The Seventeen Day Crucible Marathon itself doesn't start until Saturday week, but the banners including a Shaun Murphy death stare were up in Sheffield last weekend and qualifying began yesterday.
The top two ladies were given entry into qualifying, Ng On Yee got whacked 10-1 by Matthew Selt. Reanne Evans is 9-7 down to Dominic Dale. If Evans did come back in that then it's still hard to see her at the Crucible as her draw section looks brutal, with Mike Dunn up next then the final qualifying against an in-form Graeme Dott or the promising youngster Sonny Akani - he's the guy who gave Ronnie an almighty scare at the UK in December. Dott is worth keeping an eye on, he won't win the thing overall but could beat someone who might, if he got someone like Judd Trump in the first round you'd have to fancy Dotty's chances.
Anthony Hamilton v Martin O'Donnell sounds quite a match, the latter leads 7-4 after two sessions, which equates to the thick end of eight hours playing time. World Snooker has started publicly displaying the average shot time of competitors and Hamilton is coming at a whopping 41 seconds, which is more than double what a lot of players manage.
Liang Wenbo has just made a maximum against Rod Lawler, he's 9-1 up at present.
Jimmy White is still going, he's 5-4 up against Sam Craigie, if he gets through that he'll face Joe Perry next.
No major surprises so far, the highest ranked player to be knocked out was Mark Joyce losing to the local lad (and Wednesday fan) Adam Duffy.
Among the matches still to begin is Peter Ebdon v James Wattana which was a Crucible match all the way back in 1994. On the other hand there's a millennial clash between Yan Bingtao and Jackson Page, both of whom were born this century. Yan is working his way up the rankings - he's now 22nd - and there's a reasonable chance he'll be a seed next year. Page is a Welshman who's had a few results, mainly at his home tournament. It's not totally beyond the realms of impossibility that this will be a world final some years down the line.
The top two ladies were given entry into qualifying, Ng On Yee got whacked 10-1 by Matthew Selt. Reanne Evans is 9-7 down to Dominic Dale. If Evans did come back in that then it's still hard to see her at the Crucible as her draw section looks brutal, with Mike Dunn up next then the final qualifying against an in-form Graeme Dott or the promising youngster Sonny Akani - he's the guy who gave Ronnie an almighty scare at the UK in December. Dott is worth keeping an eye on, he won't win the thing overall but could beat someone who might, if he got someone like Judd Trump in the first round you'd have to fancy Dotty's chances.
Anthony Hamilton v Martin O'Donnell sounds quite a match, the latter leads 7-4 after two sessions, which equates to the thick end of eight hours playing time. World Snooker has started publicly displaying the average shot time of competitors and Hamilton is coming at a whopping 41 seconds, which is more than double what a lot of players manage.
Liang Wenbo has just made a maximum against Rod Lawler, he's 9-1 up at present.
Jimmy White is still going, he's 5-4 up against Sam Craigie, if he gets through that he'll face Joe Perry next.
No major surprises so far, the highest ranked player to be knocked out was Mark Joyce losing to the local lad (and Wednesday fan) Adam Duffy.
Among the matches still to begin is Peter Ebdon v James Wattana which was a Crucible match all the way back in 1994. On the other hand there's a millennial clash between Yan Bingtao and Jackson Page, both of whom were born this century. Yan is working his way up the rankings - he's now 22nd - and there's a reasonable chance he'll be a seed next year. Page is a Welshman who's had a few results, mainly at his home tournament. It's not totally beyond the realms of impossibility that this will be a world final some years down the line.
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