This kid with the big hair on the beeb is a talented presenter. Will go far.
This kid with the big hair on the beeb is a talented presenter. Will go far.
This is a lovely fightback but there's no way Selby doesn't grind his way to a victory and the remote possibility of a smile.
I hope it goes to a decider.
When the grim reaper comes for Mark Selby I hope it takes the form of a containing safety shot.
Murphy will come to regret that, you suspect.
Yeah fair fucks to him thinking fuck it let's have it, but silly shot.
Just got sucked into a wiki hole on past world championships, leading me to the knowledge that 1948 champion Fred Davis played on long enough as a full professional to have played an official competitive game against Ronnie O'Sullivan (!), but upon seeking out the 1948 championship itself the article said:
I thought it was weird they were playing a single-frame final in those days, although I thought maybe it was a much more low key affair... then I realised the score was in frames, not points. That's right, the final was played over the best of 145 frames, and they played out the full 145, even though the 73-frame winning post had been passed ages earlier. I suppose this should have been a clue:For the second year running the final was contested by Fred Davis and Walter Donaldson. Davis won his first World title by defeating Donaldson 84–61 in the final, although he reached the winning margin already at 73–52.
Give me Selby v Higgins or something over that distance.The final was held at the Leicester Square Hall in London, England, from 19 April to 1 May.
That Selby/Bingham frame the other day felt longer than that, to be fair.
At some point that surely just turns into informal lagers.
Fred Davis' wikipedia page led me to this, apparently his last ever tournament. Looks a pretty incredible affair (what on earth is sudden death?), but I was drawn to the women's section where most of the bracket have their own wikipedia pages. Karen Corr took home 15 grand, which a quick google tells me is equal to the entire prize fund for the Women's World Championship 2019. What happened?
I really want to go to bed.
Ah billiards, I think it's alright once you get into it. I vaguely recall playing it once.
Talking of things dying out, there's always talk of there being no snooker clubs anymore, fewer and fewer pool tables in pubs etc, but I have distant recollections of bar billiards tables being a regular sight in establishments (presumably when I was a kid) and they always looked unfathomably intriguing. Can't say I've seen one of those for decades.
Any kind of table pub sport is just taking up space that could be used by another 20 people drinking £5.50 pints.
Snooker clubs were done in by a combination of the smoking ban, and Tony Blair's broader war on traditional working class leisure. A costly one, in the long run, when you look at the Red Wall all voting Tory.
Last edited by Jimmy Floyd; 04-05-2021 at 08:42 AM.
Snooker clubs probably just don't make that much money.
They made enough money to keep going for decades until you weren't allowed to smoke in them.
Rates hikes probably an issue as well (but it's all part of the same gentrification process).
Pool tables are gone from all pubs round here too. That definitely coincided with the smoking ban and publicans realising they could charge twelve quid for a burger.
And pubs are probably nicer and definitely less cancerous that way, but it's killing snooker and that, combined with shocking tour mismanagement before Hearn turned up is why we have absolutely no youngsters of any note coming through.
We've had this discussion before but it it's also just not cheap to play. You're relying on the youth wanting to spend seven quid an hour (which, why the fuck would they just to get into a sport?) or a parent or whoever dragging them along to play.
That'll be related to your previous comments on it taking up floor space they could be using to serve drinkers or whatever but it is what it is and they need to find a way to make it sustainable and/or entice younger people into playing more than they currently want to.
On afternoons when I'm at a loose end I'd happily go along to my nearest place and just practice on a table by myself but chuck in drinks (whether it be soft drinks or a couple of pints) and I'd be looking at the better part of £30 which.... no.
As someone who played a bit as a kid, I'm with you Ian. It was fucking expensive.
I did lol at Judd Trump wanting them to 'appeal to a younger audience'. Mate, you're walking around a dimly lit green baize table knocking balls into holes, playing a bit of Cardi B over the top isn't going to change the audience.
They should look at changing their business model so that it's not £7 an hour. I'm sure they could work out some new way that makes it affordable and bring people in. Maybe make it like hooters.
But he wearing some dope kicks whilst doing his punditry stint!
That 1991 Masters page brings back a lot of Big Break memories, feels like Tony Drago was on it every week. They should get that back on Challenge, I think I've seen every repeat of Bullseye on there now.
Two players under 27 in the main draw this year, both of them Chinese. K.Wilson (29) the only under-30 to make it past the last 16.
Conversely, half the draw was 37 or older.
Did anybody watch Gods of Snooker on the BBC? I'm about halfway through episode 1 and enjoying it so far.
I did, it was pretty good. I enjoyed all the swearing particularly.
Yeah I've just finished it and it was pretty good.
I know Higgins was famous for his extra-curriculars and that he'd be drinking during games but the clips of him in this where he was so obviously bladdered during matches were a bit of an eye opener to me.
Stephen Hendry was and looked ridiculously young during first tournaments.
1990 was the first year I remember watching lots of, so I only really caught the arse end of his career, when he was a completely pissed up twat.
Different sports obviously, but the similarities between the NBA as portrayed in The Last Dance (prior to Jordan's arrival) and snooker (before Davis and Hendry turned up) are uncanny. Sport seemed to be a vehicle to get loaded and screw women back then.
Accidentally watched episode 3 first. Good stuff but Higgins will basically just be Mark E. Smith to me. A permanently pissed hand grenade.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/snooker/58003683
That's some top NARRATIVE there.
Was she doing anything wrong or is he just a bitter shitebag?Mark Allen will play ex-partner Reanne Evans in the British Open in August, four months after he requested that she be removed from a television studio.
Evans was working as a BBC pundit at the World Championships when Allen said he didn't want her to be in a TV studio where a practice table was situated.
I follow snooker and the DRAMA to a reasonable degree and I haven't a clue.
The studio stuff is proper small time so he's a dick either way.
Maybe she was being a bike or something.
I was reading about that earlier too. That's not even his most recent ex-partner which I had initially assumed. He's in some bitter legal battle with her and decalred himself bankrupt recently presumably to prevent her getting much.
He sounds like he's just a cunt tbh.
Yep, he's definitely one of those.
To coin an OSW phrase, he's such a rat-faced knacker.
I'm left wondering what Justin Credibles safety game is like.
Incredible, obviously.
So, is this grudge match going to be worth following or is he just going to lol her off the baize?
It would be funny if she won but I've no idea if there's any real likelihood of that.
It's so bizarre watching this with Stephen Hendry's earnest commentary over the top. She blanked his pre-match handshake, obvs.
She's won the second frame, and he looks RATTLED.
I hope she goes on to batter him.
I stuck it on briefly and he flubbed the two shots I saw. 'Mon Evans.
She's started the next with six reds six blacks
Such theatre and she seems to have some vocal 'support' in there too.
He keeps tapping the table for quite routine safety shots. Safe to say that heads have very much gone here. Total demolition job by her.
Bit worried I jinxed her there.
Luckily Allen isn't able to make up for the misses.