Higgins and Hendry out

[Robert602]

Undoubtedly the two biggest shocks of the tournament so far. Particularly Higgins, championship favourite in a lot of peoples' eyes.

I'm a fan of both of them, so for me those matches were painful in different ways. I can imagine that for neutrals or Bond fans though that latter match was a cracker. Decided on a respotted black. An in-off from match ball before that. Tense stuff. One of the most exciting matches since the Masters final in my opinion.

Nice performance from Selby earlier too, although Higgins never really settled. Playing like that he could give Williams a run for his money in round 2.

Any thoughts?

Annoyingly, I was planning to see both of them (Higgins and Hendry) in their second round matches this saturday, the only day I could spare. I know you can never take the first round for granted but I thought I'd be seeing at least one of them. Ah well.

And while I'm ranting: The number of kicks in this tournament is farsical, but I can't blame them for it because nobody seems to know how they're prevented. What is inexcusable is the number of balls rolling off. The WSA's methods have been proven inadequate, time to let truelevel or someone similar have a go.

[Erwan_BZH]

I'm also a big fan of Hendry and Higgins and I can say I'm quite ****ed off to see them gone!!
Especially Hendry! To be beaten by Nigel "Droopy" Bond is so.....upseting!

I tend to think that Doherty and Williams can be named as the favs now.

[laser_leveller]

What is inexcusable is the number of balls rolling off. The WSA's methods have been proven inadequate, time to let truelevel or someone similar have a go.

There is nothing more frustrating than watching the matches on TV and getting phone calls from people confirming that the balls are not rolling true.

The solution is packed in it's case right next to me as I type this. We have the solution! We could guarantee the players' confidence in the tables and it would only take minutes to resolve.....

The laser is the perfect solution to level and then monitor any movement over the day. If any of the leg levels changed it would take 10 minutes to rectify.

[RaNeN]

Yea, I never expected Higgins to be knocked out this way. Was he unwell or something?

[reverse_side]

That's a great shame for you Rob; it's what makes sport so compelling and frustrating I guess - no guarantees, not even guaranteed winners!

Who'd've thought Bond could pull off a win; especially with a fightback from Henders - I murmured that Shpond should watch out for the in-off - but never imagined he could actually do it. Hendry nearly overcame his frequent dodgy session nowadays that would have seen him get knocked out in any other tournament.

Put my second round predictions in; there's been a few guesses submitted with the winner only getting to 10!?

Bill (laser_leveller); I keep thinking of you and TrueLevel and hope that the commentary team read out a viewer's comment on the tables that mentions your company.... I had one drafted up in the little box on the BBC site, but then closed all my windows without sending it - drat.

It's a perfect opportunity for the Tourny Director to issue a press release to explain what might explain the dreadful conditions and more importantly what they're doing about it. It seems as though they're going to change the cloths, but there wasn't any play this morning, so they could have done that overnight as Willie said. Ebdon said it was like a 'club table' and Swail a 'joke'... Bob Ledger is on his way says Dennis; a chemist that'll explain things.

It could be a whole new thread but....I thought everyone assumes it's particles of dust that spoil the small area of contact. Some energy's used up on smashing the debris up, the bigger the dust particle the more energy's lost and the more speed's lost in the shot. The straightening up effect is because the friction is increased, the impact time's increase and the object ball's' pushed slightly rather than properly and cleanly deflected.

Factors to consider; ambient temperature, humidity, temperature variance, arena fabrics, static, players shoe material, weather outside, cloth fibres, amount of spin, speed of shot..... do you see many kicks off safeties?

Hope the table for my doubles final is as good as it was last time.... back to Jimmy's game.

(last comment to stop tis becoming a novel... terry said last night that the ref should carry a bag of balls to change it instead of cleaning and replacing - not sucha a bad idea, have 2 identically weighted that you perpetually change. The player would just ask for a 'swap' and if the ball had some extra cleansing and conditioning, that could be done in the meantime of the next 'swap')

[Erwan_BZH]

The WSA confirmed today that they are going to re-cloth the table on Sunday morning...

[reverse_side]

they're going to change the cloths, but there wasn't any play this morning, so they could have done that overnight as Willie said.

That's what I said Erwan, but will a simple cloth change level the tables and stop them rolling off anyway? I know that a finer cloth makes the pockets bigger - but not much.

As for Higgins' opponent; an important couple of frames to only trail 5-3.... has anyone else noticed his 'sway' in his technique; unusual. Jim and Jp do it but it seems to be more of a help to him!

[cueman]

The world championships has always had a slightly heavier/thicker cloth because of the length of the matches and tournament. Most tournaments are only a best of 9 encounter played over a week and usually a new cloth put on the table at the semi final stage. With only 2 tables used for this tournament and the added length of matches they have to use a thicker cloth otherwise it wouldn't last beyond the first week probably.

It makes you wonder whether the new sponsors have asked for conditions to be testing as they probably don't want to pay out for a maximum break. You can definitely tell the pockets are slightly tighter than they have been all season and its catching the players out.

[reverse_side]

they probably don't want to pay out for a maximum break.

a laugh out loud moment; yeah, especially as they've mentioned the £147 a few times... but I've not seen the prize fund breakdown anywhere yet.

So it's a change of cloth 4 days early as they'd be doing this on Thursday for the first Semi anyway.... there've been far less 'pinging' cusions, but they'd rather have less kicks, proper pockets and a quick cloth.

Martin Clarke of the WSA and the Strachan Rep normally test the speed with their meter; wonder how slow they really are?

[cueman]

Here you go, just for you the prize break down. Not too bad considering the ban on tobacco sponshorship!

WINNER: £200,000

Finalist: £100,000

Semi Finalist: £40,800

Quarter Finalist: £20,800

Last 16: £12,680

Last 32: £9,600

Last 48: £6,400

Last 64: £4,000

TV High Break: £10,000

Maximum Break pre-tv: £5,000

Maximum Break tv: £147,000

TOTAL PRIZE FUND: £896,240