2022 World Championship

[Cue crafty]

Can't believe how slow this table is, like wading in glue. Players bashing the white like a baseball!! All credit though, still making shots, but these boys grew up on club tables.

[Odrl]

Four gifts already. If O'Sullivan loses the session, I think he should bang his head against the wall. Can't make him play any worse really.

[MrRottweiler]

I know Ronnie and John are friends but I've always thought banging the butt of the cue on the floor and punching the rail out of frustration is disrespectful to the opponent.

[Neil Taperell]

It must be the atmosphere in there....how many times have they asked for the balls to be cleaned ....it must be damp .
Chalk is sticking to the balls .

Ronnie has had to Club a good few balls to generate any pace in the cue ball

[Odrl]

Okay, 4-4. Hopefully better things to come tomorrow, in both matches.

[Cue crafty]

Okay, 4-4. Hopefully better things to come tomorrow, in both matches.

I don't know what you are watching, but as a snooker player, I've just watched outstanding snooker.

[mikee]

Can't believe how slow this table is, like wading in glue. Players bashing the white like a baseball!! All credit though, still making shots, but these boys grew up on club tables.

quality control of Strachen cloths has been ropy recently ,still should be well playable ,which it is .Good to test the players a bit with different conditions .different tables and cloths should used more often ,although conditions should be kept the same throughout each event.

[Odrl]

I don't know what you are watching, but as a snooker player, I've just watched outstanding snooker.

No you didn't. Higgins missed virtually anything that was remotely difficult and still got out of it at 4-4, which just shows that O'Sullivan wasn't much better (although he did make two classy breaks towards the end). Nowhere near the standard you would expect in a WC semi-final.

[Cue crafty]

quality control of Strachen cloths has been ropy recently ,still should be well playable ,which it is .Good to test the players a bit with different conditions .different tables and cloths should used more often ,although conditions should be kept the same throughout each event.

Yes, I love it. Separates the great from the average who only practice on perfect...

[Cyril]

Funny how Ronnie goes and sits in his chair every time he asks Marcel to give the white a rub-a-dub-dub.

[fkhan]

Are WSS allowed to change the cloth and check the table level etc for tomorrow if both the players insist?

[Mark187187]

Are WSS allowed to change the cloth and check the table level etc for tomorrow if both the players insist?

I'd imagine they keep tweaking levels as the table settles, not sure about the cloth though, hopefully it plays better tomorrow now that it's been played on for the day.

[PatBlock]

JH looks drained to me, I'd be surprised if Ronnie doesn't take a substantial lead tomorrow.

-

[GeordieDS]

Stopped watching at 3-0 Higgins as Ronnie was terrible, shocked its 4-4 but from what I've seen today it's Trumps for the taking

[cueman]

I have to say O'Sullivan and his behaviour last night was terrible. I know he is desperate to equal the record, but his disrespect towards the game and his opponent should be called out.

Shaun Murphy on commentary alluded to it, saying that Ronnie, for all the talk of him saying snooker is just a hobby and it's a holiday, if so why bang your cue extremely hard on floor over a little positional error. Then in a later frame he banged his fist in table when a split didn't work out.

He knows what he's doing, he's trying to create a tension and bully Higgins and let him know this is his world champs this year and not to stand in his way of that.
A stronger ref would've warned other players and I do think a new code of conduct needs to be considered, as I find this ultra aggression he is exhibiting more often to be unacceptable sportsmanship.

Finally, I also think there needs to be more done on crowd behaviour. There have been multiple incidents of people in this championship where fans are moving around in their seats when in line of players shot. There was one incident last night when Higgins was on shot and he missed a ball and he clearly went over to the person and gave him a ticking off.

It wouldn't surprise me if this is a result of live in play betting, if people have money riding on the outcome of a single frame and they can influence the outcome by putting off a player, we could end up with a major conflict of interest in why some spectators are there. World snooker need to look into this increasingly worrying trend that I believe has been overlooked.