Tweet
SSB - TORTOISE v HARE
Stephen Hendry got the result in the end even if he looked completely flat early on in the final session against Stuart Bingham, who played well to pull back from 8-1 down to 8-4.
Frame 13 was massive. Bingham failed to lay the intended snooker on the last red, Hendry potted it from distance, cleared up and made 96 to clinch victory.
This was the first time Hendry had beaten a player ranked above him in the World Championship since his semi-final defeat of Ronnie O’Sullivan in 2002.
He now plays John Higgins, another multi-world champion from Scotland. Remarkably this is the first time the pair have clashed at the Crucible.
Neil Robertson beat Ken Doherty and will now play Dave Gilbert, who within a few seconds demonstrated what it means to win at the Crucible and the essential fairness of most snooker players.
Gould already needed a snooker when Gilbert fluked a red. Instinctively, Gilbert punched the air in delight and relief and then immediately apologised to Gould for his display of emotion.
He apologised afterwards too but had no reason to. It was a natural reaction to surely the best win of his career.
I was impressed by Luca Brecel, who out-scored Stephen Maguire but was still left trailing 6-3 overnight.
Brecel got going towards the end of the session, winning the last two frames. In the last of these he potted a crazy black down the side rail which hinted at his talent and precocity. He may not win today but I for one hope he is back in the future.
Off table, Mark Allen enhanced his reputation as a rebel without a clue by taking another pot-shot at the Chinese after losing to one of their players, Cao Yupeng.
Not content with his wide ranging attack on the Chinese people at the World Open, Allen pondered whether cheating is “a bit of a trait for the Chinese players.”
As usual, many people completely missed the point as the row spilled over on to Twitter. If Allen felt that Cao played a push shot in frame ten which wasn’t called by the referee than he was perfectly entitled to say so, both at the time and afterwards.
But it was his bringing other players into it and then questioning the wider integrity of the Chinese which may bring him trouble, including possible legal action from the players involved.
Allen’s comments underline an unpleasant creeping attitude I’ve noticed this season of some people within snooker stereotyping the Chinese and indeed disparaging them, all through a basic cultural ignorance.
‘The Chinese’ do not all act in the same way. They are a vast population of people who are all different, just like anywhere else.
Furthermore, next season there will be five ranking tournaments staged in China. For the avoidance of doubt, if these events were called off they wouldn’t be staged anywhere else.
For all the interest in Europe, there is not yet sufficient sponsorship to sustain as many big events. There is in China.
So the choice is between 10-11 ranking tournaments, half in China, or to go back to just five or six in the UK.
Astonishingly, there are some who would choose the latter. Well, it’s pretty simple: if you don’t want to go to China, don’t go. The tournaments will continue without you.
And so to day three and Ronnie O’Sullivan v Peter Ebdon centre stage.
In the old Aesop fable of tortoise v hare, it was the tortoise who prevailed, albeit not over a best of 19.
Snooker’s own version of the tortoise won at the Crucible seven years ago in a much discussed encounter but Ebdon has not beaten O’Sullivan since.
Eirian Williams is the referee and it raises the issue of how slow is too slow.
If Tony Drago were playing and suddenly went up to 40 seconds a shot he would surely be warned because he is a naturally fast player.
Ebdon is not. So how slow does he have to get to be told he needs to speed up?
There is no slow play rule in snooker, only ‘time wasting.’ This is at the referee’s discretion.
Some shots do take time but, in the balls, there is no need for a player of great ability to be taking 40-50 seconds a shot.
Tonight, Stephen Lee, one of the players of the season, starts out against Andrew Higginson.
Lee is playing his best snooker since he reached the 2003 semi-finals. But this World Championship is already proving to be dramatic and nothing can be taken for granted.
More...
Frame 13 was massive. Bingham failed to lay the intended snooker on the last red, Hendry potted it from distance, cleared up and made 96 to clinch victory.
This was the first time Hendry had beaten a player ranked above him in the World Championship since his semi-final defeat of Ronnie O’Sullivan in 2002.
He now plays John Higgins, another multi-world champion from Scotland. Remarkably this is the first time the pair have clashed at the Crucible.
Neil Robertson beat Ken Doherty and will now play Dave Gilbert, who within a few seconds demonstrated what it means to win at the Crucible and the essential fairness of most snooker players.
Gould already needed a snooker when Gilbert fluked a red. Instinctively, Gilbert punched the air in delight and relief and then immediately apologised to Gould for his display of emotion.
He apologised afterwards too but had no reason to. It was a natural reaction to surely the best win of his career.
I was impressed by Luca Brecel, who out-scored Stephen Maguire but was still left trailing 6-3 overnight.
Brecel got going towards the end of the session, winning the last two frames. In the last of these he potted a crazy black down the side rail which hinted at his talent and precocity. He may not win today but I for one hope he is back in the future.
Off table, Mark Allen enhanced his reputation as a rebel without a clue by taking another pot-shot at the Chinese after losing to one of their players, Cao Yupeng.
Not content with his wide ranging attack on the Chinese people at the World Open, Allen pondered whether cheating is “a bit of a trait for the Chinese players.”
As usual, many people completely missed the point as the row spilled over on to Twitter. If Allen felt that Cao played a push shot in frame ten which wasn’t called by the referee than he was perfectly entitled to say so, both at the time and afterwards.
But it was his bringing other players into it and then questioning the wider integrity of the Chinese which may bring him trouble, including possible legal action from the players involved.
Allen’s comments underline an unpleasant creeping attitude I’ve noticed this season of some people within snooker stereotyping the Chinese and indeed disparaging them, all through a basic cultural ignorance.
‘The Chinese’ do not all act in the same way. They are a vast population of people who are all different, just like anywhere else.
Furthermore, next season there will be five ranking tournaments staged in China. For the avoidance of doubt, if these events were called off they wouldn’t be staged anywhere else.
For all the interest in Europe, there is not yet sufficient sponsorship to sustain as many big events. There is in China.
So the choice is between 10-11 ranking tournaments, half in China, or to go back to just five or six in the UK.
Astonishingly, there are some who would choose the latter. Well, it’s pretty simple: if you don’t want to go to China, don’t go. The tournaments will continue without you.
And so to day three and Ronnie O’Sullivan v Peter Ebdon centre stage.
In the old Aesop fable of tortoise v hare, it was the tortoise who prevailed, albeit not over a best of 19.
Snooker’s own version of the tortoise won at the Crucible seven years ago in a much discussed encounter but Ebdon has not beaten O’Sullivan since.
Eirian Williams is the referee and it raises the issue of how slow is too slow.
If Tony Drago were playing and suddenly went up to 40 seconds a shot he would surely be warned because he is a naturally fast player.
Ebdon is not. So how slow does he have to get to be told he needs to speed up?
There is no slow play rule in snooker, only ‘time wasting.’ This is at the referee’s discretion.
Some shots do take time but, in the balls, there is no need for a player of great ability to be taking 40-50 seconds a shot.
Tonight, Stephen Lee, one of the players of the season, starts out against Andrew Higginson.
Lee is playing his best snooker since he reached the 2003 semi-finals. But this World Championship is already proving to be dramatic and nothing can be taken for granted.
More...