Cazoo World Championship 2024

[Nifty50]

Hope it’s not all over before Monday nite. Got my nice bottle of Shiraz in. Won’t go to waste thought.

[cueman]

This has been a bit of a bottle job session from Wilson. He's definitely seen the winning line and maybe having such a large lead has been a bit of a an albatross round his neck.

Great character from Jones,.I didn't think he had anything left in him but he certainly seemed to enjoy the challenge and showed a lot of bottle to make some excellent breaks. Reluctant to make any more predictions because it's making me look silly

[Odrl]

That was a great frame of snooker. A little sloppy from Jones in that sequence where Wilson required a snooker. Should have kept control of the table once he had it. 10-7 would have been more promising for tomorrow, but I won't complain if it's more of the same.

[PatBlock]

Really enjoyable session that. I think Jak was going for one too many shots, the doubled black at the end was silly. Could have been 9 - 8 if he'd boxed a little cleverer.

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[neuronic]

I'm really enjoying this. Great snooker from both of them, intense ending... more of this pls

[trains]

That was a great frame of snooker. A little sloppy from Jones in that sequence where Wilson required a snooker. Should have kept control of the table once he had it. 10-7 would have been more promising for tomorrow, but I won't complain if it's more of the same.

Yes surely he should have bounced the white off the yellow cushion to hit the object ball , the angle must have been there.

How many times did Jones initial yellow knock and not go in ? game of millimetres, all good though.

[SnookerfromtheThatcherEra]

Wilson's cue ball positioning really is his Achilles' heel. And I hadn't noticed this til Hendry pointed it out in commentary, Wilson really doesn't like the floaty/deadweight shots, got several of those wrong tonight, and rarely plays them - always punching everything in.

The crowd really rescued Jones tonight, geed up by Virgo, until he self-sabotaged in the final frame with first the too-hard miss on the yellow off the spot, then the insane attempt at a double for the final black. Hopefully he was just knackered, as he said after, and his shot selection can dial down a notch or two tomorrow. His safety is really Selby-esque quality.

[snookerfollower]

As the tournament comes to an end it seems fair to reflect that this has been one of the poorest world championships in terms of player standard if not the poorest that I can remember having followed the sport for seriously nearly a decade and a half. The players haven't been making solid breaks, safety as often been sub-standard, slow play has been a constant feature. Many of the best players in the world simply didn't turn up allowing these glorified amateurs their easy paths to the final.

I think either Wilson or Jones will have to owe any world championship win this year to immense good luck rather than genuinely good play.

[neuronic]

As the tournament comes to an end it seems fair to reflect that this has been one of the poorest world championships in terms of player standard if not the poorest that I can remember having followed the sport for seriously nearly a decade and a half. The players haven't been making solid breaks, safety as often been sub-standard, slow play has been a constant feature. Many of the best players in the world simply didn't turn up allowing these glorified amateurs their easy paths to the final.

I think either Wilson or Jones will have to owe any world championship win this year to immense good luck rather than genuinely good play.

Bollocks. Look at Kyren's breaks through the whole tournament considering the tight pockets all "top" players struggled with, look at Jones' safety play through the whole tournament has been Selby-like, look at the actual matches and how they played out. Haters gonna hate, I guess...

[vmax]

As the tournament comes to an end it seems fair to reflect that this has been one of the poorest world championships in terms of player standard if not the poorest that I can remember having followed the sport for seriously nearly a decade and a half. The players haven't been making solid breaks, safety as often been sub-standard, slow play has been a constant feature. Many of the best players in the world simply didn't turn up allowing these glorified amateurs their easy paths to the final.

I think either Wilson or Jones will have to owe any world championship win this year to immense good luck rather than genuinely good play.

Tough table conditions were the norm back in the day, the last thirty years have seen many good potters bludgeoning balls off the near and far jaws making the game look easier than it really is, Hendry was the first to benefit and others have followed.

Dave Gilbert managed ten tons this year on the easier of the two tables, Kyren hasn't had that many problems with it either but the other one was a bit of a beast and found out O'Sullivan, Si Juahui and Trump. The transition from table two to table one wasn't easy for either Jones or Bingham and it's taken Jones a couple of day to work out that this one is a bit easier than the one he's been playing on most of the tournament, Bingham simply didn't and kept the fear.

The game has more than a decade and and a half of history, the championship goes back to 1927 and was first played on tables with heavy napped cloths, billiard cut pockets (english billiard tables in reality) and balls that were ten grammes heavier using cues of 16 oz's and 11mm tips with coffin shade high glare artificial electric lighting and no heating for the table and sometimes even the hall they were playing in.

Times and conditions change for the better, sometimes they go too far and to take a backward step is the way forward. The championship this year has been unpredictable, that's how it should be. Luca was the lucky one, last year those bucket pockets suited him and he near and far jawed his way to the title as even Selby couldn't keep it safe and realised himself far too late that he also had to attack.

[cueman]

Whilst the overall standard has fallen compared to other seasons, in general you could apply that to the season in general. Despite the success of Ronnie and Trump, neither have played outstanding stuff, it's been a case of good matchplay and finding a way to win.

I think it's sort of an end of an era now. The days where the top 16 were head and shoulders above the rest are gone, and whilst a few players in form can still win events and play a very high standard, overall the sense is, anyone lower down can find a bit of form and reach a final of any event, because there is no one standout player at the top.

I think that will continue from now on. In fact if as I suspect Wilson goes on to win this, he will probably go on and be the no.1 player soon and be the man to beat. You'd never have had him down to do that years ago, but then again we've been spoilt by so many other greats who've had periods of being fairly dominant and driving on the rest. Wilson, Trump and Allen are now the benchmark but none of them are at the levels of the CO 92 or Selby who've been so dominant over the last couple of decades but seemingly are now on the way out. I don't think Wilson and co either will handle the pressure and expectations either to be the flag bearers of the game, or get to the numbers of triple crowns to rival the ones they've replaced.

Snooker is incredibly open now, some may say it's a good thing, but the overall feeling will be, you need a few standout players to get that buzz and rivalry that makes for compelling viewing. Without that, I see the audience losing interest as different faces compete each year now everyone is so equal.

[Odrl]

It also hasn't helped that a couple of players who could have stepped up have been suspended from competing. Not saying they shouldn't have been, but it's a big loss for snooker.

[cueman]

You could almost say that Jones performance at the WC is similar to the way Zhang Anda suddenly found some form and managed to reach a few finals and land a title. This is going to become a theme over the coming seasons, those lower down will be inspired and realise that if they can do it, so can I. Zhang and Jones are not really top 16 players, certainly not on previous eras, that endorses my point that the top 16 isn't really important anymore. Its going to keep changing all the time, its more like we have a small group maybe 4 or 5 players at the top, but the rest, right down to around the 50th best player, there is so little between them.

[Cue crafty]

You could almost say that Jones performance at the WC is similar to the way Zhang Anda suddenly found some form and managed to reach a few finals and land a title. This is going to become a theme over the coming seasons, those lower down will be inspired and realise that if they can do it, so can I. Zhang and Jones are not really top 16 players, certainly not on previous eras, that endorses my point that the top 16 isn't really important anymore. Its going to keep changing all the time, its more like we have a small group maybe 4 or 5 players at the top, but the rest, right down to around the 50th best player, there is so little between them.

Yep, also a bit like when Jordan Brown won, beating Ronnie in the final. Not really done anything since. It's not great for any sport really when journey men have their day in the sun then pass back into obscurity, I don't think that will happen to Kyren, but time will tell I guess.

[vmax]

The crowd really rescued Jones tonight, geed up by Virgo,

True, he has been quite over enthusiastic over some rather basic shots, ramping it up for the paymasters/sponsors.