World Snooker Championship 2023

Well done Si. Hope he can play to his potential in the semi-final.

Rob Walker with an insulting question there to Anthony. Tough to be interviewed a couple of minutes after you've lost. Got to play it back to get the quote right. Well done to McGill as well.

"Is he one of the best youngsters you've ever faced in terms of coping with the pressure of being out there?"

Should have left it at that, but no. Butts back in to add, "Because you're normally pretty good under this spotlight."

I will be glued to the Brecel v Si match. I would say Brecel is delighted that he got Si and not McGill.

John Higgins said he stayed in bed too long earlier on, but does not use it as excuse - said Selby gave him a tactical lesson. But Higgins was not happy only getting to the Quarter Final.

The young generation love "stats", and dismiss someone based on them, rarely ever watching them play. "Some", key word "some", of Higgins' centuries were recorded officially, in the professional era. Stat recording only came in over this period, and in official tournaments, of which were far and few between. So the Higgins century theory, or lack thereoff, is out the window.

If you actually watch him play, I'll accept his positional play and technique were poor, you'll see what I mean. To win any standard frame, or save it, he had to pull off impossible shots pretty much every frame. Yes the bad positional play is his fault, but his eye for a pot can be seen, and is unmatched.

Raise and teach Higgins how to do it all right, he was THAT good, I've seen him consistently do things other players simply aren't capable off, in pretty much every match he plays.

He beat Hendry in the Irish masters in 91, when we were told the old generation weren't good enough to compete, while physically struggling and drunk. Hendry even said at his funeral, people don't really appreciate just how good he was.

There's no man to ever lift a cue, who was more naturally gifted than Higgins despite his troubles. Watch any standalone game with him, and in every single match he did things no other player was capable off, that simple.

He was a genius, troubled, but a genius. The way I put it, and I think most snooker fans will agree, you call on one player to pot an impossible shot to save your life, your calling on Alex Higgins every day of the week.

People can say he had poor positional play, was drunk, had bad technique, was inpatient etc, but no one ever had the same natural eye/ability for a pot. I wouldn't say he's more naturally gifted than O'Sullivan, I'd say he is by quite a distance.

I'll leave this topic with this, Jimmy White has regularly stated, in 82, he'd get another shot. Give a modern player today's balls and conditions, they couldn't pull off the break Alex did in 82. As White said, Alex was drinking before and during the match, was steamed. Yet up stands Alex, drunk and doing everything technically wrong, gets down and clears the table without a second thought. And under the circumstances and pressure, was a huge feat.

It embodied his ability to pull off impossible shots, consistently, no player before or since could. If you consider the man overrated, actually sit down and watch him. His positional play poor, but you'll never see a man pot the impossible like him. Calling him overrated is ignorance in the extreme, at full flight was the greatest potter the game will ever see

Davis repeatedly picked Higgins off, as most players did over time, as he was drunk and didn't have the patience for tactical matches, go for something stupid, and leave the whole frame open, while his life went down the toilet. Saying White was better is ridiculous.

You say this like it has some bearing on his natural ability anyway. No one is saying he wasn't poor positionally, drunk, technically poor, but your writing off his natural talent based on disingenuous scenarios tbh.

Your right, he did underachieve though. If he achieved anything close to what his talent potentially possessed, he would of won the world championship ten times.

He's a tragic story, but don't underestimate his genius. Go and actually watch his matches .

The people who call him over rated are the people who've never watched him, and read on Wikipedia that he only made 80 centuries. Their loss and ignorance I suppose

My gut feeling is that the Si/Brecel match will either be magically brilliant stuff, or just absolute chaos. Agree that Si looked absolutely shattered by the end of last night - they both did - I was hanging, and i was only watching! But he's young, and will have a bit of a lie-in this morning, so he'll probably be grand!

The Allen/Selby one could last till Sunday.

Unfortunately I've a crazy weekend schedule, so won't get to see much of any of the rest of it live 😭😭

God almighty, I literally would not know John Virgo 😳

His voice has not changed a bit, but he's unrecognisable from his playing days!! (since when I haven't seen him)