There's more than one Barnsley - the 2019-20 snooker thread

[Kevin S]

He's still leaving Bingham chances though; interesting match if not really a classic so far.

[Kevin S]

He takes those chances to level the match though in both frames didn't convert the century thanks to some misses with the rest.

The Masters comes down to a best of five.

[longeared]

Interesting match if not really a classic so far.

Yeah, agree with that assessment. It's been like Allen - Wilson was a couple of years ago, ebbed and flowed and kept the interest but not especially high quality snooker. Although it could be a lot worse.

8-7 Bingham now. Wonder if this is going to be a bit like when they met on the opening day at the Crucible a few years since when Bingham looked to have broken the back of the match and then Carter ended up winning.

[Kevin S]

Getting a bit more memorable now, potentially, as Bingham is one frame away. Wonder what his record is this week in frames coming after the evening mid-session interval? I don't think I've seen him lose many of the late ones.

[Kevin S]

Oooh, that pack opening from Carter in the 17th was sweet.

[longeared]

Well done Stuart, that's a fine riposte to those (such as, erm, me) who thought his Worlds victory was a one off. Now is he going to say "winner winner chicken dinner" again? Overall perhaps best if we forget this edition of the tournament ever existed mind.

[Kevin S]

"Masters" did feel like a bit of a misnomer this year didn't it. Ah well. Congrats to Bingham. A UK away from the career Triple.

[Kevin S]

Not sure if I've counted correctly but I think Bingham's W-L in the final part of the evening sessions this week goes like this:

v Mark Williams 4-0
v Kyren Wilson 4-0
v David Gilbert 1-1
v Ali Carter 5-1
_____________
Overall 14-2

[Kevin S]

longeared Did you notice these by the way?

https://twitter.com/brendanmoore147/status/1218943398608097287?s=19

[longeared]

*something about it being the only final we'll be represented in this year*

[longeared]

The China Open, which was due to take place in Beijing in early April, has been postponed as a result of the coronavirus. World Snooker is talking about holding it later in the year but that would put it into next season rather than this. Actually there would be some potential problems for the sport should the outbreak persist as there are a number of tournaments held in China in the summer and autumn.

Neil Robertson won the European Masters in Austria last week and his good form has carried into this week - he's playing Judd in the final of the German Masters later today. He's up to number two in the world rankings as a result of all this.

There's an ITV4 tournament this coming week - the World Grand Prix at Cheltenham racecourse. This is for the top 32 of the season so far and the draw is bracketed based on this, so we've got some interesting first round ties such as Wilson - Lisowski, Higgins - Bingham, Williams - Hawkins and Gilbert - O'Sullivan. The other amusing feature is Scott Donaldson playing Ding Junhui for the third consecutive week, Donaldson having won both the other matches.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

If they don't play Alone Again as the walk out music for Gilbert - O'Sullivan I shall be sending a stern letter to Barry Hearn.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Lovely to see Ray Reardon being interviewed at the interval in the Welsh Open final. Still clearly a knowledgeable and enthusiastic follower of the modern players at the spritely age of 87.

[CY_Boaby]

I turned on Eurosport last night and saw some weird Shoot-out tournament, which looked like snooker's version of 20/20 cricket. Frame lasts a maximum of 10 minutes, players only have a set-time to take a shot (possibly 20 seconds?) with it reducing to 10 seconds when the frame reaches the 5-minute mark. I found the countdown beeps and the flashing red lights for each shot when they get within 5 seconds of their time to be quite annoying, but not as annoying as the rowdy crowd who loved to shout "BLUUUUE" every time the blue ball was potted.

Cliff Thorburn wouldn't last a minute out here.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

I've seen that in the past. I think a blue following a red is worth 10 points or something. Which sort of makes sense but the format entails most players just smashing the pack to buggery at the first opportunity anyway, so it ends up like watching 14.1 pool.

[longeared]

That's exactly what it is - the 20-20 (or darts) version of snooker where the crowd can cheer and every frame whacks through in ten minutes. It's basically a complete lottery though, what with the variations in rules and the fact that it's all over a single frame. What is quite entertaining is the last evening when they play down from sixteen competitors to the winner and you can see the players take the whole thing increasingly seriously as the tournament approaches a climax.

The main gripe I have with it is that the damn thing is a ranking tournament, which should never in a million years be the case as they are playing different rules to the rest of the season. A couple of years back Barry Hearn gave the players a vote on whether it should be a ranking tournament or scrapped entirely, the other option (which would likely have won by a mile) wasn't offered. Whoever wins gets £50k on their ranking points, just for comparison Shaun Murphy took home £70k for his Welsh Open win last week. That is a serious sum of money, particularly given that it can get won by some of the lesser spotted players. Michael Georgiou basically stayed on the tour thanks to winning it in 2018 (and then he lost his first match here so all those points came off and he's dropped approximately a dozen places)

[Southport Zeb]

Southport is currently holding a rankings tournament for the first time in the form of the Players Championship. This evening I went to the quarter final between Yan Bingtao and Joe Perry, which may be the least exciting matchup when it comes to nicknames - "the man" v "the gentleman".

After the opening four frames were split, it looked like Yan was going to have a fairly comfortable evening as he won the next three to leave himself one frame from victory. In frame 8 Yan led by around thirty at one point, before Perry cleared up to win the frame on the black. Perry then won the next two frames to level the match and send it to a decider.

The final frame took almost an hour, with most of the reds ending up bunched up along the cushions. Every now and then one or other player would Pot two or three balls, but the balls weren't positioned to allow bigger breaks. Yan built up a bit of a lead but Perry came back again and took the lead on the final pink. However he couldn't complete the comeback as Yan potted the last black, two and a bit hours after he probably should have wrapped things up.

[Kevin S]

Well, looks like this is going to be the main sporting fix for the foreseeable future. Trump continuing to dominate the Tour with five ranking tournament wins despite not claiming either of the Triple Crown events thus far, and he's going strong in the current Gibraltar tournament. That concludes today (I think) on Eurosport or possibly streamed on your favourite bookies.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

They're almost certainly going to postpone the World Championships though, surely? Barry Hearn wouldn't be allowed in for a start if he's told to self-isolate?

[Kevin S]

He was still adamant on Thursday that it'll go ahead but I guess we'll have to see how the situation develops. As longeared said, the players are used to matches without spectators a lot of the year. Indeed for the likes of a David Gilbert, who sometimes seems fazed by the single table arena setup, it might help.

[longeared]

I could see how they would stage it, but it doesn't necessarily mean that they will. No spectators (in which case they could even save some cash and hold it somewhere cheaper), disinfect absolutely everything regularly, no handshakes, lots of hand washing, reconfigure the arena so the players don't have to sit next to each other. There's only six people around the table for a televised match - two players, referee, two camera operators and the marker. You could remove the latter individuals by using a single static camera and having the ref do the scoring. The additional problem would be also having to hold the qualifiers with 128 players and as soon as one person got it that would be the whole thing over.

There is a tournament this week from Tuesday - Tour Championship in Llandudno, on ITV4. No announcements yet about how that's going to operate, but it's still on at the time of writing.

Williams - K Wilson and Xiao - Trump in the Gibraltar semis, they'll be underway shortly.

[Kevin S]

And a Wilson - Trump final, about to start.

[longeared]

Trump wins in a decider and that's his sixth ranking title of the season. History maker.

Hearn has been quoted by the BBC as saying he's still waiting to hear whether the Tour Championship can take place and has again floated the possibility of playing the Worlds behind closed doors. If today has turned out to be the end of the season then that also means the final world rankings of the campaign and we find which players are relegated off the tour - these include 2018 Shoot Out winner Michael Georgiou, Fergal O'Brien, Ken Doherty (again) and Michael White who was a top 16 player not all that long ago. Normally they would be headed to Q-School in May to try and win their tour card back, although chuff knows what World Snooker will do if that can't be held.

[nmrfox]

Confirmation today from Barry Hearn that the World Championship has been postponed and looking at dates later in the year.

[longeared]

They've talked about holding the tournament in July or August if possible, which would be doable from the venue perspective - the Crucible doesn't have productions during the summer and the school holiday classes could be shifted elsewhere / not held at all. Among the announcement was also the news that Q School won't be held until the Worlds have taken place, which means the season is effectively paused until they're in a position to resume. This makes a lot of sense as there's no way they'll be able to draw up a wider calendar for a 2020-21 season until things improve.