Northern Ireland Trophy

[reverse_side]

A quick post to allow any comments/drawsheets/results etc for what looks like a great tournament; Eurosport and TG4 apparently. Waterfront Hall, Belfast; starts Wednesday, finishes Sunday.


Venue & 3D tour of interior http://www.waterfront.co.uk/homepage.asp
WSA info http://www.worldsnooker.com/tournament_home-33.htm

[ferret]

Is anyone from here going?

[chrisdebag]

its really good to have snooker nearly back again wish i was going

such a shame there is not many events again this year i hope they finally get their fingers out and sort out the current situation

ill be going to the welsh open and all the worlds again this season

[Sonny]

I just put a few quid on Williams to beat Maguire at 11/10 - perhaps not the best price you would think...

[cueman]

I wouldn't make any predictions for this event, I'm not so sure whether any of the top players are interested, its not a ranking event, the prize money in comparison to the other events is sub standard and I doubt the likes of Hendry, O'Sullivan et al have put in any practice whatsoever.

Still, it should show who is the most natural player if nothing else, I'd love to see the standards of many of these top players when they haven't played at all for 2 months or so. I bet many would struggle to get a 50 break!

[Sonny]

I going on the premise that Williams will get his arse into gear this season having lost out on his Premier League spot to one of the young guns. He has got something to prove today and I expect him to be fired up for it.

[Robert602]

-Warning: Results follow-

I've been a bit disappointed by eurosport's stop-start coverage of this one, although I'm glad most of it's televised. According to worldsnooker (link ), Williams (sorry Sonny) and Higgins, as well as Jimmy and Joe Perry as we saw, have been knocked out today.

I think cueman might be right about the standard of play being a bit sub-par unfortunately, especially among the more seasoned (jaded?) pros. I honestly think I could've played a better safety game than Jimmy did against the young aussie. He did seem to be in time and cueing nicely when he got in though.

Do the pro's really let their cues gather dust between seasons? I'd have thought they'd try to preserve some of the end of season form but it really does seem they're entirely out of practise.

[reverse_side]

I hear where you're comin from Robert, just tuned in looking forward to Ronnie Vs Swail as ES is advertising it as Live coverage and had to wade thru half an hour of a World Cup friendly and then only to see a repeat of this afternoon's coverage; albeit Jimmy, but I managed to watch a bit of that today already and no word of apology. It's always a bit weird with Eurosport (great that we can watch any, BUT...) they never seem to be able to nip over and show the match on the other side of the arena, in any tournament they've covered. If another broadcaster owns the rights, they could at least be honest enough to explain why we're sometimes left to watch an empty table being cleaned while we can actually hear the crowd going wild for the other table!

There was another tournament last season that hardly any seeds performed well in; motivation, anyone would think it was an England footballing friendly! Wildcards grasp the chance.

Has anyone seen the crowd yet? It's a bit like the China Open at the moment; cue the tumbleweeds, Ferret - they need some support eh!

As for lay-offs, I'd guess the top guys could leave their cue alone for 2 months or more and still practice for 8 hours a day for the next 2 months to get ready.... unless they start the season early! I like the look of Robertson and Mr.Allen (even with a little constricted, Harold/Fu-esque action) looks eager. Apparently Davis is 8th on just last year's results - go Stevo!

[Edit: WTF! NOW they're showing Swail-v-Perry from YESTERDAY and the WSA's website still isn't up to date - Amateurs!]

[2nd Edit: Live at 8; either Henders or Ronnie - juicy, Swail'n'Ding I'd pay to see too, Swail's-Porno-Cue-Action!]

[Nat5guns]

Ronnie lost 4-2? Is this right? Against Joe Swail!? How did ronnie play?, and did Joe play any good?

[Sonny]

I don't know, perhaps Eurosport will show it at the weekend or something

[Robert602]

It was shown yesterday I believe (the last half at least). Ronnie was wobbly on his shots and his cueing just generally wasn't as solid as it usually is, he missed quite a few long pots and kept letting Swail in. There was only one frame that I saw (the fourth I think) where Ronnie looked his normal self. Swail on the other hand gave one of the best performances I've ever seen from him, finishing off with a 138 and a 91.

In short, Ronnie's probably just out of practice after that long break he said he'd have. Swail on this occasion was the better man and in my opinion he deserved the win.

Any predictions for the tournament anyone? I'd say it's between Stevens and Hendry, and if I had to pick one of them it'd be Hendry. He missed a few easy ones in his match against Mark Allen but as the commentators said he wasn't put under pressure there. Stevens on the other hand seemed to be showing some finishing line jitters and I can only remember one frame winning break from him against Maguire.

[chrisdebag]

good to see matthew starting the season so well hope he can keep it going all year

[reverse_side]

he'll be wishing it was the ewc but it shows the character that got him there for a chance - I think Henders will ban the word 'Kick' around him for a while - how many did the poor guy get? smidge more right hand side on the second to last red and it was a deciding frame. Am I right that the whole prize fund pot was only £100k, Swail & Allen only got £2k each?

[cueman]

Hendry did have a few bad kicks but I also think there may have been one or two bad shots too and the commentators were kind enough to say he got a kick when on the replay it just looked like a bad shot. I thought Stevens deserved it overall, he doesn't win many tournaments and he showed he has continued his form from last season after the WC final.
The prize fund was poor but then it wasn't a ranking tournament and I'm not sure whether there was a sponsor backing the event. All in all its a sign of the times unfortuantely that there isn't a lot of money in the game right now and many players outside the top 16 are struggling financially to stay in the game. Its not very encouraging for anyone looking to make a career from the game but hopefully things will improve soon.

[Nat5guns]

I hate it when the commentators make excuses for the players, when u know full well that it was a terrible shot and they missed by miles