World Championship match discussions thread

[hegeland]

Things have a potential to get really interesting this afternoon. Live in China on prime time, could get some viewers this one.

(and no, I'm not talking about King v Ebdon!)

I was surprised the conclusion of Ding v Fu was played in the evening, they missed a couple of hundred million viewers on that blunder! Sponsors can't be happy about that. As seeded, they knew all along when Ding was due to play.

[rambon]

I hate this day - the move from 3 sessions to 2!

[Maija]

I hate this day - the move from 3 sessions to 2!

Ach, I know. Good to sleep a bit longer, though, and still have time to do things around the house

@hegeland: It's difficult enough to put the schedule together without taking time zones into account. Sometimes things like that just can't be avoided, especially with more and more Chinese coming through. They've repaid us with a few "ill choices" of camera tables during the Shanghai and Beijing, though!

Looking forward to the action now. An hour and a half to go. For the record, these are the matches of the day:

14.00
Ronnie O'Sullivan v Liu Chuang (5-4, last sesh)
King v Ebdon (round 2, first sesh)

19.00
Higgins v Day (round 2, first sesh)
Stephen Maguire v Anthony Hamilton (8-1, last sesh)

Live streams - as always - on the various Eurosport sites.

I hope Mags will be quick (sorry to those hoping for a Hamilton turnaround), I'm no huge fan of following two matches closely at the same time.

[issha]

go ebbo

King was brilliant but will be outplayed by the smarter player

[Rane]

First frame for King. He´s continuing where he left. It looks like a god match is coming up.

[pekmez]

i agree with isshas opinion ... c'mon peter

[Black_cat]

I'm stuck at work! Please, ya fortunate ones watching the O'Sullivan/Chuang match, how is it going? Rather scrappy, judging from the frame scores but care to share some details, please?
Thank-meeeewwww.

[crucible77]

Its currently 7-4 to ronnie
Hope he wins cause im seeing him against williams if he does
Liu isnt playing well

[Maija]

I'm stuck at work! Please, ya fortunate ones watching the O'Sullivan/Chuang match, how is it going? Rather scrappy, judging from the frame scores but care to share some details, please?
Thank-meeeewwww.

Looks like Liu is bottling it now, he's missing an awful lot and letting Ronnie in with easy openers. I still think he had a good Crucible debut, all things considered.

Oh, ROS did the "look no feet on the floor" thing earlier. I'm sure you'd like to know

Current score is 27 - 54 in frame 12, with ROS on a break of 27.


On the other table it's 1-1, a century from King and a good break from Ebdon followed by safeties. Good match so far!


Edit:

ROS 48 - Liu 57. Blue, pink and black left. Liu just potted the blue and is 14 ahead with 13 remaining. The pink is safeish, and Liu goes for a double, but leaves the pink safe again.

Edit II: Well, what's safe... ROS fluked the pink and conceded the frame.

ROS v Liu 7-5

[Black_cat]

Looks like Liu is bottling it now, he's missing an awful lot and letting Ronnie in with easy openers. I still think he had a good Crucible debut, all things considered.

Oh, ROS did the "look no feet on the floor" thing earlier. I'm sure you'd like to know

Current score is 27 - 54 in frame 12, with ROS on a break of 27.


On the other table it's 1-1, a century from King and a good break from Ebdon followed by safeties. Good match so far!

Rub it in, Maija, sure, sure! *grrr* Sure RO'S didn't do it before securing the frame now, did he?
Seriously, thank you and Crucible.
But what a scrappy session today!

[Maija]

Rub it in, Maija, sure, sure! *grrr* Sure RO'S didn't do it before securing the frame now, did he?

He's wearing a black shirt and a black waistcoat too

Anyway, next frame: ROS on a break of 45, just split the pack (off the brown), and quite nicely too. He continues in well-known fashion 'till he misses a red on 65. Liu is 65 behind, 67 remaining and pots a long red.


Meanwhile - Ebdon v King - Ebdon ran out of balls to pot after 52 and played a safety off the yellow, leaving the yellow and the green on the side cushions, with 5 reds left, quite nicely spread.

Edits

Liu breaks down on 14, three reds left. Ronnie plays a slightly dogdy safety, but Liu doesn't fancy a tricky red to the middle. More safeties to follow.

King is slowly but surely trying to catch up with Ebdon, on a break of 17, with two reds left, one nearly glued to the side cush.

2

Liu pots a beautiful long red, but snookers himself on the black with a narrow margin. Liu concedes the frame after leaving a too easy starter for ROS.

ROS v Liu 8-5 if I'm not mistaken.

Ebdon flukes a red in a rather amusing fashion and looks set to take the next frame to go 2-1 up. Frame scores now: 57 - 23, one red left.

[dino]

Maija, thank you very much!!!!!!keep us posted pls....

[Maija]

Sorry, can't continue - Real Life is calling!

It seems to me that Ronnie is just being careless, not bothering much about how the match goes as long as he can play without a strategy or plan behind it. When he gets into the flow, he pots quite a lot, but he makes silly mistakes, from what looks like playing too fast to be able to reason and plan whilst doing it.

Ebdon and King are battling it out now, sadly they've slowed down quite a lot since the two opening frames.

Ah, dinner time! See you all again when the real snooker starts!

[adamxx]

10-5 to Ronnie.
Great after interview (but did I really hear him say 'don't know about the snooker practise tomorrow'- as he has a day off- 'but i'm definately going running!')

Nice one Ron. Faces Williams next?

[Black_cat]

Thanks again, Maija, you're a star.
And I managed to catch the last 3 frames so yes. Two maxi attempts.
But Liu has progressed immensely since the 2007 China Open, when he couldn't string three balls together. What a talent, what composure to level at 3-all.