2022 World Championship

[MrRottweiler]

Not a dig at Judd and I hope he claws it back tomorrow afternoon to make something of the final session but he might have angered the Snooker Gods with his seniors tweet. Felt for him tonight though as he looked like he was suffering in his chair and not the usual focussed Judd.

[trains]

O'Sullivan is pretty good, but snooker is still a fairly obscure sport that is only played in a couple of very specific regions. If the entire world played it, who knows what the standard would be like.

its possible you and a lot of people dont actually realise how true this is , even in the uk people dont realise how exclusive pro snooker is , the class of 92 , jimmy white's 5 straight crucible finals , even with the chinese resident in sheffield people dont look into the why's they just default to a convenient ' well kids prefer x boxes now ' , its probably because they themselves prefer x boxes !

[neuronic]

I missed Mark Williams in the the final today...

[Odrl]

I think Trump has a better chance of beating O'Sullivan from 12-5 down than Williams had from 0-0.

[Zelig]

This thread has become more entertaining than the final, please go on
(possibly over the whole summer, no matches for a while...).

[MrRottweiler]

its possible you and a lot of people dont actually realise how true this is , even in the uk people dont realise how exclusive pro snooker is , the class of 92 , jimmy white's 5 straight crucible finals , even with the chinese resident in sheffield people dont look into the why's they just default to a convenient ' well kids prefer x boxes now ' , its probably because they themselves prefer x boxes !

Not exclusive like Tennis and Golf where it costs a lot more to progress through the junior ranks but will always have the 'mis-spent youth' label attached to it from the 70s when pros had spent more time in smoke filled clubs than going to school to become good enough to turn professional and the 80s with Steve 'Interesting' Davis on Spitting Image making the game seem boring. That reputation has faded over the decades but it's still a game that requires a lot of solo practice and sacrifices. There's a lot more to do these days like the next gen consoles and social media to distract youngsters so it takes a certain kind of person willing to put in the devotion needed at a young age to become good enough to compete at the top level and experience of long, televised matches. The class of 92 are taking full advantage of this and probably thinking kerrching at the start of each tournament. Can't blame them.

[GeordieDS]

Damn, if I knew this thread was going to better than the final I would have bought some popcorn on the way back from the pub

[daffie]

I missed Mark Williams in the the final today...

Yes...and John.

[itsnoteasy]

I missed Mark Williams in the the final today...

You didn't miss him, he wasn't in it

[vmax]

Judd is having a small problem with his technique due to lack of confidence in his form, nothing more than that is going on in his head. When he breaks off you can see his natural movement to the right as he is quite relaxed with the break off shot, same with his shots to nothing where he's sure he won't leave anything, but his long shots to get in have become a problem as he tightens up and doesn't move as much as usual which is fatal for him as he then strikes somewhere closer to where he addresses the cue ball than where his usual movement takes him and this is why he's sometimes missing by very wide margins.
He's always had a slight problem with slow shots because he moves more with power shots than with slow shots and this very small adjustment for slow shots seems to be harder for him to manage which is probably why he prefers the power game, he can't play like Williams, but now this has manifested itself with almost every shot he plays and he seems quite lost at times.
He'll get it back when he realxes and accepted he's lost this final so the final scoreline will be closer than some are predicting and he'll be fine in the future.

As for snooker being exclusive, wrong word, there are very few people who have the ability to play this game at the very highest level. No matter what percentage of the population have a go at it only a few can be this good and for three to come along at once in 1992 was a one off. If only Ronnie played snooker and Higgins and Williams simply got a job when they left school and played golf at the weekends then Ronnie would have as many world titles as Joe Davis by now, same goes for Williams and Higgins.

[Zelig]

Besides all the problems his opponents had, it seems to me that ROS this year has a different motivation with respect to some other years at the Crucible. I keep on thinking that the documentary about him being shot behind behind the scenes is playing a role, as if he wants to demonstrate that he can be the world champion any year if he decides so - and leave the material proof of this on Netflix, which would be the cherry on the cake for his career and ego. What do you think?

[Odrl]

I don't know about that... O'Sullivan has barely ever been knocked out of the World Championship by Higgins or Williams. Even as a group of three, they lost the World titles in 2005 and 2006 to Murphy and Dott, way before anyone would have considered them "old". And 2002 as well. O'Sullivan has never really had a prolonged period of domination, lasting more than a season and a half for instance. If he wins today, it will have taken him 21 years to win 7 World titles, which is completely opposite to Hendry who did it in nine years. It's impressive longevity, especially when you consider that his first UK title goes back a further eight years, but I'm not sure he ever had the drive to completely dominate over a prolonged periods of time, regardless of the competition.

[balkend]

Then you will never learn stamina, determination , guts and heart, they come from losses and teach you lessons about yourself and how you can improve and become better. Quitting is for quitters...

The wonderful MJW came back strongly against Trump and was unlucky in some respects to lose the semi final against Trump. He called a foul against himself that nobody saw and lost the frame over it. He never whines or gets into conflict with anybody . The day he retires will be a sad day for snooker

[fkhan]

Haha. Ronnie vs the ref, Marteel has re-started.

[strobbekoen]

i wish ronnie could stay focused as well as being gracious towards the referee.
they are not mutually exclusive but well
marteel put the ball back on sight pretty much spot on, and ronnie gives him the unhappy look.