Australia Goldfields Open

[mythman69]

My holiday sorted as well, might see you there.

Looks like it is a two year deal. $500,000 in prize money too.

http://www.worldsnooker.com/page/New...648731,00.html

[DeanH]

now that is great news

[mythman69]

now that is great news

Yep, I am so excited !!!!!!!!!

Bring it on!!!

[Byrom]

who is ronnie playing in qualifying - put your money on him.

[worldcuesports]

As an Australian im glad the event is back but to help snooker grow it needs to be in a major city. Having it in Bendigo Is just a Victorian government easy funding issue to give funding to a small regional town. The crowds overall and the media coverage from IMG is non existence. Its on pay tv (fox sports) and there's no advertising In the clubs around Australia. Many of the people that I know that went last year aren't going this year due to lack of accommodation close to the event and how far out of Melbourne it is.

Australian snooker have made no impact with having it here at all with promoting the game which is sad for Australian snooker and for some reason Australia only gets two wildcards.
would like to know why our association is the only one this has happened to and why they have no involvement with the event?

[gettingbetter]

I wouldn't know about the ins and outs of why it is held in Bendigo, but when it was announced three years ago I did find it odd.

There have been two darts tournaments of note held in Australia over the last six months - a ranking tournament in Sydney (held at the Big Top, Luna Park. They hold concerts and fights there) and a invitational tournament last month that I believe was held at Etihad. Not sure why they can't do it for the snooker.

Where do you think would be a suitable venue? Would it be in Melbourne? I remember being down there for work and when I was just have a coffee I noticed at least three people carrying cues around.

Also, Robertson's win didn't really do too much for snooker here. It made the news, but nothing of note and the general public were just happy that an aussie won - nationalism more than anything. I personally don't think snooker has grown since his win. Add to the fact that he world number one, making all these centuries and is usually at the business end of tournaments you just don't hear of him unless you follow snooker. He is not known amongst 'casuals.'

[pearce]

The blame for lack of promotion and loss of tables lies squarely with the ABSC (Australian Association). They're really good at organizing Australian tournaments but hopelessly lacking in promoting them. They missed the boat on Neil Robertson's world championship win and their promotion of Australian events is really hopeless. An example is the Australian Open, the biggest event on the Australian calendar. There's no pre-promotion and when I queried the tournament director who is a director of the ABSC, why they have never had the results in the Sydney newspapers when things like croquet, badminton, lacrosse etc. can get them in, his reply was he didn't have the time.

[davipp]

The venue itself in Bendigo is great for the tournament, BUT for all us diehard snooker players whose juices start flowing at the sight of green baize and the sound of the balls clicking, there is nowhere to play a frame or two during the sessions unless you are a member of a private snooker club.
As for the promotion of the game, I totally agree that AB&SC did not take any advantage of Neil Robertson's WC win in 2010 or have they taken any since he became No. 1 in the world.
Ask any non playing person on the street who is Australia's best snooker player and they will still say Eddie 'whats his name' Charlton.
Nevertheless I am hoping to attend the tournament in July.

[mythman69]

As for the promotion of the game, I totally agree that AB&SC did not take any advantage of Neil Robertson's WC win in 2010 or have they taken any since he became No. 1 in the world.

I asked the AB&SC on Facebook if the Goldfield's was going to be on again this year back in November. They said they didn't know but would let me know when they found out. Well they are still to say anything on their Facebook page about it. I sent them a message to say that it was on again for the next 2 years as I received an email from Bendigo Stadium offering two-for-one ticket early bird special.

There is still nothing on their page.

Hopeless really.

We have the World Number one and it would be a great opportunity to promote the game here in Australia, but the AB&SC is silent.

Sad really.

[pearce]

Mythman - I couldn't agree more but I'll still see you there. Still going to wear the Swans scarf.

[mythman69]

Mythman - I couldn't agree more but I'll still see you there. Still going to wear the Swans scarf.

Yes, I will be there in my Red and White Swans scarf.

[Odrl]

Right, on to Australia then, for the second major ranking event of the season, and the final one in this early-season bloc of events.

The field is a little different to the last couple of years, with some players deciding to skip it for the first time, and others entering after missing it previously. Three of the best four players in the world are not here, O'Sullivan, Ding and Selby, with Marco Fu also deciding not to defend his title. Other big names to skip it are Graeme Dott, Mark Williams, and of course Ali Carter.

There isn't really enough time to properly go through the draw, but luckily there is only 32 players this time, so maybe a quick look anyway...

Quarter 1:

Neil Robertson v. A.Higginson/M.Bolton
Stephen Maguire v. Jamie Jones
Robert Milkins v. Liang Wenbo
John Higgins v. Tom Ford

A very strong top quarter. With Fu not defending his title, Neil Robertson starts as first seed, and probably as the big favourite as well, at least on paper. He has been very determined to win his home event in the past, but he hasn't managed it yet. In the first two years he lost early, last year he was beaten in the final by someone playing really well. He comes here with all the momentum again, having just won a major title, but I'm not sure it will be in his favour. He spent the full seven days in Wuxi, getting used to those particular conditions, and now he has to play in a completely different environment again, with very little time to prepare. He has just shown that he is still capable of winning matches and tournaments even when he struggles a bit, but this quarter is full of strong players looking to take him out early. Robertson against Andrew Higginson (assuming the latter wins his wildcard match) will be a repeat of the 2007 Welsh Open final, which was a really great match that went all the way to 9-8 in Robertson's favour. Robertson has also won their couple of biggest matches since. Higginson has qualified for this event every year so far, but always lost in the 1st round at the venue, so it's hard to see him making any major mark on this tournament. Stephen Maguire could be a different story though, in decent form early on in the season with a quarter-final appearance in the Wuxi Classic. I think his decision to play in these two events shows his determination to do well this season, because he previously preferred a longer break in the summer. The question is what his morale and confidence is like at this point, because he played quite a solid match against Martin Gould in Wuxi, but still failed to go past the quarters. He has to take someone like Mark Selby as a good example of how to approach things... He needs to be giving it his all to give himself a chance of winning titles, even if it means losing in the quarter-finals a couple of times, like Selby repeatedly did last season. I remember what a monstrously strong player Maguire was in his two purple patches around 2004 and 2007, and it would be nice to see him reach that sort of form again... I think Maguire against Robertson in the last16 is very probable here, and what a rivalry these two have had in the past. Maguire is still ahead in the head-to-head, but Robertson has had more success recently. He beat Maguire in the UK Championship last season, but Maguire returned the favour in the Masters, where Robertson supposedly played tired after a long drive. Also here is Jamie Jones, making his debut in Australia, but he is a bit of an outsider at this point.

John Higgins is returning to Australia after missing the last two years, but he isn't really one of the big favourites anymore. He played very well against Anthony McGill in Wuxi, but showed his inconsistency again by losing in the next round to Alan McManus. You would think he would be determined to put matters right after losing to the lower-ranked players, but he hasn't really been great at doing that recently. In fact, McManus and Mark Davis have developed into bogey players for him, and he has also lost the last couple of matches against Robert Milkins, whom he could play in the last16 here. Milkins was of course a semi-finalist in this event last season, although he didn't really have to beat any major players to reach that stage. I expected a better performance from him in Wuxi, but his hopes ended early with a whitewash against Joe Perry. He has one of the toughest 1st round opponents here, Liang Wenbo, who did a little better in Wuxi, beating Selby on his way to the last16, before also losing to Perry. Liang has been slowly getting better in recent times, and he is probably a slightly stronger player than Milkins at his best, but Milkins has won both of their previous meetings. Also here is Tom Ford, who has won his 1st round match in each of his three appearances in Australia before. He reached a rare quarter-final here last year, but lost to Milkins, his possible last16 opponent this time. I don't like too look to far into the tournament, but a Higgins-Robertson or a Higgins-Maguire quarter-final here could be a good one. :smile:

Quarter 2:

Stuart Bingham v. Scott Donaldson
Ryan Day v. Mark Joyce
Mark Davis v. D.Dale/J.Younger
Shaun Murphy v. Jack Lisowski

The second quarter looks a little weaker. Stuart Bingham is the 2011 champion of this event, I'm sure happy to be returning to the place of his biggest success in snooker so far. His early-season form is somewhat promising, a last16 appearance in Wuxi, where he lost a pretty high-quality match against Marco Fu. Similar story with Ryan Day, who lost to Martin Gould in the last16 in Wuxi, after a decent performance in the Yixing Open as well. He too has had some of the best results of his career away from the UK, even before there were so many tournaments abroad. There isn't that much history between Day and Bingham, but Day did win their match in the PTC Finals last season, unfortunately a pretty low-quality affair. There are two players in their way here. Scott Donaldson has made it all the way from the first qualifying round, and he went pretty deep into the Yixing Open as well, so he has played a lot of snooker this season already. Unfortunately the one disappointment for him was the Wuxi Classic, where he lost in the wildcard round. Mark Joyce is making his debut in Australia, but he is probably the outsider of the four.

Shaun Murphy is the biggest name in this quarter, and probably a good bet to do something this week, having played pretty well in Australia in the past. He was a quarter-finalist in Wuxi, but in my opinion he didn't really play well, unlike Maguire for example. Murphy played three real outsiders in the first three rounds, and won comfortably, but the one televised match, against Zhao Xintong, showed him to be making quite a few mistakes, only his opponent was too inexperienced to take advantage. In the end Murphy bottled his quarter-final match against Robertson pretty badly, missing a sitter that would have got him past the winning line in the decider. Jack Lisowski did a lot worse than Murphy, as he actually lost to the young and inexperienced Zhao Xintong, which tells a lot about his own game. He is probably one of the most overrated players in snooker at the moment, having only reached one major quarter-final so far, even though he has now had the reputation as a dangerman for quite a while. He lost that quarter-final to Shaun Murphy in the 2013 China Open, from 4-2 up, mainly through his poor tactical play. He has a chance to show us what he has learned since then here. Mark Davis is starting his season here, having missed the Wuxi Classic, and we know he is a very good season starter. He was a semi-finalist here in 2012, a quarter-finalist last year, and his scalps in Australia include Selby and Robertson, as well as Lisowski. Dominic Dale has also had a win over Robertson in this event, in 2011, and he has reached two quarter-finals here himself, so he could be very dangerous. His match against Davis here is a repeat of a last32 clash in the World Championship this year, where Dale won quite comfortably. He of course went on to reach the quarter-finals, which was his most notable run for quite a few years. A very open quarter this, it will be interesting to see how it plays out... :smile:

Quarter 3:

Judd Trump v. Rory McLeod
Joe Perry v. Alan McManus
Michael Holt v. Martin Gould
Ricky Walden v. Marcus Campbell

The third quarter is a little stronger again, with Judd Trump starting as the highest seed. He missed Australia in the last two years, so it's a pleasant surprise to see him playing at all this year. If Mark Davis is a very strong season starter, Trump is probably one of the worst. It took him half a year to finally start playing well last season, so perhaps that's why he has decided to enter more events this time. He got through a couple of rounds in Wuxi, before finding himself on the wrong end of a whitewash against Stephen Maguire, so I don't really expect any fireworks from him here. It will be interesting to see how he deals with Rory McLeod, a very slow player, as that's a style of play that clearly gets on his nerves a bit. He made some pretty stupid comments about Tom Ford after their WC match this year, and he also made unfounded comments about Robertson in that regard in the past. McLeod is making his fourth trip in a row to Australia, but he has never made the business end yet, and I don't expect him to do so this year either. It will be very interesting to see what Joe Perry does here... He is in a similar position to Robertson, having spent the full week in the tricky conditions in Wuxi, and he doesn't have much time to adjust to whatever the conditions are like here. On the one hand he comes here full of confidence, having just reached his first major final in 13 years, but on the other hand he could be a little demoralized after getting so close and only just missing out on a major title. Last season he had no problem playing a few good tournaments in a row, so maybe he can do the same this season. It's a tough opening match against Alan McManus though, a match that has 5-4 written all over it. McManus himself is pretty high on confidence these days, having reached the quarter-finals of the WC for the first time in years, and he seems to be playing his best snooker since at least 2007. He was alright in Wuxi as well, and I'm sure he will enjoy this travel too. Trump has a bit of a score to settle with him, having lost to him in the 1st round of the International Championship last season. Trump and Perry on the other hand have not met much, but Trump did win when they played in the PTC Finals last season.

Ricky Walden hasn't had any success in Australia in the past, with two 1st round defeats, even though he is known as a pretty good traveller. He also didn't get much out of the Wuxi Classic last week, so maybe his form is a little lacking at this point in the season. He plays Marcus Campbell in the 1st round here, a player who is very familiar with Bendigo, having played here in all three previous editions of this tournament. He hasn't had any major success either though, so he is probably the outsider in this section. It is also worth saying that Walden was the player who ended Campbell's best-ever run in a major event, in the semi-finals of the 2012 Wuxi Classic. The other two players here have had more success in the very recent past. Holt was the runner-up in the Yixing Open and reached the last16 in Wuxi, and he has made a habit of playing his best snooker outside of the UK now. He appears here as a seeded player, a position he hasn't had much luck with previously, and he literally couldn't have got a tougher draw. Martin Gould is of course coming here on the back of his best-ever result in a major ranking event, after reaching the semi-finals for the first time in Wuxi. He is also a previous quarter-finalist in Australia, in 2012, so he could be one of the outside favourites here. He did lose to Holt when they played in Shanghai last season though, and he also has a pretty poor record against Walden. As for Holt and Walden, I think the nightmare Holt had in the 2013 WC when he lost to Walden 10-1 is probably not going to be forgotten any time soon. :wink:

Quarter 4:

Mark Allen v. Fergal O'Brien
Matthew Stevens v. Luca Brecel
Xiao Guodong v. Liam Highfield
Barry Hawkins v. Peter Ebdon

The bottom quarter is certainly not the strongest here, but it does still have a couple of very interesting names. Mark Allen reached the quarter-finals of this event on his debut, but decided to skip it in the last two years. He also skipped Wuxi last week, which is a little unusual, as most players tend to either play both, or only the Wuxi Classic. Last season wasn't all that successful for Allen, as he failed to win a major title for the first time in three years, so it will be interesting to see what he can do this season. He beat Fergal O'Brien in the PTC Finals, and is certainly favourite to do so again here. Matthew Stevens also had a pretty disappointing season, and dropped down the rankings a little as a result. He hasn't started this season well either, as he was one of the highest-ranked players to lose in the Wuxi qualifiers. He has some unpleasant memories against most of the top players, and Allen is no exception. They played in the 1st round at the Crucible in 2011, when Allen won the last four frames to win 10-9, even though Stevens had a bunch of chances to close out the match. They also played the World Open final in 2013, with Allen winning comfortably on that occasion. I don't think Luca Brecel has played Stevens before in a major match. He is making his Australia debut here, and he too lost in the qualifiers for the Wuxi Classic. It looked like that UK quarter-final in 2012 would be the start of his rise up the rankings, but he has failed to back it up so far, and is back to looking for his breakthrough. Could it be here? :wink:

Barry Hawkins is the second seed in this tournament, a pretty fair reflection of his recent form in my opinion. He won this title in 2012, arguably his biggest success in snooker so far. I thought he looked like the best player for most of the Wuxi Classic, but he just played a couple of poor frames at the wrong time, at the business end of his semi-final against Robertson. I think losing that match and going to Australia a day early will probably help him, in terms of his chances of winning this title. His 1st round match against Peter Ebdon is a repeat of that 2012 final, which Hawkins won comfortably with some brilliant snooker. He has a sensationally good record against Ebdon in general, so I would make him a strong favourite here. Ebdon had a pretty mediocre last season, and started this one badly as well, with a defeat in the Wuxi qualifiers, but he can still have a strong run if he finds a bit of form. His run in this tournament in 2012 is a good example actually, because he had one of the toughest draws imaginable. But is he playing well enough at the moment? The other match here could be an interesting one as well. Xiao Guodong appears as a seeded player in a major tournament for the first time, and it will be interesting to see how he deals with that role. His defeat to Robin Hull in Wuxi doesn't seem too bad in hindsight, but having seen the match I think it was a pretty poor one, as Xiao was in control for most of the match, but played some sloppy stuff at the wrong time and let it slip. He lost to Hawkins here in 2012, and it's a pretty high obstacle again. He also lost to Liam Highfield in the qualifiers for this event in 2011, 5-4 on the final black, but repaid the favour in the recent Wuxi qualifiers, with another 5-4 scoreline. Who will prevail this time?

Possible QF lineup:

Stephen Maguire v. John Higgins
Stuart Bingham v. Shaun Murphy
Joe Perry v. Martin Gould
Mark Allen v. Barry Hawkins


There we are... I wish a great snooker week to everyone in a more favourable time zone, and hopefully I can join you in watching as much of this as possible. :smile:

[robertmac]

Excellent coverage of who will be playing and
moving forward.

I would chose similar players however I would replace
Higgins with Robertson.

Possible QF lineup:

Stephen Maguire v. Robertson
Stuart Bingham v. Shaun Murphy
Joe Perry v. Martin Gould
Mark Allen v. Barry Hawkins

[DeanH]

Odrl - excellent write up as usual - now it would be something for Australian -snooker and -TV coverage if Neil could get this trophy on his shelf

Not that I put him top, but he is definitely a contender after the Wuxi and with confidence high, but does literally being at "home" put him off a bit?

[robertmac]

I believe both Robertson and Ding are focused
and determined on winning as many tournaments
as possible and both are heads above most of the
other players.

I am looking forward to another great year of snooker.