularities. But hey - it's the future.

loyatemu

Is there any player who's been in the circuit for as long as Rod Lawler with so little to show for it? He's been a professional since 1990!

AllForIt

Joe_ Public wrote: »

He's played better this year than i've seen for a while, but i can see how the travelling might be a bit off putting at this stage of his life. You have to play every tournament if you're down the rankings and that's 6 or 7 trips abroad during the season, might not want to do it anymore. That's if he is intending to retire at all.

I'm not that clued up on the tour and what it means on a practical level for the players. I get that if one is a former world champ one wouldn't feel motivated to to travel abroad for ranking points, especially if it doesn't lead to anything substantial once you've engaged in it.

As lets say second tier former world champs go, like Bingham, Dott, Ken would be my favorite to watch on that level. And I'm not just saying that because he's Irish.
When he's playing fluently, as he did in the Williams match, he's be one of my fav players to watch. He always had an air of professionalism and class about him that players like Dott don't have.

Frank O. Pinion

Dante7 wrote: »

Audience attendances are laughable.

A few points on this.

Firstly, tickets prices are quite cost prohibitive for many Chinese people to attend.

Secondly, this weekend (Fri 5th, Sat 6th, and Sun 7th) are three days of national holidays in China, the Qing Ming Jie holiday. So, a lot of Chinese are travelling to the family home, and not worrying about attending Snooker live. Of course, that's a fault of World Snooker's tour planning.

Thirdly, Snooker is huge in China, but they enjoy it in huge numbers by watching it on TV, computers, smartphones, etc. Personally, I would be similar, I've been a life-long Snooker fan, and will watch any and all professional events I can, but I have zero interest in attending the sport live and have never done so.

Pighead

Decent interview with Ronnie here. Think it's the first time I've heard him say that he thinks he's the best to ever play the game. Previously he's generally said it's not really for him to say but given the number of records he's broken recently he's probably a bit more confident in saying it out loud that he's the GOAT!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfaxewO8MhA

Frank O. Pinion

So even with some big early exits, the final four has three players from the Top 16, two of which are ranking event winners, and one is a former World Champion.

Semi-Finals (best-of-19)

Neil Robertson v Luca Brecel (Sat, 6am & 12:30pm)
Jack Lisowski v Scott Donaldson (Sat, 6am & 12pm)

I would love to see Scott Donaldson win, shoot up the rankings into the Top 16, and automatically for the Crucible, which he never has done before. I've liked him for a while now, ever since he knocked Selby out of the 2017 UK Championship.

Joe_ Public

AllForIt wrote: »

I'm not that clued up on the tour and what it means on a practical level for the players. I get that if one is a former world champ one wouldn't feel motivated to to travel abroad for ranking points, especially if it doesn't lead to anything substantial once you've engaged in it.

As lets say second tier former world champs go, like Bingham, Dott, Ken would be my favorite to watch on that level. And I'm not just saying that because he's Irish.
When he's playing fluently, as he did in the Williams match, he's be one of my fav players to watch. He always had an air of professionalism and class about him that players like Dott don't have.

I wouldnt be all that clued in either, just get the general impression most of the top players arent that fond of the travelling. Ronnie rarely bothers these days, Mark Allen clearly dislikes it and i'm sure a lot of the lower ranked guys aren't enthused about the expense of it. Of course the chinese and other far east players can argue why they have to play in the Uk all the time, but that's just historically how it's been. Personally i dont see much reason, apart from money obviously, why there should be so many chinese tournaments. They lack atmosphere and the oft-repeated predictions about asian dominance seem further away than ever. There's one chinese player currently in the world top 20 and of the younger guys, apart from Yuan Sijun, there isn't one i'd hang my hat on for the future.

As for Ken, i'd have always had him a level above the likes of Bingham and Dott. He was a genuine top 5 player for several years, just a shame the dread decline set in around the mid noughties. Still think there's 2-3 more decent years left in him if he still retains the appetite for it.