World Championship 2006

[Stu4ko]

Sorry Ranen but I can't understand you
I also think Dott played much better in the first three sessions of the final but throughout the tournament Ebdon showed more of his class. I don't know why he was so weak especially in the first two sessions, but maybe the exhausting match with Fu prooved to be decisive...
He was outclassed although Dott wasn't playing his top game and that was the keypoint.
Of course the 68 clearance in frame 31 which started with a superb plant after a shot to nothing gave Graeme the win but i think Peter has done supreme.

[Robert602]

Ranen-It's entirely up to the opponent, a frame isn't completely, officially, in the bag until the last pink is potted (or the last black if snookers aren't yet needed).

A player could play on needing 10 snookers if they wanted, but there comes a time when the likelyhood of victory is so slim that it's better to just say 'fair play, you beat me' to your opponent and concede the frame.

Ronnie tends to do this with just one or two snookers needed, the likes of Ebdon or Davis I've seen carry on needing as many as 6. I know frames have been won from 4 snookers required, so perhaps they should play on more often.

[RaNeN]

Looks like Robert understood wht I meant to say. So there is actually no limit for the number of snookers required before a frame is said to be over. Got it!

[snooky147]

Agreed. As I recall, Ebdon only needed 3 snookers when Graeme was on the brown and decided to go and kiss the trophy. Ebdon I'm sure would have come back to the table had Graeme missed the next ball, so I think it was premature and disrespectful. That said, it's understandable that he was very excited about the near certainty of becoming world champion after 12 years without winning a thing.

I am sorry mate but you must be blind if you think that graeme was going to miss a straight short range brown. I am sure that he would not have kissed the Trophy if it was not on or difficult at all.
As for being fuelled by anger, again you are wrong in my opinion, relief , frustration and determination all bottled up till it had to come out and I for one see no harm in that.

[Robert602]

I am sorry mate but you must be blind if you think that graeme was going to miss a straight short range brown. I am sure that he would not have kissed the Trophy if it was not on or difficult at all.
As for being fuelled by anger, again you are wrong in my opinion, relief , frustration and determination all bottled up till it had to come out and I for one see no harm in that.

Steady on. It certainly wouldn't have been the easiest ball missed that night, and with all that was going on in Dott's head at the time, plus the fatigue, who knows. It would've been an extraordinary miss, but then they were extraordinary circumstances. The point is though that a match isn't over until the handshake. Until the referee said 'frame and match', the trophy wasn't Dott's to kiss. That's particularly true against Ebdon, a player who wouldn't have yet accepted defeat even to himself.

Some people like to see the emotion, I like some of that but I appreciate seeing a bit of restraint and respect as well. As I said, I can understand it, I certainly wouldn't begrudge Dott his win for it or anything, but I'd have preferred not to see it.


I was perhaps a bit harsh with the 'fuelled by anger' comment, but I wasn't solely going on the triumphant outbirsts. Little things like the way he always seems to be gritting his teeth or the look in his eyes when he finishes off a frame, even the way he cues. I get the impression he's the type of player who sees a clearance as beating the table, rather than playing it. All vague and subjective, and again not a criticism necessarily, but it is my opinion (and not only mine apparently).

[snooky147]

I am "old school" myself m8 and dont believe in a lot of emotion but you are mistaking anger for determination in my eyes and sheer will to win, and if that manifests itself with a shout or a grit of teeth well no harm done. He had taken a pounding that night and as Clive Everton so nicely said had "went through the valley of doubt".
When he potted the yellow and green you could see the tension had ebbed away and there was no way in a million years he would have missed that brown. I respect and understand your view that a match is not over till the last ball potted but was Denis Taylor being disrespectful when he kissed the Trophy on the Final black.
Not trying to argue here btw, just trying to get people to see difference between disrespect and anger in favour of relief and the letting out of tension.