Stick a fork in it.
Ronnie will say he knew Trump didn't have the bottle.
Stick a fork in it.
Ronnie will say he knew Trump didn't have the bottle.
Did someone really just shout "Come on Judd, he's shit!"
This has been one of the worst, yet also one of the most entertaining finals in years.
Trump has played some incredible shots but then fucks it all up with a positional shot or an easy pocket.
Hopefully he sorts it out for World Championship. I’m not really sure he’s played all that great in some of these tournaments he’s won
That's a big marker for the worlds. A pity as Trump could be twice the player he is.
Trump continues to dismantle anyone and everyone in these ranking tournament. Hopefully he doesn’t shit the bed at Worlds. On for 100 centuries for the year with ease.
Watching this desert shit show on Eurosport. It's already half 11 over there and Murphy and Trump are just coming on for their best of seven before Ronnie and Higgins follow. Some amazing scheduling that.
I wouldn't worry, the smattering of Sheikhs will be able to browse their phones at any hour of the day.
Having not seen it, what does it mean that the golden ball sits on the top cushion - is it on the table or is it on the cushion, or is it really nowhere it can be an amusing obstacle?
In a bit Murphy, ya fud.
It sits on the table, but tight on the baulk cushion, directly behind the Brown and stays there until a 147 is no longer on at which point it's removed until the next frame. Should someone get a 147 they then need to somehow get on the golden ball having potted the black at the other end of the table.Originally Posted by niko_cee
Tournament over, Ronnie won and he was pretty shit hot. 6 centuries in the 13 frames he won. And fair play to the snooker players and establishment, showing exactly how it should be done when it comes to dealing with the Saudi's. No pissing around with hollow protests about human rights only to subsequently suck hard on that desert cash cock - a unified response of "we're snooker players, not politicians" was echoed throughout with a clear nod to the prize money being the main reason they're there. On the prize money, it was obscene for a couple of days work, but not enough to devalue the status of the World Championships and the short form matches also helped on that score too.
Nice moment at the end when top ranking Saudi asked for a mic and announced that this season's 167 prize that no-one managed now rolls into next year's tournament for a cool $1m should someone manage it then.
All in all, a pretty good effort and similar to the World Cup, much better than expected.
Last edited by Yevrah; 06-03-2024 at 10:32 PM.
Does it get replaced to the top cushion if it's cannoned elsewhere during the frame?
It doesn’t, but the chances of that happening while a 147 is still on are so remote. I didn’t watch all of the matches but did see a fair few and didn’t see it move once (other than to be removed from the table).
Doesn't it get in the way of safety shots at 0-0? I'm not criticising our Saudi overlords who are of course just and measured in all things.
That's what I was thinking, albeit it more in a that would be fun way. What happens if you foul it? Does it go off like an IED?
They should have it in a mousetrap style run to deploy onto the table at speed and in an irregular way when necessary.
I don't think our new Saudi overlords have paid much money to see Mark Selby come over and safety everyone into the ground to be fair.
Rumour is the golden ball was actually in the original game in India but it was removed when it came over to England as the gammons thought it would encourage more colours to come on their shores and negatively affect the Sheperd's Pie supplies.
Surely we would have ditched the brown and black then?
A good shepherd's pie is nothing if not golden.
Been watching some WC qualifiers in the background while working this week. Some geezer on Twitch is streaming all of it (SnookerLiveStreams if you wanna tune in).
Some good and shocking stuff. Jimmy White got twatted and currently watching Fu v Doherty stink it right up. Love it.
I watched a load of it last year and it was so bad. Not very good players + awful venue + understandable nerves at qualifying = shocking viewing.
Neil Robertson lost in qualifying for the World Championship. There aren't enough lols.
He must have really dropped a bollock to have sunk as low as 24 in the world.
Thankfully Slick Rick Walden and Ball Run Bingham seem to have had more luck.
He was in a video on Hendry’s channel saying how nobody would want to draw him. That’s aged well.
He’s a bit of a joke really. The Ato Boldon of snooker.
Quinten Hann.
Nice to have old Nige back
I see that the Saudi Arabia Ambassador for Snooker Ronnie O'Sullivan, has suddenly decided that the World Championship should move away from the crucible.
You'll never guess where he thinks it should move to.
I'm guessing it's not Llandudno....
While it just moving to Riyadh would be enormously depressing what do you who care more about snooker than me think about the general idea of it not being at the crucible? An absolute no-go and it must remain there because that's just the tradition / part of the magic or are you theoretically not against it?
I basically only watch the World championship and then bits and bobs elsewhere if I catch it, and on the one hand my gut reaction is that it'd be weird if it wasn't at the Crucible I also can't really say why because if the crowds elsewhere were still being told to shut the fuck up I can't imagine it would actually impact my viewing experience, but maybe that's just because I don't watch that much of it and I'm missing something.
Also: Fuck Ronnie. Partly for this totally predictable and money-grubbing stance, but also just generally.
I wouldn't lose any sleep over it moving but I think you would lose something if you replaced an interested crowd tittering along to John Virgo's rye remarks with row upon row of disinterested sheikhs looking at their phones, so it leaving the UK would probably be a red line.
I think the Crucible (along with the long match length) is what gives it the gravitas it has. Snooker isn't a sport that will ever command mass viewership all year round but like tennis and darts, it has a fortnight in the year when the sporting public will tune in because there is gravitas attached to it. You put it in Saudi Arabia or shorten it to best of 9 and it's then no longer the world championship but just another sporting money grab.
You could play Wimbledon or the Masters in Saudi Arabia. Could. But should?
This is the main thing I think about basically all these things. Dunno if WWE did it first but as a "sport" (I know, I know) where the front rows of the crowd can be such a big part of the experience the shows where it's just a load of bored blokes in thobes are just immediately shit regardless of whatever else is going on.
I'll accept them moving it so long as the chap in the knock-off Cov kit still gets his seat on camera each year. Although if he's there Sunday, forget that plastic.
I think those two other examples at least have the sense of a global event within a global sport. Snooker is a sport incredibly focused around the home nations. The talent, audience and administrators are predominantly British. There is no market in Saudi Arabia for cue sports and there's no chance of this sparking a Arabian talent drive.
I see the change of venue like I saw Arsenals stadium move. Highbury was great. Not the biggest place but it had that magic about it at times and comes with all of the history and tradition.
They moved what, a few hundred feet down the road? But it's now a somewhat soulless bowl. Yes it's nice and shiny and holds more people but it's just not the same.
I love seeing clips from Highbury now, when it looked tight and hostile.
Highbury was so good
There's no market in Saudi Arabia for anything except possibly football and even then the spend is nothing to do with the market that exists.
I dunno, some of them might like the cues as a sort of novelty implement for corporal punishment.
The crucible curse claims another victim.
Ali Carter being dumped out is wonderful to see
As is Selby being 7-2 down.
If it goes to expectation/form from here the final is basically going to be Trump vs O'Sullivan in the second semi-final, with the winner absolutely nailed on in the final.
Watched a bit of that Carter v Maguire match and there was a point when it was something like 7-7 that every shot was just an outrageous fluke or piece of misfortune. Glad to see the captain came out on the wrong end of it.
Think this is the one thing about the Snooker World Champs which sort of sets them apart from, in my mind, any other sport or whatever you want to call it. Once it kicks off you are straight into it and every match has jeopardy in it. Perhaps take heed format expanders of the world.
I think it should start with three group stages to really ramp up the excitement, and then Ronnie gets to choose who he playa in the knockouts on the proviso that he stops fucking whinging.
We need a deep Shaun Murphy run with an agonising exit. Keeps him away from the title, but also off punditry for as long as possible.
He's doing the punditry while still in the tournament. Stephen Hendry was clearly baffled by this while chatting to him post victory earlier. I get the vibe the pundits are quite wound up by him too. I quite enjoy him and his turbo lameness but I think it's just me
I don't mind Murphy, but I absolutely hate current players being in the commentary box.
Hold me.
As for the Crucible debate, I was always on the side of keeping it but that was until the game got reasonably popular again and outgrew the Crucible in its current state. If you could comfortably sell somewhere between five thousand and ten thousand tickets for the final and your actual venue holds 980 people then something is seriously wrong - It'd be like routinely holding the football World Cup final in a 20k seater stadium.
All other arguments for keeping it there are irrelevant when you have that elephant in the room. Now there's then a debate about where you should move it to and I would absolutely hate that to involve sucking desert cock as it would actively damage the sport, so I guess the ideal solution would be to make the Crucible bigger, or usher in the use of technology that puts you virtually in the room. Not sure how feasible either of those are before the current deal expires in 2028, but it's a stupid argument to keep it somewhere that's now so unfit for purpose 'because that's what we've one for 50 years'.
Isn't Gladiators filmed in Sheffield? Hold it wherever that is.
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