Betway 2019 UK Championship

[neuronic]

Maguire using an ash cue, first time I've seen this, playiong bloody well with it though.

Yeah, that's interesting.... since when?

[JimMalone]

Maguire using an ash cue, first time I've seen this, playiong bloody well with it though.

Seriously...
He should have changed to it 10 years ago...

[JimMalone]

This is Maguires first final in a proper ranking event since the 2012 China Open.
Since then he won the 2013 Welsh Open and made the final fo the 2017 Riga Masters.

[neuronic]

Well... that was unexpected. Gotta be the best I've seen Stephen Maguire play since he won this back in the days. He just steamrolled Mark Allen there.

I was thinking Ding gotta be the favourite for tomorrow's final regardless who would come through tonights semi... but this is having me second thoughts now.

[Odrl]

Well... that was unexpected. Gotta be the best I've seen Stephen Maguire play since he won this back in the days. He just steamrolled Mark Allen there.

I was thinking Ding gotta be the favourite for tomorrow's final regardless who would come through tonights semi... but this is having me second thoughts now.

My thoughts exactly. I thought no one was really playing at Ding's level this week, but tonight was just different class from Maguire. Hopefully he can do the same tomorrow over two sessions. :smile:

[Neil Taperell]

Awesome performance . Should be a good final tomorrow.

[Cue crafty]

Seriously...
He should have changed to it 10 years ago...

I think chin whiskers catching were the reason he changed to maple, can't imagine any decent new or well maintained cue could cause that problem any more. Great performance hope he produces more of the same tomorrow.

[JimMalone]

Well... that was unexpected. Gotta be the best I've seen Stephen Maguire play since he won this back in the days. He just steamrolled Mark Allen there.

I was thinking Ding gotta be the favourite for tomorrow's final regardless who would come through tonights semi... but this is having me second thoughts now.

Indeed on both remarks.

But on the other hand you never knew what you'd get from Maguire over the last years.

[JimMalone]

Their H2H doesn't say too much. Maguire leads 5-4 in matches of at least Best-of-9.
Maguire won the first five, Ding the last four. So you could say, that Ding has the psychological advantage. But then those were all in the time span, where you'd make Ding the favourite in the match and one 5-1 in 2009 at the Grand Prix aside the matches were not one-sided.

[Odrl]

Their H2H doesn't say too much. Maguire leads 5-4 in matches of at least Best-of-9.
Maguire won the first five, Ding the last four. So you could say, that Ding has the psychological advantage. But then those were all in the time span, where you'd make Ding the favourite in the match and one 5-1 in 2009 at the Grand Prix aside the matches were not one-sided.

But one thing that is definitely in Ding's favour is his record in major finals. Maguire has won half of his two-session finals in the past, but his record against the very best players he's faced is not great. Ding, on the other hand, has won about two thirds of his big finals, and has a positive record even against the very best players. In fact, I believe he has won 7 of the 10 finals he's played against players ranked in the top4 in the world, and his victims include the likes of Hendry, O'Sullivan, Higgins, Selby, Robertson and Trump. Can't really argue with that, can you? :smile:

[narl]

Don't understand why when John decided on a new cue, that he didn't just get Raymo to make him one to spec. Do you know why he wanted to change?

It's mentioned on the exquisite cues facebook page He apparently thought he had modified his cue too much and wanted a fresh start, Raymond didn't have any shafts with the pattern he preferred so they got one from green baize, added cocobolo splices to the butt and that was that.

https://www.facebook.com/Exquisite-C...1568744324825/

[neuronic]

But on the other hand you never knew what you'd get from Maguire over the last years.

Yeah... that always struck me about Stephen. What he was playing tonight was the sort of stuff Ronnie O'Sullivan was raving about some 15 years ago (gosh, I'm gettin old), foretelling Stephen would dominate the snooker scene for years from there. Turned out he wasn't able (or willing) to develop a competitive sorta B-game... brilliant underperfomer he is.

[Cue crafty]

It's mentioned on the exquisite cues facebook page He apparently thought he had modified his cue too much and wanted a fresh start, Raymond didn't have any shafts with the pattern he preferred so they got one from green baize, added cocobolo splices to the butt and that was that.

https://www.facebook.com/Exquisite-C...1568744324825/

Thanks Narl. Fair play then, I hope the cue isn't the cause of lack of form, time will tell soon enough I guess.

[Odrl]

Really looking forward to the final today.

As I said before the quarter-finals, the last 18 really big titles in snooker were shared by a group of only six players and neither Ding nor Maguire are part of it, so today someone else will join the party. In fact, these two haven't even won a ranking event of any kind between them in over two years. They've probably been two of the most frustrating players to watch over the years... Stephen Maguire was part of that group of four really strong players that came onto the scene at around the same time, along with Selby, Robertson and Murphy, and for a while he was probably the best of them. But then he basically stopped winning titles for a decade while the other three each completed the so-called Triple Crown, and Selby and Robertson even added the International Championship and the China Open titles, which have, in my opinion, now joined the other three tournaments to form a sort of a big 5 in snooker. It's been sad to watch Maguire failing to fulfil his potential over the years. He seems to be unable to deal with any sort of setback that happens during a match, so he tends to get annoyed with himself and starts making mistake after mistake. It's like a snowball effect most of the time. But then again, he was able to use that anger to his favour against Stevens on Friday, playing really well in the last three frames after going 4-3 down. He then continued with more of the same against Allen, playing as close to perfect snooker as anyone is likely to play all season. If he could repeat that kind of performance today, it would take something out of this world for Ding to match him.

Ding Junhui's struggles over the years have been of a different kind. If Maguire is prone to angry outbursts during matches, Ding seems to play like he doesn't really care a lot of the time. If he retired today, he would still be considered to have had a decent career. He's won the Masters and multiple UK titles, as well as ten major ranking titles, and he's also been world number 1. The only thing missing really is the World title, otherwise you could easily put him on par with the likes of Robertson for instance. The thing is though, he's amassed those titles during a few really strong spells where he was absolutely world-class, but then he's also had entire seasons where he just showed up at events to lose in the early rounds and was relegated to fighting for a top16 place a result. I think that is actually a fair description of what this season was like for him before this tournament. It doesn't matter how good you are, you're probably not going to win anything if your heart is not really in it. That's why it's been such a pleasure watching him play this week. Right from the start of his match against O'Sullivan it was clear he was here to win, and he was way too strong to let either Liang or Yan get anywhere close to him with the kind of snooker they were playing. Before Maguire's heroics last night, I think Ding was clearly the best scorer of the week, finding a way to play some one-visit snooker at a time when most of the other top players were struggling, either due to table conditions or just a general lack of form. Ding's game doesn't really have a weakness when he plays like this, so Maguire has a tough job ahead of him.

I guess the head-to-head doesn't really matter here, because most of the matches were played at a very different period of these players' careers, and there has actually only been one match between them over the kind of distance they will be playing today. Like I said last night though, the record in major finals is definitely in Ding's favour. He's beaten just about everyone in the game, and I don't think he's actually lost one where he was the favourite in his entire career. Maguire, on the other hand, has lost more than he's won against players that would be considered in his class (or above). Ding to win 10-7. :smile:

[shmeeko69]

Awesome performance . Should be a good final tomorrow.

It was a clinical performance. Best I've seen Maguire playing in years.