British Open in Brighton

[kaybebaby]

Wooohoooo! Only less than a week to go now! Since i dont have eurosport (WHY is the BBC not broadcasting this ) I decided to pay my parents in Germany a visit to watch it from there. The only problem with this plan is that now i have to listen to crappy German commentary which drives you insane. "Now that the player has potted red ball, he needs to then pot one of the other colours." or "This is touching ball. This means that the white ball is touching one of the other balls." DUH. I am still waiting for him to say "The long stick in his hand is a cue. It is used to hit the white ball, which must then connect with one of the other balls. It is also very good for frustrated viewers to hit me over the head to shut me up."

Apparently, this guy is really popular with German snooker fans, but he drives me barking nuts. I mean, it is on the same level as a football commentator boring his viewers with an explanation of what offside is everytime it happens. Makes you appreciate the proper commentary by Everton & Co. And until then, I will make extensive use of the wonderful invention of the "mute" button.

Sorry for the rant Have been needing to get this off my chest for a while

[JanieWatkins]

hope you have a great time i will be going to the welsh open if they ever decide where it will be played this year and am going to get a season ticket for the world championships hotel already booked

It's 99.9% certain it will be back in Newport Chris - I'll see you there....

[chrisdebag]

newport again i havent been there since they moved the qualifiers have to find a new pub this year last year was very handy with the venue being across the road

thanks for the update any news on when the tickets will actually be on sale last year i think it was about december 9th

[JanieWatkins]

its about 400 pounds for the world championships thats for every session including the final you pick which half of the draw you wish to see and you see every session

it's the bargain of the century. snooker must still be one of the cheapest sports to watch...
400 season ticket for 17 days of snooker and two to three sessions of play every day. I think it's amazing value, particuarly as so few tickets are available and the prices a crucible ticket fetches on ebay shows just what the demand is.

[mirocri]

Everything always is expensive in the UK Snazzy :P

Less of the lip about us Brits or I will move you to DefCon 2...

Definately Consider banning stage 2

Folks, would you terribly mind if we talk a little about the kind of snooker we have seen so far and are about to see from now on in Brighton ?... Everybody would like to put the money on Ding. Are we going to have a new robotlike, super technicised snooker era? Do you think it's true that the so-called romantic era has ended ? Are these new Asian players ( and I have heard that in China there are twice as many snooker players than in the whole rest of the world !... ) change the face of the game? Are the young players strictly money-motivated and tend to love snooker less than, say Jimmy White loves it ? Brrrrr! Cold, not cool ...

[kaybebaby]

I dont know....Ding Junhui is a fantastic talent, I loved watching him play in the last two matches. If he seems robot-like, then I think that's because he doesn't speak much English. I would think that it must be very intimidating for a 17 year old to live and work in a country whose language he doesnt speak. I don't know how he does it, I would be terrified! Brave little soldier! And as for China taking over, there are so many talented young players who are NOT from China, so I don't think that is the case yet.

[JanieWatkins]

I dont know....Ding Junhui is a fantastic talent, I loved watching him play in the last two matches. If he seems robot-like, then I think that's because he doesn't speak much English. I would think that it must be very intimidating for a 17 year old to live and work in a country whose language he doesnt speak. I don't know how he does it, I would be terrified! Brave little soldier! And as for China taking over, there are so many talented young players who are NOT from China, so I don't think that is the case yet.

ding's got several of his chinese players staying over here with him - they all play at the Academy in Wellingborough and they're really well looked after. All the Thai boys and other overseas players are there and they get English language lessons etc and all their own food that they want etc

and watch out for two more Chinese lads who're on the way up - Liang Wenbo and Xiao Guo Dong - Liang is 16 and making a few waves already and Xaio is just 15 - and he's really cute - and I think he looks like a tremendous talent.
And that's not to forget the older lads Liu Song and Jin Long who aren't doing badly either...
and with 48 million registered players in the Chinese snooker association, who knows how many more talented players they might produce.

[Templeton Peck]

It's nice to see the Chinese doing well in something. Let's face it, they will never be rugby world champions so snooker provides them with an avenue for their sporting ambitions and a bit of pride. Considering how big the country is and its steady economic growth, it is not entirely unrealistic that snooker players will be earning money equivalent to top European footballers in 50 years time.

[mirocri]

Hunter wasn't quite himself, was he... Good for Shaun Murphy !