2019 Northern Ireland Open

[Odrl]

That was a good interview with Trump just now, nice to see him taking his snooker so seriously these days. His great results are well deserved I think. He fights to win matches now even when he is not at his best, and he has really learnt not to let the big occasions get to him.

We haven't really seen a lot of the younger players having such prolonged periods of good results in recent years. When I say younger, I mean younger than the Higgins/O'Sullivan generation. Selby is the one that stands out really. Robertson has never quite been able to sustain it, while Ding had that one fantastic season before completely disappearing as a top player. But Trump really does look like he could be on top for a few years now, if he can keep the motivation. Should be the favourite tomorrow, whatever happens in tonight's match.

[PatBlock]

That's a rather unpleasant story if true.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/s...abuse-20884240

Why would a journey of just 0.7 miles cost ?5? Sounds like someone trying to take advantage of a tipsy celeb to me.
So, who's the real robber in this story then?

EDIT: That's supposed to be a pound sign before the 5.

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[Mark187187]

Why would a journey of just 0.7 miles cost ?5? Sounds like someone trying to take advantage of a tipsy celeb to me.
So, who's the real robber in this story then?

EDIT: That's supposed to be a pound sign before the 5.

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Article says that John Higgins ran away. Can't imagine him running anywhere, even less so if he had been half conscious in the back of a cab. Someone's trying to make a few quid here

[Cue crafty]

Article says that John Higgins ran away. Can't imagine him running anywhere, even less so if he had been half conscious in the back of a cab. Someone's trying to make a few quid here

Agreed, unlikely - put it in a court room and the first question I'd why wouldn't he? Second question is if he had one too many and drew a blank, what person on earth wouldn't settle a ?5 charge to maintain a good name..... Hmmm

[PatBlock]

Agreed, unlikely - put it in a court room and the first question I'd why wouldn't he? Second question is if he had one too many and drew a blank, what person on earth wouldn't settle a ?5 charge to maintain a good name..... Hmmm

Yep. The fact that he went straight to the gutter for anything he could get, says it all. Bet your mum's really proud of you for this one, James Crawford.

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[Ronnie's tip]

O'Sullivan absolutely fears Trump IMO, whereas you can see that Trump is up for facing him.

[vmax]

A few years ago I pointed out that Trump offsets his address to the cue ball because he moves his right shoulder on the delivery stroke, thus bringing the cue tip around to strike centre cue ball. I noticed during the Higgins match yesterday that there are times when that shoulder movement happens a split second after the strike instead of before it, this is when he misses a ball by a large margin. He did it again this afternoon on the long red in the eight frame to let Ronnie back in with a frame clinching break to make it 5-3.

Don't know if it's tension that causes this, I haven't noticed it before on power shots, I have noticed on slow shots the offset is tiny and then he sometimes doesn't move the shoulder at all which leads to him jawing a ball (red in the middle against Robertson in the Champ of Champs final comes to mind) but these misses by a large margin on power shots show just how the timing of this right shoulder movement is crucial.

BTW he doesn't offset his address when he plays right handed shots, yet in an interview he said he didn't even know he did it at all until he was in his mid teens and that his address looks centre cue ball to him, strange one.

[Csmith]

A few years ago I pointed out that Trump offsets his address to the cue ball because he moves his right shoulder on the delivery stroke, thus bringing the cue tip around to strike centre cue ball. I noticed during the Higgins match yesterday that there are times when that shoulder movement happens a split second after the strike instead of before it, this is when he misses a ball by a large margin. He did it again this afternoon on the long red in the eight frame to let Ronnie back in with a frame clinching break to make it 5-3.

Don't know if it's tension that causes this, I haven't noticed it before on power shots, I have noticed on slow shots the offset is tiny and then he sometimes doesn't move the shoulder at all which leads to him jawing a ball (red in the middle against Robertson in the Champ of Champs final comes to mind) but these misses by a large margin on power shots show just how the timing of this right shoulder movement is crucial.

BTW he doesn't offset his address when he plays right handed shots, yet in an interview he said he didn't even know he did it at all until he was in his mid teens and that his address looks centre cue ball to him, strange one.

I recently learned that I do this too, though I don’t correct with the shoulder and I’m not nearly as talented lol. If I’m overly tense or I try to focus on straight cueing then I miss everything by a very wide margin. I can also confirm that it looks to me like I am addressing centre ball.

Once I get comfortable again, the balls start going in again. It amazes me that Trumps long potting is as good as it is because my long game is what suffers most. At medium range I’m fine, but at longer range I have to play shots to nothing.

As for the final, I think O’Sullivan needs to focus on safety and shots to nothing against Trump. Judd creates enough chances with his long potting and Ronnie is compounding that by handing him easy starters.

[Delphi]

After the afternoon session, in the Eurosport studio Jimmy was talking about players using 'bad chalk', which i guess he means Tweentens chalk, and he said they should use the better type, i'm wondering if Jimmy was talking about Russian magic, Taom or something else.

[PatBlock]

If Judd looses this tonight, it'll be because of his sloppy cueball when he's in amongst them. It's very entertaining watching him pot spectacular balls to get out of trouble, but if he wants to be up there with Davis, Hendry, and ROS, this is what he needs to work on, because atm he's a 7/10 in that department AFAIC.

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[Ronnie's tip]

If Judd looses this tonight, it'll be because of his sloppy cueball when he's in amongst them. It's very entertaining watching him pot spectacular balls to get out of trouble, but if he wants to be up there with Davis, Hendry, and ROS, this is what he needs to work on, because atm he's a 7/10 in that department AFAIC.

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In fairness he is the current king of the game even with this 'weakness' so improving his cueball would arguably put him even above those guys. I don't think he'll ever compare to them in terms of pure cueball control but his overall game is so powerful that unless he loses some of his drive over the next few years, I find it very hard to imagine him not being at the level of the very best.

I know it's quite early days relatively speaking but I think we're watching a guy who will break every record going except possibly Hendry's worlds + Ronnie's 147s.

[PatBlock]

See, that's what I'm talking about, frame 15, spectacularly unspectacular break from Ronnie, because of his pin-point accurate cueball.
I appreciate Judd is something else talent wise, but if he could nail that 'touch' aspect of his game, he'd be near unbeatable.

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[bobmikeking]

I think a big difference between Judd and the other top boys at the moment is he is motivated and hungry.
If anything the more he wins the more he seems to want it.
It is also possible that the defeat to Robertson last week, that some said might hurt him and take a while to recover from, has only motivated him more.
Something that does not get mentioned much that is more important than in the past is he is fit and healthy as well.
Hopefully this will push Ronnie on

Someone needs to tell them both they are using the bad chalk though

[Ronnie's tip]

Judd overtakes Ding and is 8th on the all time ranking titles list on 14. Only 2 behind Selby/Robertson.

[Hey]

Well played Trump clobbered the goat