2023 & 2024 Northern Ireland Open

[PatBlock]

What's going on with the Petrov v Xing match? They played 1 frame, went off, and we've been staring at an empty table for the last 15 mins.

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Fire alarm went off.

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[itsnoteasy]

Great win for Moody, deserved it.

[Hal]

So, O'Donell just lost his match, whilst averaging over 44 seconds per shot, unless something went wrong with the scoreboard. I doubt it, as he almost always is above 35 seconds in other matches. There needs to be done something about this, it must be killing his opponents, facing this style of play. I understand, snooker is ultra hard sport, but still, this is terrible for everyone involved, and it might even lead to some fans to watch/stop attending, if he ever gets more successful.

[cueman]

If that's true about MOD then surely his opponent should have had a word in the refs ear to ask him why he's allowing him to take so long on shots! There is a rule that referees can use their discretion to warn a player if they feel a player is taking too long, whether deliberate or otherwise.

I know people will be happy to see tactical games and safety exchanges but anyone averaging over 30 sec on a regular basis is doing so to frustrate their opponent and gain an advantage through such tactics.

[Cue crafty]

Matt Selt Melt down in action, 5, 4 , 3 , 2 , 1 ...... Boom 💥

[WilliamKent]

unless something went wrong with the scoreboard.

We noticed and suspected that there may be score issues. In Robertson's recent match he averaged 44 secs and his opponent was 6 secs. Robertson is usually within the 20s and the other guy, well 6 second average has got to be in error.

[theplough]

I have to say the standard of refereeing is absolutely shocking so far. I'm watching Williams vs Williams and this pair of referees, a new portuguese ref and the marker who I think is german, and neither have a clue about ball positioning after a foul and a miss. Basic cueball position and they faffed around for 3 mins trying to get the cueball back into a not difficult position. Anyone who refs matches for their own league can do a better job than half these foreign refs who simply don't have any knowledge of the game. Its like they've been hired firstly on the cheap, and secondly, to try and appeal in some way to make the sport more global. Apart from Jan Verhaas, I've never seen another ref from overseas exhibit the same level of knowledge and experience of British based refs.

Not to mention this little beauty in the previous round, probably the one of the worst refereeing mistakes I've seen.

https://x.com/Livesnooker/status/171...878510456?s=20


My question is, why are their more foreign refs than British on tour?

That`s appalling, what was the foul called for? What was going on?

[itsnoteasy]

That`s appalling, what was the foul called for? What was going on?

It wasn't a foul, he potted the pink, as the ref went round to pick the pink out he got distracted by someone's flash in the crowd, spoke to them, because he was distracted he picked the white up, realising it wasn't the pink, he then got the pink out, respotted it and replaced the white.
Just a bit of a brain fart.

[theplough]

It wasn't a foul, he potted the pink, as the ref went round to pick the pink out he got distracted by someone's flash in the crowd, spoke to them, because he was distracted he picked the white up, realising it wasn't the pink, he then got the pink out, respotted it and replaced the white.
Just a bit of a brain fart.

Thanks for that, very strange. These scoreboards going down regularly really spoil watching it

[WilliamKent]

My question is, why are their more foreign refs than British on tour?

Probably to give them international experience and training for world championships.

Anyone know how little they get paid?

[cueman]

That`s appalling, what was the foul called for? What was going on?

Mark Williams was attempting a slight swerve to catch the right hand side of the pack, the white was in baulk and there was just enough room between the yellow and blue for him to swerve and catch the pack. He actually told the ref what he was aiming for and to let him see the position of the cueball in relation to the line he was taking.

Williams missed the pack and a miss was called and Robbie Williams asked for it to be put back. The ref using the methods they seem to be taught was positiong the cueball simply based on the side cushion, he didn't take into account the line Williams was attempting and he kept on putting the cueball in a position where the yellow ball clearly now prevented Williams playing the shot. Williams explained it but it's like he didn't understand and used the flawed method of using the cushions to judge where it should have been.

He then asked the marker, using the video, and neither of them knew what they were doing. The marker seemed to think the ghost white, which was the original position was where the cueball was on the table, and was giving instruction to move it further away. It was absolutely farcicle, Williams sat down and waited and eventually they sorted it but it must've taken 3 mins between them to simply put the cueball back into the original position. For them to have passed an exam to be a pro ref makes the training and examination process a joke. This Portuguese ref apparently only first saw snooker on Eurosport a few years back, how he becomes a pro ref in that time I'll never know. This is not me bashing foreigners, but I just feel like due to them not really having a high amatuer level standard or any pro snooker within their country, that becoming a ref for the pro game means they lack knowledge and history of the game. They are basically being given a job ahead of more qualified and suitable refs from the UK it seems as there has been a huge influx of refs from right across Europe and the standards are declining.

[Nifty50]

It looks like the refs are recruited not on how good they are but on their appeal to the public, ie, trying to attract a wide audience. Michaela Tabb was fast tracked into snooker to demonstrate that reffing wasn’t a male domain. There was a few male refs around at the time with more experience than Tabb. Anyhow it seems to have worked regarding the gender thing as we now have many female refs. Most of them are very good.

[DeanH]

why is Rachel pronouncing Sijun as Sijan?

[trains]

I was talking to a continental European WST ref about why they staged a PTC in his country some years ago with no follow up events on it there since and apparently next no Q School participants from that country in all the years since either.
He went completely AWOL discussing deeper into the matter about the lack of snooker in that country since.
It all just seems some sort of vanity project and to do list of different places to visit for WST staff.

[theplough]

Great performance from Jack Lisowski today, he seems to have added great safety and a much calmer approach, not one wild silly shot !!!