888.com World Championship qualifiers (part 2)

[Parklife Ricky]

There will be two players then competing to be the youngest World Champion.

Wouldn't Mark Allen also be competing for this: his birthday is about a month after Stephen Hendry's.

[Maija]

Aaaaand Holty finally closed the game 10-7.

Well done, Trump! Hope we'll get to see him on telly now.

[RaNeN]

I expected the Trump-Wattana match to be a little more close. However, Well done Trump, You deserve it!

[elvaago]

Abysmal. 5.5 points after the first 4 matches. 13,5 points after the lot. :-(

[snookersfun]

Abysmal. 5.5 points after the first 4 matches. 13,5 points after the lot. :-(

Don't call that abysmal, elvaago. I'll count mine now, I think I only had about 5 points after the first 3 days. Yesterday saved me from looking totally ridiculous

counted - 11 points. Hurray! 4 points from yesterday. Ding an unexpected 2 points as well (my only points on that day I think).

Wonder if anybody can 'bottom' that.....

[Thorpy]

Went to the first session on Thursday and what a great place the English Institute of Sport is in Sheffield. Nice to know we have those sort of facilities up 'ere in Yorkshire. There were over 100 people there although I don't think there were many that weren't friends or family, which just goes to show the state snooker is in at the moment. I cannot think of any other worldwide sport that would have that little level of support when some of it's best players are on display.

The main player I went to see was young Judd Trump taking on James Wattana and to be honest I was a bit dissappointed, despite the fact that he raced into and 8-0 lead whilst I was watching. James Wattana is a shadow of his former self and a very poor player nowadays who is going to struggle to keep his place on the tour next year and he gave Trump a handful of chances in each frame. It was obviously quite nervewracking for all the players with the chance to play at the Crucible and it showed in Trumps play. There were glimpses of his true potential when he got in amongst the balls and he is without doubt a great potter but his positional play was questionable, his safety play quite poor and his tactical nouse left a lot to be desired. He played like he would play down his local club with little or no respect for his opponent as he knew that he was the better player. Now this worked against Wattana who is ****e and obviously against Bradley Jones 10-8 (never heard of him) and Shokat Ali 10-7 (provisionally ranked 85). Given the closeness of these matches I am surprised that he beat Jamie Cope although I suppose it will have been a game of all out potting. I am not writing him off at all but his game needs to mature an awful lot before I can see him beating any of the top 20 in the world on a regular basis. If he is lucky with the draw on Monday and draws one of the weaker players then he would have a chance of squeezing through to the second round but a top price of 66/1 is ridiculous and Premier Bets quote of 33/1 is an insult to the majority of players below him in the betting. Given that he is a lot shorter in the outright I would be interested to see how he would be priced up against Steve Davis or Anthony Hamilton if he drew them in the first round - I might just have to remortgage the house again .

As for the other matches I didn't really bother with the Perry Henry match as you pretty much know what you're going to get with both players and it was no surprise that Perrys quality showed through in the end. Gilbert did pretty well against an out of form King and put in a few nice breaks but I can't see him getting beyond round 2 really. Michael Holt was by far the most entertaining player to watch with his antics and moods and mannerisms. He was desperate to get through to the crucible and it showed as every positional shot was accompanied by a frown or a groan or a look at nobody in the crowd. At one point he was on the floor as he tried to manoeuvre the cue ball with body language. He is a good player who might relax now that he is through and he is capable of shocking anybody on his day as he did earlier in the season beating Ronnie. I'm glad he got through as snooker is lacking a few characters and it would be great to see him get into the top 16 with a bit of a run through to the quarter finals.

Thorpy reporting from the snooker at the EIS Sheffield. Goodnight