Liang has deffo fucked it.
That's what happens when I play. Yellow blocking the black all frame. 40 each in penalty points.
Out of interest, do you guys ever make your mates ever take more than one attempt at a snooker? We generally give each other 4 or 5 attempts just to see if we can do it, but only take one foul.
Also, the rules say that you can't lay a snooker when you have a free ball - however, what if you snooker them by accident whilst taking a free ball shot? Free ball to the opposition?
Free ball to them yeah, even if it's an accident.
I never make them put the ball back.
Virgo furious with the ref
Trump looks a little like Lallana.
I enjoyed the commentators having an aneurysm over the pink placement. Trump was brilliant today, but I'm not a massive fan.
There is no way that Mark Williams isn't going to take his own life within the next 3 years.
Apparently 'break building' is one of Marco Fu's strong suits.
Which player currently in the Top 32 doesn't have break building as one of their strong suits?
'Under strengths, you've just put 'snooker'.'
I think the point is that he's particularly good when he's 'in amongst the balls' compared to other players, and relative to the rest of his game (he hasn't got much cue power for example). They have that 'PROFESSIONAL VIEW' thing, where they get other players to give insights into the strengths of a player. For Marco Fu, Judd Trump said something like 'his technique isn't the best'. Bit harsh, mate.
Personally I quite like having anomalies like Fu who just caresses stuff in. The modern style of smashing in long range pots and fucking off slow safety play was a lot more exciting in the context of more meticulous, slow players back in the day and with tighter pockets and slower cushions. Guess it is comparable to how it is a lot less fun seeing cricketers heave stuff over cow corner for 6 in the context of 20/20 cricket with shorter boundaries and massive bats.
Ronnie's basically got a bye to the semi's now.
How on earth can you go into the Crucible, manage to ignore all the pre-match reminders, and still not put your phone on silent. You are either stupid or ignorant, or likely both.
Trump appears to be playing like an absolute twat against Ding. Does he ever practice using the rest?
Never heard of this Kylo Ren guy who's giving fatman Allen a bit of a fisting on the other table.
Is Trump still wearing shoes that look like they used to be one of Hammers' sextoys? He deserves to lose just for that.
The BBC have just run a feature on Rob the PA guy - and pretty much every player to a man said it that the nicknames were a load of shit and would just prefer the names. They then had Rob in for interview and he recalled bantz between him and the player.
Alan Angles McManus.
Rob Walker? He come across as someone who would be face crushingly annoying after about 5 minutes.
Rob always impresses me in managing to sound just as enthusiastic and find just as shit an intro for the likes of Barry Hawkins as he does for blink and you'll miss him Ronnie the rocket O'Sullivan.
Nobody comes up with cool nicknames like 'the Rocket' in sport anymore. It's all just puns on their name or nationality.
It's a skill in that context but imagine if he was that into pencil sharpeners or curtain hooks. Also, I seem to remember only the best (or interestingly ethnic) players used to get a moniker, there's no way Alain Robidoux or Dave Harold would have gotten one.
You are obviously forgetting about the quite excellent Ray Hudson..
"Here is the Dark Prince....."
I don't know an excellent Ray Hudson, only the shrieking tosser one.
Judd Trump, a player who invites a cool nickname if ever one did, is called 'The Ace in the Pack'. Sounds like a shit airport thriller.
The pockets genuinely appear to be like buckets at this year's event.
Hawkins was 2 up with 3 to play at 12-10 but Ronnie has just pulled it back, nervously to 12-12. Hawkins will be unfortunate not to go through here.
Decider was one of those frames where it's so safety oriented that most of the reds end up by the top cushion. Hawkins got in for a 40 odd break but then it broke down, but the table was in a mess. Ronnie managed to move things around into a frame winning chance and then binned the white into the corner pocket to hand Hawkins the match. He was seething in his chair.
Wide open now. Anyone bar Higgins please.
The fucking state of that top half of the draw. Ding plus three people who were at their peak the best part of 20 years ago.
The bottom half meanwhile is just a complete shitfest. Fu's year.
He's running riot over THE HAWK at the moment.
How old is Marco Fu? It feels like he's been around forever and still looks about 15.
Meanwhile Bazza just holed a red off the break (you wot?) and then missed the easiest positional shot in snooker history, which probably explains the stomping.
Fu is 38. Older than Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard, Manny Pacquiao, and Bubba Watson.
The state of this frame. Marco's caught Hawkitis by the looks of it.
Was just about to say Fu was in danger of wandering into shitthebedville, but then the hawk went and missed a regulation red . . .
Oh no, there we are. Straight blue of it's spot missed. He's a resident.
Alan McManus.
On the plus side, this Hawkins/Fu match is a cracker.
What was the Hawk doing going 7-1 down to Fu in the first place?
Mentally knackered from the win over Ronnie I'd suggest.
He's playing liquid snooker now, given the situation. Even if all the long ones are going in like it's a pool table.
He was properly good against Ronnie as well.
So,
McManus vs. Ding Junhui
Fu vs. Selby
A Ding/Fu final would be great, the alternative, not so much.
Selby will probably crush all-comers, sadly.
That clearance from Fu was something else given the circumstances. The one at 9-10 was just as good as well, and probably more important.
What the fuck is McManus doing in the semis? I've not seen any of his games but assume he's the same old grinding fuck that he has been since the mid 1990s.
He is. He's also somehow more miserable than he was back then too, even when he's winning.
The amount of old gits doing well over the last couple of years just points to the newer players not being able to go from a best of 7/11 in most tournaments to a best of 19/25 etc, as they barely get any experience of the latter or longer format matches at all.
It must be pretty strange for people tuning into snooker for the first time. My missus just asked me "why are there wearing suits?". It's a good question... blokes essentially wearing dinner suits playing 'sport'.
Selby to win this 17-8, as much as I'd like Fu to.
McManus really shouldn't take on so many doubles.
Meffing that last frame up has probably cost him any chance tomorrow.
I'd quite like Ding to win it from here really. Sometimes the big prize comes when you least expect it.
That's fortune cookie material right there.
I quite like McManus, he's my type of boring git, but I can't see him beating Mao ZeDing from here. A Fu/Ding final would be pretty great, bring back James Wattana and make it a triple threat.