Thurday, 12:30, the SECC, Glasgow; Ronnie O'Sullivan and Jimmy White cue-to-cue over five pulsating frames of snooker... the balls will be flashing around the table like atoms in a nuclear reactor - surely this is going to be the most explosive sporting encounter of all time?
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Prepare yourselves for the aPOTalypse
No mention of what O'Sullivan did earlier?
Playing very erratically against Mark King, but 2-0 up (best of five). King misses a red, O'Sullivan pots a red, then a black, then holds the game up for about three minutes, as he asks referee Jan Verhaas what the highest break prize is (£4,000), and what the maximum break prize is (there isn't one).
O'Sullivan then reels off the other 14 reds, with blacks, followed by yellow, green, brown, blue and pink, then walks over to King to shake hands for the end of the match, only returning to pot the black for the 147 after Verhaas talks him into it. Afterwards he confirms in an interview that he wasn't going to pot the last black because of the lack of maximum break prize. When asked if the crowd's satisfaction would have been enough, he replies: "Not really, I do them all the time". -
Prepare yourselves for the aPOTalypse
This "quick fire" best of five frame format hasn't really lived up to the billing. Because the ranking points are the same as a nine frame tournament, the players are feeling the pressure, and instead of big breaks (there have been three century breaks in 11 matches so far), free flowing snooker and long periods of safety play as the hype predicted, every game has been scrappy, and error strewn, full of missed pots, poor safety and missed balls. It's really not working.
And as I type that, Alan McManus has just potted an amazing two ball plant, the length of the table, from an obtuse angle.Comment
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Prepare yourselves for the aPOTalypse
That O'Sullivan 147 break was something else, though. The format certainly helped, in that he knew, at 2-0 up (it was first to 3) and clearly "in among the reds", he was going to make the 60- or 70 break he needed to finish the match off, so the pressure was somewhat off him. But even so, to basically turn around with the sheer arrogance or nonchalance required to look at the table and say, "look, I know I've got it won, is it worth my while making a 147 here?" and then go right ahead and do just that ... breathtaking. He might as well have turned round to his opponent without potting a ball and asked "well, we both know I've won this from here, shall we call it quits and go for a pint?".
The fact that O'Sullivan hasn't been World Champion for the last ten years on the trot (in fact he's won it just three times, I think) is astonishing. His personal demons are well-documented, but even so.Comment
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Prepare yourselves for the aPOTalypse
Hang on, obtuse angles are easier than acute ones in snooker, surely?Comment
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Prepare yourselves for the aPOTalypse
And, while I'm at it, surely it's neutrons that flash around in a nuclear reactor. Tchah.Comment
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Prepare yourselves for the aPOTalypse
Quarks, isn't it, now?Comment
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