2019 World Snooker Championship

[Mark187187]

I'm not commenting on the NOTW stuff, but I do think maybe Higgins loves money a bit too much. Why else does he still play so many tournaments? He's made for life, has a family to spend time with, and his game would probably benefit from picking his tournaments. I think he finds it hard to turn earning down.

That's strange logic, you could say that about anyone. Criticising a professional sportsman for entering tournaments really is a stretch.

Regardless, he does pick and chose. He tends to leave the minor tournaments. He missed plenty of these last season. Riga, World open, Paul Hunter Classic, European Masters, gibralter, 6 reds, shootout. Turns out he only loves money for 2/3rds of the calendar.

[tractorboy280]

Don’t believe everything you read in a newspaper which folded due to being involved in the phone hacking scandal or was written by a journalist who went to prison for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

http://www.sportingintelligence.com/...-story-210901/

[snookerball]

I'm not commenting on the NOTW stuff, but I do think maybe Higgins loves money a bit too much. Why else does he still play so many tournaments? He's made for life, has a family to spend time with, and his game would probably benefit from picking his tournaments. I think he finds it hard to turn earning down.

It's the 2 year list. If he'd went out first round here 500k would come off his rankings. He needs to enter a lot to avoid a sharp drop if he doesn't have a good run in Worlds one year.

[Mark187187]

It's the 2 year list. If he'd went out first round here 500k would come off his rankings. He needs to enter a lot to avoid a sharp drop if he doesn't have a good run in Worlds one year.

That might be part of it, but it's not unusual for a sportsman to play their sport.....Higgins is near retirement. Compared to any other career, he has an extra 20 years work free to spend with his friends and family. Why wouldn't he play as much as he can until then?

[zeroprobe]

Nevermind.

[snookerball]

Don’t believe everything you read in a newspaper which folded due to being involved in the phone hacking scandal or was written by a journalist who went to prison for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

http://www.sportingintelligence.com/...-story-210901/

Thanks, that's a great read.

[zeroprobe]

If there was any other evidence to make John Higgins look better out of it wouldn't you want that out there for all to see.

[Mark187187]

Don't believe everything you read? There was a video of it mate !! I posted a link to it further up. Do you only acknowledge the things you want to? Have you even seen it?

If there was further context of it showing Higgins in a good light from that video then we would have the full unedited video to see.

Well, we know there is more video, and we haven't seen it. So there is more context. You'd imagine if the rest of the footage showed Higgins in a bad light it would have been published by the paper....

Tbh I don't care either way. The situation was a charade and Higgins never threw a match. Whether he theoretically would have in 2010 is always going to be theoretical. Talking about something is a long way from actually going through with it. I like watching him play, and he seems like a nice guy, the rest is all a bit of a nonsense.

[John Flaf]

Just did a quick tot up of games played to reach final.

John 97

Judd 88

So not much in it, strain on concentration must be immense.

Edit: just thought, games is one thing, it's the hours that take a toll wonder how many hours its taken to get to final ?

[gavpowell]

This is what I see when I type in "John Higgins"

The two top results are a different colour and offer you the option of remove, because they're in your search history. You've skewed your results I'm afraid.

[DeanH]

search engines are designed to learn from your previous searches (as well as sponsored hits ) and so everyone sees different results for the same search criteria.

I don't see any mention of Russia or NOTW or anything in the immediate hits.
Only those that have search for such terms so in the past will see the same, and the more they search for it the higher up the relevance listing it will be - FOR THEM.
If you look for something you are likely to see it
If you think he his dodgy you will see everything he does as dodgy; if you think he is wafting around the table playing well, that is what you will see.

[Odrl]

So, only the World final remains... To be honest, I am a little relieved that we have two top players meeting in the biggest match of the season, because having an outsider in the World final would increase the chances of getting a one-sided match, and that's definitely not something I want to see here. :smile:

It's also nice that we have two players who have so much history between them, although their rivalry has been hugely one-sided in favour of Higgins so far. Obviously the 2011 World final stands out as the biggest match they've ever played, but I don't think it's necessarily a good comparison for what we are likely to see this time. Trump was only 21 at the time, and he had a very one-dimensional game that relied very heavily on long-potting, so Higgins was always going to be favourite over four sessions. Higgins was a different player as well at the time, he was the best player in the world and almost undefeated that season after coming back from his suspension. There weren't really any question marks about his game or his mental resilience, we all knew he would put in a strong performance and probably win unless Trump played out of his skin. It was much more evenly matched a year later when they met in the final of Shanghai Masters, but yet again Higgins prevailed after coming back extremely strongly from a 7-2 deficit. The one match that probably gave Higgins the biggest psychological edge for the remainder of their rivalry was in the 2014 World Open, when Trump took a 4-0 lead with Higgins barely scoring any points, only for Higgins to return the favour and make it 4-4 with one-visit snooker, then win the decider as well. Similar story in the SF of the 2016 Scottish Open, when Higgins came from 5-1 down to win 6-5. And there was another unlikely escape for Higgins in the 2015 China Open, when he was losing 59-0 in the decider and came back in two incredible scoring visits to win it on the black. It's just such an impressive list of comebacks that it surely must have some sort of effect on Trump, and that may come into play if the match goes close or if Trump gets a lead and Higgins starts coming back at him. Even last year I had the feeling Trump was capable of playing better snooker than Higgins, and the same thing in the China Championship this season, but both times he wobbled and lost a close match he should perhaps have won.

But enough about history. Every match is different of course, and the circumstances are very different than they were in 2011. Higgins is still the higher seed, but the rankings don't take Trump's triumph at the Masters into account, and also a big part of Higgins' points comes from the 2017/2018 season, whereas Trump's big results are more recent. I would therefore say Trump is the better player at this point in time and should perhaps be considered a slight favourite on paper. It's funny to talk about Trump's age being an advantage here, since no one has actually won the World title in their 20s since Robertson in 2010, whereas players in their 40s or late 30s have basically dominated the game in recent years. I still think it's a valid argument though. Higgins clearly struggles to keep up his standard of play for four sessions these days. Two years ago he looked like he would beat Selby easily, before completely running out of steam at the end of the second session, and last year he played underwhelming snooker in the first three sessions and just left himself so much to do, so even mustering the strength to put in one strong session wasn't enough in the end. This time he is playing against a younger and fitter opponent who hasn't won this title before, so he should be at a disadvantage. On the other hand, even if Trump concentrates properly and plays sensibly, he isn't exactly a model of consistency himself, or at least he hasn't been in this Championship so far. He put in a couple of strong sessions when he needed to, but his long-potting has been uncharacteristically poor so far, so he wasn't able to blow his opponents away with the kind of snooker he is known for. Credit to him for getting to the final anyway though, he has shown a willingness to really fight for it, and I think he has really matured as a player and as a person now, so I don't think he will throw this title away by doing anything stupid.

I'm expecting Higgins to be vulnerable in at least one or two sessions here, so I think the match will most likely come down to whether Trump can sense those opportunities and do some damage. He definitely did not against Ding in the 2nd round, but he kind of did against Maguire and Wilson in later matches, so the signs are promising. On the other hand, if the match goes close or if Higgins starts doing one of his famous comebacks, I think Trump could wobble and let it slip again. Trump to win 18-15. :smile:

[Stony152]

The two top results are a different colour and offer you the option of remove, because they're in your search history. You've skewed your results I'm afraid.

That's not really true. Those two look that way because when they came up yesterday I actually clicked on them and did a search. If I had taken that screen shot a few hours earlier they all would have been the same colour and the remove option wouldn't have been there. Now it's possible that a few years ago I did some searches about the incident and google remembered those. But then I knew that the event didn't happen in Russia, so I wouldn't have done that specific search.

[Odrl]

Interesting, when I type in John Higgins I get "referee", "snooker" and "ref" as suggestions before I get "wife" or "russia", and I don't have any history. :smile:

[blahblah01]

search engines are designed to learn from your previous searches (as well as sponsored hits ) and so everyone sees different results for the same search criteria.

I don't see any mention of Russia or NOTW or anything in the immediate hits.
Only those that have search for such terms so in the past will see the same, and the more they search for it the higher up the relevance listing it will be - FOR THEM.
If you look for something you are likely to see it
If you think he his dodgy you will see everything he does as dodgy; if you think he is wafting around the table playing well, that is what you will see.

So you're looking to kidnap his wife?