2022 World Championship

[Neil Taperell]

Looks like a Patek Philippe Aquanaut

Yep ......absolute fortune of a watch . Worth far more than he paid for it I’m sure . Prices have gone through the roof lately .

[trains]

great try from ant mcgill but he lost at least two frames in the match he shouldnt have especially the opening frame yesterday and overhit a safety in the last frame the 24th that prompted trump's 55.

[Neil Taperell]

Incredible game of snooker , pleased Jack one .

Still far too many loose shots though in his game . Which he can hopefully iron out .

[fkhan]

Well done Jack.

[Rane]

I don't think it's hunger, the class of 92 are very special players.

Absolutely. But it must be harder to find the motivation after 30 years around. They have been there and done that already and basicly has no more to prove. Obviously Ronnie would like to win that 7. th title, but it doesn´t really change a lot. Hendry was the most dominant player ever, but Ronnie is the best no mattter if he gets number 7 or not.

[trains]

Absolutely. But it must be harder to find the motivation after 30 years around. They have been there and done that already and basicly has no more to prove. Obviously Ronnie would like to win that 7. th title, but it doesn´t really change a lot. Hendry was the most dominant player ever, but Ronnie is the best no mattter if he gets number 7 or not.

the class of 92 are no more special than the aligning of the planets that allowed them to jump on board the tour in the early 90's when it opened up , just like it did for o brien , mcmanus , ebdon , king , there's thousands of young lads over the last 30 years that would have loved to have been pro snooker players but its doubly difficult playing on difficult exclusive tables and then being matched up against above players with much more experience , it isn't complicated or incredible at all.

[fkhan]

Absolutely. But it must be harder to find the motivation after 30 years around. They have been there and done that already and basicly has no more to prove. Obviously Ronnie would like to win that 7. th title, but it doesn´t really change a lot. Hendry was the most dominant player ever, but Ronnie is the best no mattter if he gets number 7 or not.

For me Ronnie was the goat even with 5 world's. But that debate will never die till he gets his seventh.

[trains]

Incredible game of snooker , pleased Jack one .

Still far too many loose shots though in his game . Which he can hopefully iron out .

i thought the trump vs mcgill match was a better standard but i didnt watch the first session of lisowski vs robertson.

[PatBlock]

Quicker and much more positive, that's the Robertson I like to see.

Yep, but then he switched into dither and mince mode at the most crucial point in the match, no one to blame but himself. I was impressed with how much heart Jack showed, nice to see him really fight for a match. He needs to work on his safety game though, big time.

Anyone know the stats for televised max makers then going on to win their match? It seemed inevitable to me he'd loose after it.
It was a nice max though.

-

[balkend]

So delighted Jack won , my second favourite player after Un Nooh , thought he was a goner but he showed determination and confidence and belief that were not exhibited before> He says he is totally drained> It would be superb if he gathered himself and beat Higgins also. Here's hoping. He surprised himself tonight. Maybe he can surprise us all over the next few days.

[balkend]

ps this is turning out to be a bloody good championship. McGill deserves to land a big title , great man for the long haul, hope his time will come

[mikee]

I don’t think Higgins is nailed on to beat Lisowski ,Higgins looks ropy and is there for the taking ,he’s had a fairly easy run this championship so far .Could be a great close match .

[Odrl]

In the first World Championship I watched from start to finish, in 2004, I remember how Steve Davis stood out as a veteran and everyone wanted to see him to do well. Kind of like, "let's see if this old-timer can still play a bit"... 18 years later, with have three players in the quarter-finals who are as old as Davis was back then, and then another couple of players who are over 40. Five in total! That's really something that would have been unthinkable back when I first started watching snooker a little more seriously. There is even a chance that all four semi-finalists this year will be over 45. Not just a chance, it's a very realistic possibility. Is that a good thing? Who knows.

Quick prediction:

Yan Bingtao vs Mark Williams: This seems to be the biggest mismatch in terms of breakbuilding form. Williams was ridiculous for most of his match against Page, with big breaks flying in in virtually every frame. Yan, on the other hand, only made four breaks over 50 in the entire match against Selby, and still somehow won even though Selby made 11 himself. It just shows how comfortable Yan has become in grinding out results in fragmented frames. If anyone is going to win this tournament with Selby-like snooker, it seems like it will be Yan. Williams is not exactly the model of patience on a snooker table these days, going for basically anything that's potable and forcing the issue more often than not, so I somehow can't see him getting involved in any 85-minute frames. Can he blow Yan away the way he did Page? Well, Yan did lose the German Masters final 9-0, so it can definitely happen when he comes across an inspired opponent. I think it will be closer though, like some of their previous matches. Williams to win 13-10.

Stuart Bingham vs Judd Trump: Ah yes, a repeat of their SF from 2015, one of the great semi-finals at the Crucible in recent history. Trump was the favourite in that one and lost it. He would have been an even bigger favourite if they had met in 2020 or 2021, but this time not so much. He is definitely not playing the kind of snooker that won him the World title in 2019. But then again, he didn't play that great in the first two rounds that year either. If he can raise his game a little bit with every round, maybe things could happen for him. I liked what I saw from Bingham when he pulled away from Wilson on two occasions, so I would favour him based on that performance alone. However, tomorrow is another day. Trump to win 13-11.

Jack Lisowski vs John Higgins: Good win for Lisowski tonight, as this was exactly the kind of match he would have lost in the past. When he went behind, I thought he would fall apart and Robertson would win even with a mediocre performance, but Lisowski stayed in the match this time. The last time he played Higgins in a best-of-25, he lost 13-1 and looked like he would be whitewashed at some point, so hopefully things go a little better this time. As for Higgins, I thought his tournament would probably end in the QF against Robertson, but now that obstacle has been removed... That puts the pressure on Higgins to come through, but I think he is up to it. I read his statement after his win against Saengkham, saying he was playing better than ever... Having seen him play for a couple of decades now, I have to laugh at that. He is playing alright, but he too will need to raise his game to become champion here. But it might still be enough to beat Lisowski, though not as comfortably as he did last time. Higgins to win 13-9.

Stephen Maguire vs Ronnie O'Sullivan: First meeting over three sessions for these two. They've played each other at the Crucible several times before, but somehow it always seems to be in the 1st round. Well, I was impressed with the way O'Sullivan overcame Gilbert. Absolutely no panic after going 3-0 down, and won it quite easily in the end. He may not be in the kind of devastating form we've seen from him in the past where it's just break after break, but he is still extremely difficult to beat when he plays properly. And that's exactly the thing, he seems determined to get a result here, even if it means fighting it out for every frame. With Maguire, the potential is always there for him to play brilliantly and win any match, but the reality is that it doesn't happen all that often, especially not against O'Sullivan. I didn't see anything from him against Murphy that would make me think he can win this one, but the signs were a bit better against Zhao. Still, O'Sullivan to win 13-7.

Should be a good round whatever happens. I'm hoping for a few close ones.

[Billy]

Looks like a Patek Philippe Aquanaut

Thank you, CC.

And Jack won by all accounts. I can’t believe that, after Robbo’s max I wasn’t expecting Jack to win another frame so gave up any hope and went to bed!

[mikee]

[QUOTE=Neil Taperell;n1021402]

Yep ......absolute fortune of a watch . Worth far more than he paid for it I