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Williams not past his Sel-by date: Snooker 2018-19

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    Williams not past his Sel-by date: Snooker 2018-19

    Doesn't time fly? We're into the Shanghai Masters semi finals already. World Champion Mark Williams followed up his Crucible win by winning one of the first events this season, the World Open as the draw seemed to open up nicely for him. But in Shanghai, Hawkins, who lost that epic world championship semi final to Williams, got some measure of revenge today by winning the Shanghai quarter final 6-4.

    O'Sullivan beat Bingham 6-2, and he plays Kyren Wilson (who looks in great form himself in the early events) in the semi final after Wilson beat Ryan Day 6-5. And in the other semi Barry Hawkins will take on Ding - with the home favourite knocking out Selby 6-5.

    All live on Eurosport, though you can also find these matches on YouTube. And I'm not sure of the timing/scheduling of the remaining three matches either.

    #2
    The evening sessions are free to air on Quest as well, though not seen any of it myself. The semis are two session matches (think they're best of 19s - ooh!), Ronnie v Kyren Wilson today, Ding v Hawkins tomorrow. Final is on Sunday - best of 21 I think. Wilson is 2-1 up at present and they've taken an early interval because of a problem with a cushion.

    Season is in a fairly embryonic stage though we've now reached the point where the calendar starts to fill up and there's an awful lot of snooker to be played between now and Christmas. Wilson is the form man having won the Paul Hunter Classic and the six red thingy, feels like he's on the brink of a big win. Ronnie hasn't played this season prior to this event and he hasn't entered the next couple of ranking events either (or the Indian Open which was postponed to the spring after flooding in the area). Presume he'll rock up at the English Open next month given that he'll likely be there anyway for Eurosport.

    One thing of interest to look out for is a change at the top of the world rankings. Selby has been there since February 2015 but has a hell of a lot of points to defend in the coming tournaments. On provisional rankings Williams is poised to claim the top spot after the UK in December. You'd have got long odds on that happening a couple of years ago.

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      #3
      Back on ES now I think, Ronnie has made it 2-2.

      Yeah, it feels good to have Williams back at the top of the game. Probably because it makes me feel less old. And Wilson taking a Triple Crown event feels like it should happen this season, to keep things fresh.

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        #4
        Blunder from Wilson in the 9th, set to go 5-4 Ronnie rather than the other way round here.

        Edit - which it is, at the end of the session. Final session coverage starts at 12:30 and they said this will be on Quest as well as ES.
        Last edited by Kevin S; 14-09-2018, 09:05.

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          #5
          Very good game this, 6-6 now, 10 needed to reach the final.

          Now 7-6 to Ronnie after a he took a dramatic 13th frame by one point.
          Last edited by Kevin S; 14-09-2018, 12:39.

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            #6
            Watched the last three frames over a late lunch, from what I saw Ronnie was rather workmanlike in completing a 10-6 victory.

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              #7
              Ronnie 3-3 Hawkins in the final at the moment.

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                #8
                O'Sullivan takes the Shanghai Masters and the £200k prize money after an 11-9 win over Hawkins. The winning break was exhibition stuff, at the end he was ready to take his shots on the reds before the referee had replaced the colour. Here it is:

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                  #9
                  Still one of the best sights in sport, Ronnie O'Sullivan producing a break like that – and I watched in 2x speed for extra fun. The way he breaks the remaining pack of reds off the green at 55-0 is exemplary, and the speed of the shots is of course still fantastic. And to do it at 10-9 in a first-to-11 ranking final is quite something.

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                    #10
                    Fun and games in the European Masters in Belgium this week. It's been a best of seven format all the way to the quarter finals so that and the absence of several top players (Williams, Higgins and Ronnie all withdrew, Ding didn't even enter) has led to a right wacky semi final line up. Joe Perry plays Anthony Hamilton in an hour or so, then later it's Jimmy Robertson v Mark King. Robertson has had quite a tournament, he's won three matches on the final black in the deciding frame and another by the relatively comfortable margin of the final pink in the decider. Someone's going to get a big boost in the rankings, a trip to the Champion of Champions and a second ranking title (or in Robertson's case a maiden).

                    Last week was the China Championship, Selby won that beating Higgins 10-9 which put him to the top of the season rankings.

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                      #11
                      Wahay - the man with possibly the worst and most contrived nickname in sport getting to the latter stages of a major(ish) event. Is Anthony Hamilton still known as "The Sheriff of Pottingham"?

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                        #12
                        Appears so, yes.

                        https://twitter.com/WorldSnooker/status/1048521831572025346

                        https://twitter.com/WorldSnooker/sta...21831572025346

                        (Though Selby's "The Jester From Leicester" runs it close in the bad nickname stakes)

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                          #13
                          It's "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" time this week as the English Open takes place in Crawley. This is the first event in the Home Nations series, which consists of identical tournaments in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales with a million pound bonus available to anyone that wins all the events in the same season. The chance of anyone doing this is essentially nil, since the series was established a couple of years back there have been eight events and each won by a different player. The format of the tournaments makes it difficult to repeat, best of seven for the first four rounds and only the top 16 get protected in the draw, which means that this tournament features possible second round match ups of Brecel - Carter and Wilson - McGill. Scheduling doesn't help either, the Northern Ireland Open comes off the back of two more lucrative tournaments and the Scottish Open starts the day after the UK finishes. Basically the million quid is a gimmick and everyone knows it. Hearn wouldn't dare try the same in darts. Live on Eurosport with some sessions on Quest for anyone curious.

                          Been an eventful couple of weeks anyway. Jimmy Robertson won his maiden ranking title in Belgium and had a handy leap up the rankings. Jamie Jones has been suspended as part of WPBSA investigations into possible match fixing (a defeat for David John against Graeme Dott in 2016 in question here, no suggestion Jones Jam has deliberately lost matches himself) so Michael Judge got a spot in this tournament to replace him. There were International Championship qualifiers in Barnsley last week, Higgins and Murphy both lost theirs with the latter managing to lose 6-0 to Sam Baird - Murphy really hasn't had much of a season so far. The other exciting thing to happen there was Mark King getting so frustrated with his own play he told the ref to piss off.

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                            #14
                            Draw available (PDF download) here: http://www.worldsnooker.com/wp-conte...-full-draw.pdf

                            Looks like a bit of a crapshoot then - they play a whole round each day? The Quest coverage runs from 1245-1730 today, Tues and Weds, 1245-1630 on Thurs, 1145-1730 on Fri (quarter finals), 1245-1600 on Sat (semis), 1245-1600 and 1845 onwards on Sun (final). Useful to know since I cancelled my ES subscription...

                            20 year old Lyu Haotian versus 56 year old Jimmy White is surely the stand out tie of Round 1. It'll be their first meeting, according to cuetracker.
                            Last edited by Kevin S; 15-10-2018, 09:18.

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                              #15
                              First round is spread across today and tomorrow, then it's the last 64 on Wednesday followed by a double on Thursday with the last 32 in the morning and afternoon then the last 16 in the evening.

                              Mark Allen v Anthony Hamilton looks the obvious stand out match to me, should be quite a contrast in styles. Hamilton played James Wattana last week in a match that progressed so slowly World Snooker had to take them off and resume in a later session, which is impressive for a best-of-11.

                              Ronnie's just won his first match here, a comfortable 4-1 over Kurt Maflin.

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                                #16
                                Cheers longeared. The World Champion has settled very quickly into his rhythm here, Williams making a century in the first frame against Dominic Dale.

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                                  #17
                                  Two centuries, 3-0. Routine.

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                                    #18
                                    Made heavier weather of it at the end, 4-1 via a respotted black in the fifth. Perhaps his lunch caught up with him?

                                    https://twitter.com/markwil147/status/1051792320453054465?s=19

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                                      #19
                                      Well, I see the K2 Leisure Centre in Crawley is in the news tonight. I'm sure they're delighted with that.

                                      Oh.

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                                        #20
                                        Quest has got the Higgins match on and he seems to be comfortable enough, at 2-0. Allen is 1-0 up on Hamilton and White is 2-0 up on Lyu.

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                                          #21
                                          The Sheriff has leveled against Allen.

                                          There's a Wiki list of everything, isn't there? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ayer_nicknames

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                                            #22
                                            Jimmy goes 3-0 up. Surprising - I thought 2017/18 was a breakthrough season for Lyu so this seems a bit of a setback if he goes out here.

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                                              #23
                                              Originally posted by longeared View Post
                                              Mark Allen v Anthony Hamilton looks the obvious stand out match to me, should be quite a contrast in styles. Hamilton played James Wattana last week in a match that progressed so slowly World Snooker had to take them off and resume in a later session, which is impressive for a best-of-11.
                                              Average shot times of 20 and 30 seconds respectively.

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                                                #24
                                                Higgins through and Quest strangely stick with the table to show Wilson - Akani rather than the matches reaching their conclusion, e.g. Allen 3-2 Hamilton or White 3-2 Lyu. Perhaps only table 1 has a camera?

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                                                  #25
                                                  White through 4-2. Matthew Stevens his opponent in round 2.

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