Shanghai Masters 2015 - Discussion

[robertmac]

Trump v Williams looks like a keeper.
Ding, Gould, Trump and Davis would be
my choices and a great set of matches.

[Odrl]

Unfortunately I will be out of town tomorrow, so I will probably have to catch up with these matches on Saturday morning.

Trump-Williams looks like the best prospect. They developed a bit of a rivalry last season when they met so many times, but it was all best-of-7, so they finally meet in a proper match here. Both have been impressive this week, so it's difficult to call, but I think I will go for Williams. It should be an attacking game, and I suspect some long balls will be going in. :smile:

Bingham-Gould could be interesting as well. Gould seems to be on a prolonged run of good form, and he is difficult to contain when he plays well. Bingham, on the other hand, is having his first good tournament since the WC, but his draw so far has been quite easy, so this will be a real test for him. I would give Gould a slight edge.

I have no clue how to call the other two matches. Ding seemed to be his usual self today, scoring quite well and only needing one chance to take the decider. He could have too much for Wilson, but then again, we haven't actually seen Wilson play this week, so it's difficult to say. Allen-Davis should be another close one.

No snooker for me tomorrow, but I'm looking forward to the marathon on Saturday. :smile:

[robertmac]

I agree all matches could won by any player and
I see close matches and good snooker.

[streamer45]

Good stuff between Trump and Williams this morning

[robertmac]

I will have to watch the replay as 2am here is
far to early for me. Did see some of the last
frame and Bingham did get a bit of luck. Gould
is a tough guy to beat this season which is nice
to see.

[Masterdoctorgenius]

how many matches has gouldy choked in his life? many i suppose

but his match vs neil at the WC 2010 will never be topped. this guy is a proper choker. greg norman type but no majors to show so far

[vmax4steve]

Funny how Gould chokes while Steven Lee chucks it. There was a time in this match when either player could be said to have a betting slip in their pockets for a 5-4 win to the other bloke, the sitters they missed were unreal.

[cueman]

Just watching Allen vs Mark Davis and honestly its probably the worst conditions I think I've ever witnessed at a pro ranking event. There must have been over 30 kicks in this match in 5 frames and this 6th frame there has probably been at least a dozen awful kicks for both players.

This seems to happen every time they play in china and surely World snooker need to consider hosting events in countries where conditions are more suitable. It must be terrible for players who are playing for their livelyhood and yet its really down to luck as to who gets the least amount of kicks in a match which determines the outcome. I don't know of any other sport where the conditions play the biggest part in who wins. For snooker to be able to appeal to a bigger audience and to get more players playing the game, surely they have to do something about conditions now!

[scottley]

Yes, those two kicks at the end of the frame (Davis v Allen) were horrid, they must play your mind every shot when they are coming that regular.

[mikeyd100]

Yeah there has been quite a few kicks.
Am I correct in saying that they changed balls from the 1G to the Aramith Tournaments to try stop the kicks ?

[guernseygooner]

Just watching Allen vs Mark Davis and honestly its probably the worst conditions I think I've ever witnessed at a pro ranking event. There must have been over 30 kicks in this match in 5 frames and this 6th frame there has probably been at least a dozen awful kicks for both players.

This seems to happen every time they play in china and surely World snooker need to consider hosting events in countries where conditions are more suitable. It must be terrible for players who are playing for their livelyhood and yet its really down to luck as to who gets the least amount of kicks in a match which determines the outcome. I don't know of any other sport where the conditions play the biggest part in who wins. For snooker to be able to appeal to a bigger audience and to get more players playing the game, surely they have to do something about conditions now!

Not only are conditions awful but some of these refs are as well. Trump v Williams - the players had to correct her when she didn't warn Trump for a possible 3 misses and the frame. You could hear her saying that both sides couldn't be hit but Williams had to tell her that the rule was a full ball hit was on so Trump had to be warned.

It's pretty dire for something like that to happen in a major ranking title of your sport. Can you imagine in cricket or tennis for example, of the players correcting an officials decision because they didn't know the rules?

[DeanH]

Yeah there has been quite a few kicks.
Am I correct in saying that they changed balls from the 1G to the Aramith Tournaments to try stop the kicks ?

no, the balls are Aramith Tournament Champions in a 1g range set, where a normal TC set are 3g range.
What they tried during last season was to use a cleaner on the balls before each match to try to reduce the chances of kicks, varying results. What the cleaner was, not sure but it could be the usual Aramith ball cleaner just used more often?

[Byrom]

How good was that nerve jangler - Kyren Wilson looks like he lost a stone in weight during that last frame there - good win

[cueman]

Not only are conditions awful but some of these refs are as well. Trump v Williams - the players had to correct her when she didn't warn Trump for a possible 3 misses and the frame. You could hear her saying that both sides couldn't be hit but Williams had to tell her that the rule was a full ball hit was on so Trump had to be warned.

It's pretty dire for something like that to happen in a major ranking title of your sport. Can you imagine in cricket or tennis for example, of the players correcting an officials decision because they didn't know the rules?

Yes I saw that, Trump looked a bit confused and embarrassed to have to tell her that was the rule.

Also in the Allen match the ref tried to spot the pink even though he couldn't see the centre of the spot with his ball marker. Allen kept climbing onto the table to look directly at the centre of the cross where the ball marker is lined up to and eventually asked Davis if he was okay for the pink to go onto the black spot. The ref kept nudging the ball marker closer to the red next to the pink spot and at one point you could see it was touching the red and looked to have moved it a fraction, he just seemed determined to spot the pink so that Allen couldn't continue the break.

I don't know what is going on with the refs in the game right now but it seems like they are getting anyone to ref the game now just to make up the numbers. They seemingly have a quota of chinese and european refs that it seems must be involved in tournaments depending on where they are staged. Surely that isn't right and must be a cost cutting measure due to not wanting to pay for travel expenses.

[PatBlock]

Robertson looking rather gaunt, no need for meat though, just some dairy and eggs to put on some weight and improve stamina.

On the contrary:

http://adventureblog.nationalgeograp...-speed-record/

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