The Welsh Open

[LittleMissAlexa]

Somebody has just told me Patsy Fagan is commentating. But I had to confirm whether it was really Patsy, or if Dennis Taylor had told them who was commentating.

love it and great memory of io think it was the masters, i dont think Denis will ever live it down

[LittleMissAlexa]

Ding Whitewashes Mark Davis within an Hour Theres a few relieved players in the latter part of the top sixteen

[SnookerFan]

Another epic best of seven match...

They should keep these sort of matches for PTCs in my opinion.

[LittleMissAlexa]

Holt Has Just Whitewashed Day

Kinda a whitewash Day so far

[Odrl]

Another epic best of seven match...

They should keep these sort of matches for PTCs in my opinion.

Agreed. I think the minimum length of matches in the standard ranking events should be best-of-9, at least in a regular knockout format.

Not a great start in terms of excitement then. I actually thought Day might reach the QF in the top quarter, but he is quite awful at the moment. Not bad from Holt though, and Lee is a beatable opponent in the last32.

[SnookerFan]

The Welsh players seem to do poorly quite often in the Welsh Open event. Oh well.

[SnookerFan]

I am missing Newport, must be said. Looking forward to my visit at the weekend.

[LittleMissAlexa]

Agreed. I think the minimum length of matches in the standard ranking events should be best-of-9, at least in a regular knockout format.

Not a great start in terms of excitement then. I actually thought Day might reach the QF in the top quarter, but he is quite awful at the moment. Not bad from Holt though, and Lee is a beatable opponent in the last32.

Especially as Lee is nearly out of danger now

[Deepscrew]

Lee has put on twitter today his head is shot, he has a new cue with a new type of tip, on a crash diet....im lumping on The Hitman!

[SnookerFan]

Lee has put on twitter today his head is shot, he has a new cue with a new type of tip, on a crash diet....im lumping on The Hitman!

It's a trick. He's lulling Michael Holt into a false sense of security.

[gazza147]

I gotta say i think it should be at least best of 9 frames also as first to 4 frames in ranking event is poor.

Maybe this year the Welsh can do alittle Better Mark Williams, Matthew Stevens, Dom Dale c'mon boys do the Biz.

[Looki]

Terribly one-sided matches these first two... Holt and Ding obviously played well. There's awful lot of pressure being 2-0 down in bo7 match if your opponent takes the frames in one visit.

[SnookerFan]

I don't understand our current obsession with shortening matches anyway. What's the point?

Shall we just make every tournament Pot Black rules?

[cueman]

I think the reason for the best of 7 is simply because of cost cutting. I've noticed they are now only using two tables at these events, the UK and the Welsh whereas in the past they've used outside tables as well. Also it gives the players TV exposure so the conditions are fair all round. Nobody is gaining an advantage by playing behind the scenes so to speak. Some players play better away from the bigger audience and TV cameras, now its a level playing field for everyone.

[SnookerFan]

Yeah, I think that was the reason for it.

It was a shame, though. The one time I went to Newport when it was best of nines, it was brilliant. I loved it. Three matches on at a time, sit anywhere you like.

Now you get a lot of rushed, non-matches. And the ones that are good, you feel like you wouldn't mind watching two more frames of.