Archive for December, 2009

Hong Kong Fuey a world champ in 2010?

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769 days
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About five years ago, Swedish Eurosport snooker commentator Kim Hartman predicted Marco Fu from Hong Kong would be a world champion within the next years. The prediction has yet to come true.

The first jaw-dropping event involving Fu happened in 1998 when he, as a 20-year-old, beat Ronnie O’Sullivan and Peter Ebdon in Grand Prix and reached the final. He also qualified for the World Championship that year. In 1999 he became WSA Young Player of the Year and WPBSA Newcomer of the Year.

He appeared in the top 16 for the 2000/01 season but dropped out just as quickly. The prediction about him becoming a world champion one day didn’t seem as convincing anymore.

Hope was born anew when he reached the quarter final of the 2003 World Championship and then three years later the semi-final. Fu seems to have an affinity for the Crucible. Every now and then he appears in the World Championship and does extremely well. In recent years he has also won the Grand Prix (in 2007) and was the runner-up in the 2008 UK Championship. He’s now back in the top 16.

Fu definitely has the potential of becoming a world champion but something seems to be missing. Ability to control his nerves perhaps? Who knows, if he can become a complete player and use his talent to the max, he might be lifting that trophy sooner than we think.

Davis v Taylor still the mother of all finals

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770 days
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Ask people about the most memorable moment in snooker history and it’s pretty safe to say that you will get ”the 1985 World Championship final” from the majority of them.

Yes, even from those who were too young to watch it. The historic moment of the last black ball waiting to be potted by either Steve Davis or Dennis Taylor proved just how exciting the sport can be. It opened up the eyes of a lot of people who weren’t previously interested in snooker but who immediately became fans.

Modern technology has enabled parts of this classic final to be put up on Youtube. Watching it you can’t help smiling. Both players fought so incredibly hard and were so focused. Davis’s nervousness was more noticeable than Taylor’s who could hide his feelings behind huge spectacles. He was probably just as agitated, however.

Was this snooker’s peak? Will there never be a bigger moment? Maybe all sports have these peaks, events that can never ever be topped? Even if you weren’t there watching in real time, the stories are passed on by one generation to the next.

The excitement of the 18.5million people who saw the match is not hard to imagine. So, what do we need to get really excited about snooker today?

More ranking tournaments, players like the old Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry, more World Championship finals ending on the last black ball? Or isn’t there anything that can make us thrilled anymore?

Maybe people just need to attend more live matches. Let’s hope that the WPBSA and new chairman Barry Hearn can revive the old snooker spirit next year and provide us with more tournaments and more quality moments.

New memories need to be created.

Potted biography makes for interesting read

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771 days
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Professional snooker player Stuart Pettman, ranked 37th in the world, is in the process of writing a book about his current career. The book is called Life as a Pro and can be read for free over at the Prosnookerblog. It’s a quite interesting read for those who are into snooker and have ever wondered what the life as a top player could be like.  

In the October chapter Pettman writes:

“The TV cameras can have a slightly less positive effect though because you can’t help but think about the thousands of people who might be watching and talking about whether or not you’re any good. If I miss a black off the spot on TV, I know there’ll be people saying ‘That Pettman’ll never get anywhere,’  […] But sometimes comments do get back to me and it’s disappointing that people can make such hasty judgments based on a couple of shots they’ve seen on TV. “

It’s sad to hear that people think this way and make these kinds of comments. Surely, deep down they know how hard all the snooker players on the pro tour work and that they’re extremely talented. Given today’s competition, they wouldn’t otherwise be professionals. Then again, talent is always relative; usually it’s not very hard to tell who’s the better of a top-16 player and someone in spots 40-70.

Making a living from any sport is something that most people see as close to impossible and very impressive. In the case of Stuart Pettman his total career earnings, according to Wikipedia, amount to £246,245. Spread out over 10 years that makes a pretty average salary. Then add the fact that these guys do what they love the most and get paid for it. Isn’t that what most people only dream about?

Even though we don’t see the players below top 32 very frequently on TV we still have to keep in mind that what they do is still very unusual and that their profession is a rare privilege granted to very few people.

Snooker looks to Hearns to provide big break

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777 days
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The year began, as always, with the prestigious Masters tournament at the Wembley Arena in London. Defending champion was Mark Selby who went all the way to the final only to be defeated by Ronnie O’Sullivan, thereby taking his fourth Masters title.

O’Sullivan did have a great tournament, making eight century breaks despite having smashed his cue a few days before the tournament began.

The next tournament was the Welsh Open where, again, the defending champion was Selby. The tournament was however won by Ali Carter who took his first ranking title, and then the players travelled to Beijing for the China Open brought a final between John Higgins and Peter Ebdon that ended 10-8 in favour of Ebdon.

The World Championship was a dramatic one even before the main event got underway. First of all Ken Doherty and Matthew Stevens failed to qualify for the tournament for the first time in 16 and 11 years, respectively. Doherty was so disappointed he actually considered retirement. Instead we saw four debutants at the Crucible Theatre – Rory McLeod, Andrew Higginson, Ricky Walden and Martin Gould. Young Mark Allen stunned the snooker world when he beat O’Sullivan in the second round and went all the way to the semi-finals.

 Stephen Hendry made the ninth maximum break of his career in his quarter-final against Shaun Murphy, but lost the match. The final was then played between Murphy and John Higgins, both former world champions. Something remarkable about the final was the fact that it was refereed by a woman, Michaela Tabb, for the first time in the history of the tournament. Higgins became world champion for the second time and on top of everything celebrated his 1000th frame at the Crucible.  

When the next season started in September, the time had come for the players to go to China yet again to play in the Shanghai Masters. Local player Liang Wenbo surprised everyone when he reached the final, beating Ebdon, Carter, Ricky Walden and Murphy on the way. But the local hero found O’Sullivan too much to handle in the final.

There was a lot of talk about Chinese players yet again in the next tournament, the Grand Prix. For the first time in the history of the tournament the final was played between two non-British players, Chinese Ding Junhui and Australian Neil Robertson. This was also the second final in a ranking tournament between two players outside of the UK, which Robertson won 9-4 .

In the Premier League, Murphy put an end to O’Sullivan’s five-year winning streak, defeating him 7-3 in the final.

Away from the table 2009 was also the year when WPBSA chairman Sir Rodney Walker was forced to resign in favour of Barry Hearn, who showed interest in the position right before the AGM was held. This was most likely the reason why Walker wasn’t re-elected. The snooker world is quite anxious to see what Hearn can do for the sport next year.

In December the second biggest tournament, the UK Championship was held as usual, this year in Telford. British pie brand Pukka Pies sponsored the event for the first time. Veteran Jimmy  White gave up his spot to participate in the television reality show, I’m a Celebrity… Get me out of here! and had to relocate to the jungle for a couple of weeks. The final was played between Higgins and Ding and was quite a tough one. Ding eventually took his second UK title and besides the £100,000 in prize money he received his weight in pies.

The snooker year of 2009 was a quite eventful one and we are of course already looking forward to next year, starting off with the Masters tournament.

New format comes up short

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778 days
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Inspired by Twenty20 Cricket, Global-Snooker.com recently introduced a new form of snooker. The rules are simple. Players play against each other and try to score as many points as possible in 147 minutes. The name of the game? Oneforseven.

Snooker is facing a lot of popularity problems at the moment. TV channels are complaining that they never know when a match will finish. The same problem affects newspapers that have deadlines to stick to. It has also been hard to encourage younger people to watch a game that often takes many hours to finish. Could it be that snooker is too slow a sport for the MTV generation?

Some old fans, however, think the Oneforseven format takes away the core of the game we know as snooker. It’s no longer even about winning frames, you have to score as many points as possible to win the match.

The players will have no control of a big part of the match as points are being scored even in frames they don’t participate in and every point counts towards the total. To some people this seems like an attempt to attract new fans to a whole new sport, rather than making the game more entertaining to present-day snooker fans.

Instead the die-hard fans have argued that the best-of-nine matches format is too short and that it is these shorter matches that are the equivalent of Twenty20 Cricket, not Oneforseven. People have suggested that regular snooker should instead be better promoted and organised.

Nevertheless, it’s another tournament, and more tournaments are something that is needed right now to keep the sport alive. Oneforseven Wales will be launched today in Cardiff.

Winning’s no Burden for Alfie

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781 days
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Alfie Burden, a 33-year-old from Hatfield, has won the International Billiards and Snooker Federation World Championship.

The event, also known as the World Amateur Snooker Championship was held in Hyderabad, India and the other finalist was Brazilian Igor Figueiredo. It’s regarded as the most important non-professional snooker tournament in the world. 96 players from 43 countries participated in this competition.

The victory also means Burden will be returning to the pro tour next year.

He dropped off the circuit last year and has been eager to return ever since. Burden is quite happy about this and says it was his goal all along.

Jimmy White, who won the IBSF World Championship in 1980, is the mentor of Burden and was of course thrilled to hear that he’d won. He found out just after he returned from the jungle where he’d been living during the television show I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!

Burden’s next tournament will be the Oneforseven in Cardiff next week.

The Whirlwind bags a wild card

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782 days
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A few weeks ago Rory McLeod, who reached the last 32 in this year’s UK Championship, won the whole Masters Qualifying Event and received a wild card to the Masters tournament at Wembley next year.

The second wild card was announced today. Jimmy White, who won both the World Series of Snooker in Prague and the Sangsom 6-Red Grand Prix earlier this year, has been chosen by World Snooker. White gave up his place in the UK Championship qualifiers to join the reality tv show, I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here, where he finished third.

The Masters is an invitational tournament where the world’s 14 best players are automatically qualified for the last 16 stage while those in spots 15 and 16 will have to go through a round against the wild cards. McLeod will play against Mark Williams and White will take on Mark King on Sunday 10th January 2010.

One of the favourites to get the Masters wild card this year before White was announced was this year’s Shanghai Master’s finalist, Liang Wenbo. However, World Snooker picked White because of his immense popularity among snooker fans, especially in London where the tournament is going to be held.

Jimmy White won the Masters in 1984 9-5 against Terry Griffiths.

Hendry white hot at 6 Red World Championship

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782 days
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The 6 Red World Championship continues as we’re approaching the final on Friday. One of the more successful players has to be Stephen Hendry who so far has beaten Itaro Santos, Shea Brereton and Lucky Vatnani. He also beat Irishman Patrick Lally 4-0 and made it to the next round.

Just as John Higgins was beginning to get over the fact that he was beaten by the women’s world champion Reanne Evans, he lost to young upcoming star Adiyta Mehta from India. Higgins has, however, advanced to the next round.

John’s namesake, Alex Higgins, quickly recovered from the loss against Alex O’Donoghue and beat Jim Stewart 4-0.

All the 25 professional players participating in 6 Red have now qualified for the knockout phase. Most of them seem to appreciate the different format of 6-red snooker. The reason why some of the pros seem to have a hard time winning matches is that there is hardly any room for mistakes. One miss is very likely to cost you the frame. That way it seems more random but it’s also faster and more intense, which organisers hope will attract new fans.

Sixes and Evans

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783 days
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This Sunday, Ding Junhui beat reigning world champion John Higgins in the UK Championship final and the snooker world was slightly shocked.

Last night, Higgins faced defeat once again, this time to a less obvious player. Reanne Evans, one of the world’s finest female snooker players came out victorious in this year’s battle of the sexes, or shall we say sixes, against Higgins in the 6 Red World Championship.

Evans, who has a daughter from a previous relationship with world top 16 player Mark Allen, has been dominating the women’s snooker scene for a while. She won the match against Higgins 4-3 with a 51 break, which is quite high considering the format. Before beating Higgins, Evans defeated Aaron Doran 4-1 and will most likely move on to the second round. Fans of women’s snooker are excited over these results and believe that she might even have a chance on the pro tour.

The 6 Red World Championship is being played between the 15th and 18th of December in Killarney. The event is sponsored by 888sport.com and 130 players from all over the world will be participating.

In 6-red snooker, also known as Super 6s, only six red balls are used. Aside from that, the rules are the same as in regular snooker. The format was invented to speed up the game and make each frame shorter with the intention of increasing the popularity of the sport.

One of the organisers of the tournament is Irish snooker star and former world champion, Ken Doherty. He started off yesterday by beating John McBride 4-1. Another legend who’s participating in the championship is the notorious but still very respected Alex “Hurricane” Higgins, who won the World Championship in 1972 and 1982. His didn’t get quite as good a start as Doherty as he lost his opening match 4-0 to Alex O’Donoghue.

The 6 Red World Championship will be decided on Friday and €10,000 in prize money awaits the winner.

Ding had his eyes on the pies

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784 days
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This year’s UK Championship in Telford was sponsored by Pukka-Pies, a family company based in Leicestershire that manufactures pies, sausage rolls and puff pastry.

During the tournament it was announced that the winner of the championship was to receive his body weight in Pukka Pies. Apparently UK champion Ding Junhui’s weight was equivalent to 276 pies. Had the other finalist, John Higgins won, there would have been quite a few more pies, 320 to be exact.

Before the weigh-in that preceded the last couple of matches, Ding made sure he wore a few extra layers of clothes to increase the number of pies in the event of him winning the championship. He also wanted to put a few snooker balls in his pockets but wasn’t allowed to do so.

Christmas is a time of giving and conveniently enough, the holidays are just around the corner so Ding has decided to donate the pies to a group called Homeless and Rootless at Christmas.

They’re based in Sheffield, where Ding lives during the snooker season, and are the only help organization for homeless people open during the holidays.

There probably can’t be a worse time to be homeless and hungry than during this period of the year so Ding’s pies will come quite in handy. The marketing controller of Pukka-Pies’ was very happy to hear Ding is planning on giving the pies to charity.

Santa Claus does exist and his name is Ding Junhui.

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