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Ssb - pole position
Some interesting stuff at the World Cup yesterday, in particular the performance of Kacper Filipiak, a 15 year-old from Poland, who beat both John Higgins and Stephen Maguire in his singles matches against Scotland.
Filipiak is the reigning European junior champion. This was the first time I'd seen him play and his poise and general demeanour impressed me greatly.
He seemed remarkably composed for one so young and appears to be yet another talented left-hander.
Filipiak practises at the South west Snooker Academy in Poland, which should help his development. He is, of course, already on the professional circuit.
OK, so it was only one frame but he made a 69 break to beat Higgins and another half century against Maguire before making a good pressure clearance.
Many times in the past the BBC have delved out footage of a young Stephen Hendry and John Parrott from their Junior Pot Black days and who is to say in a few years time we won't be doing similar for Filipiak from this World Cup.
Poland start the day joint top of group D and have a good chance of qualifying for the quarter-finals alongside Scotland.
The other highlight of the day's play in Bangkok was the 61 clearance by the Brazilian pair of Fabio Luersen and Noel Rodrigues against England.
If anything was going to win me over to the alternate shot doubles format, this was the frame.
To put it into context, Mark Selby and Ali Carter are two of the top six ranked players in the world. Luersen and Rodrigues grew up playing ten-red snooker and have very little experience on the international stage.
But they worked well together, kept things simple and held their nerve under pressure to produce one of the highlights of the World Cup so far.
Because of the format, with points not awarded for winning matches but for frames won, the qualification places remain up in the air, but Wales signalled their intent yesterday with a 5-0 demolition of Egypt.
The usual suspects will surely be through by the time the group phase finally comes to an end on Friday.
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Filipiak is the reigning European junior champion. This was the first time I'd seen him play and his poise and general demeanour impressed me greatly.
He seemed remarkably composed for one so young and appears to be yet another talented left-hander.
Filipiak practises at the South west Snooker Academy in Poland, which should help his development. He is, of course, already on the professional circuit.
OK, so it was only one frame but he made a 69 break to beat Higgins and another half century against Maguire before making a good pressure clearance.
Many times in the past the BBC have delved out footage of a young Stephen Hendry and John Parrott from their Junior Pot Black days and who is to say in a few years time we won't be doing similar for Filipiak from this World Cup.
Poland start the day joint top of group D and have a good chance of qualifying for the quarter-finals alongside Scotland.
The other highlight of the day's play in Bangkok was the 61 clearance by the Brazilian pair of Fabio Luersen and Noel Rodrigues against England.
If anything was going to win me over to the alternate shot doubles format, this was the frame.
To put it into context, Mark Selby and Ali Carter are two of the top six ranked players in the world. Luersen and Rodrigues grew up playing ten-red snooker and have very little experience on the international stage.
But they worked well together, kept things simple and held their nerve under pressure to produce one of the highlights of the World Cup so far.
Because of the format, with points not awarded for winning matches but for frames won, the qualification places remain up in the air, but Wales signalled their intent yesterday with a 5-0 demolition of Egypt.
The usual suspects will surely be through by the time the group phase finally comes to an end on Friday.
More...
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