Interview with Ross Muir

Ross Muir successfully negotiated his way through Q School last weekend to earn his two year professional tour card. Ross, from Musselburgh in Scotland, will be competing with the world’s best players in the coming weeks and months and Beyond the Baize was lucky enough to get a few minutes of his time.

Firstly congratulations Ross! How do you feel after the weekend’s success?

To now be competing on tour against some of my idols is a dream come true for me. I feel like I have qualified for the tour via the toughest possible route so I am really looking forward to seeing how I get on.

You practise with fellow Scottish Professional Marcus Campbell, has this helped your development?

My game has progressed so much over the last few months and I can’t thank my practice partner Marcus Campbell enough for the support and help he has given me. I have learned so much from him and I can’t wait to get started with my new calendar.

When will your first tournament be?

The Wuxi Classic will be my 1st pro tournament next Monday, so I have a few days off to recharge and I’ll get back on the practice table and work my socks off.

Moving away from the weekend’s success, what age where you when you started and how did you get into the game?

I started aged 10 in my local club in Musselburgh. At the time I was a goalkeeper for Salvesen boys club and I was scouted by Celtic football club. I loved playing pool and one day my dad said “why don’t you give snooker a go?” and I just fell in love with the game. I had a recurring wrist injury so had to give up football and took up snooker as it was the other game I loved.

Did you watch much snooker growing up and were you inspired by anyone?

Growing up I always enjoyed watching the World Championships on the TV and I was inspired by the likes of Stephen Hendry, Ronnie O’Sullivan and Neil Robertson

What age were you when you made your first century?

It was a week after my 12^th Birthday in a club in Broxburn.

What would you say is the biggest strength in your game?

I have a really strong all round game and enjoy both break building and tactical battles.

Do you have any goals for your debut season?

I am not setting myself any targets for my 1st season on tour but I will give every event my all and I know if I find my game I will do well.

Is there a venue you would love to reach this season?

Yes I would love to play at the Crucible again, last time I played there I won the junior pot black.

This season the tour introduces the new flat 128 format draw for most events, do you think this will help young players like yourself?

Yes I believe this is a great change and will benefit up and coming players.

I want to wish Ross all the best in his upcoming years on the professional circuit and thank him for his time. 

Visiting the Crucible

Visiting the Crucible

View from the Top of the Crucible

I had been a snooker fan for as long as I could remember, well over 15 years but it took me until last year to finally visit the Crucible. Long had I waited, too long some might say and they would be right, but why?

For millions it’s an annual tradition to watch the World Championships on the BBC and since 1977 it has been at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. Like Wimbledon and the Masters at Augusta it’s special because it’s the same unforgettable venue. Year after year new memories are created in the same small space. Fans remember Cliff pausing near the end of his memorable 1983 147 break to wipe his brow. On the same side of the arena O’Sullivan threw his chalk into the audience after his 5 minute 20 second maximum in 1997. In more recent years on the other side we've seen Mark Williams in 2005 and Ali Carter in 2008 make maximum breaks.

Crucible Front at night

After an amazing trip last year I had to come back and this year I did. I had tickets for both tables over two days of the quarter finals. I had booked the day they went on sale in July 2012, which was a ridiculous amount of time before the event. However this had allowed me to get two seats in row five on both sides, bang in line with the middle pockets.

Last year we drove from Edinburgh and this year we tried the train, coming from Edinburgh it’s an enjoyable train journey lasting just under four hours. The advantage we found was we were less fatigued and the train station is ideally located within a five minute walk of Tudor Square & the Crucible.

Winter Gardens and Cue Zone (Picture from 2012 WC)

BBC Studio in Winter Garden

Tudor Square (Picture from 2012 WC)

Tudor Square has been renovated a lot in recent years and looks the part these days with the Crucible at one end and the Winter Gardens at the other. The city centre is very nice and is home to several nice reasonably priced hotels, restaurants, bars and shops. The Winter Gardens is home to the Cue Zone. Where the BBC studio and pundits live during the day, you can look around and take pictures. It’s a nice building and good shelter if the weather turns, with a cafe at the far end.

Crucible Foyer

The View from the Front Row

Entering the Crucible for the first time is an exciting experience; the walls are wrapped in images of past champions and historic moments. The foyer is minimal, a few stalls selling programmes and a small bar area but there is a buzz before a session.

The first thing that hits you as you enter the arena and look down is how small it appears. Now I know everyone says this but it really is noticeable and you can’t imagine there are 900+ seats. The steep tiered seating means every seat has an excellent view.

The seats are comfortable and with ample leg room, although if it’s a long session you may want to stand up in between frames. I bought myself a headset to listen to commentary during the session, which is a little bit of struggle to get going at first and for the first few minutes you are scared you have it too loud, but it does improve the experience. A programme and a headset set me back £11 and I think a bottle of water was £1.75 so it wasn't too expensive.

Quick tip: Keep your headset if you plan to return as it’ll still work next year.

After Rob Walker warms up the crowd and the players come out the divide goes down an eerie silence descends on the arena. You then really realise how close to the action you are, people in the front row can literally reach out and touch the players. It’s this intimacy that really allows everyone to enjoy the enormous skill this great game of snooker requires and the little touches of genius the top players demonstrate in each frame.

Player Entrances from my seat. 

I would highly recommend making the trip to Sheffield for anyone who enjoys watching snooker, it really is a very enjoyable experience and the city has a great atmosphere during the Championships. 

Highlights of the Crucible trip: Willie Thorne eating breakfast alone in the hotel dining room while Parrott - who wore out the floor walking between his seat and the pastry table - and Hazel Irvine sat a few feet away. Who would have guessed that Thorne liked a full English breakfast? Oh and Ronnie wasn't bad either. 

A Few pictures from my trip.

Barry Hawkins v Ding Junhui 3rd Session

Hawkins is Victorious!

Michael White

BBC Studio

Ronnie O’Sullivan retains World Championships

Defeating Barry Hawkins 18-12 in a Crucible Classic.

O’Sullivan became only the third person to defend the World Championship at the Crucible after Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry. In doing so he won his 5^th World Title and 25^th ranking event.

Before the final many pundits were predicting a procession, with O’Sullivan winning with a session to spare. After he took the opening two frames most people were worried. However the most important person wasn’t, Barry Hawkins replied by taking the next three frames. It was the first time O’Sullivan had fallen behind in the tournament and let him know, his opponent, unlike so many who had fallen before, would not be intimidated.

O’Sullivan won every session by the odd frame, just extending his lead enough to always keep Barry at bay. Hawkins could win a few on the bounce but not the three of four that might put O’Sullivan under pressure. There were only two frames which could have gone either way and O’Sullivan took both on the black.

The play was of the highest standard and although the final lacked a tense finish there was no shortage of top drawer snooker. O’Sullivan recorded Six centuries and equalled Mark Selby’s record for a single match at the Crucible. He also hit thirteen throughout the tournament and overtook Stephen Hendry's overall record of most centuries at the World Championships.

The tournament won’t be remembered as a classic, it was good but nothing special. Too many of the top contenders played massively below par and there was a lack of close finishes. It was good for the future that Lisowski and White made their debut’s and got them out of the way, they will be contesting in years to come and the fun factor that was Dechewat Poomjaeng. The performances of Ding, Selby and Robertson however were extremely disappointing.

Quarter Final Round up

Barry Hawkins became the first player to reach this year’s Semi Finals with an impressive victory against an under par Ding Junhui. The story of the match was set in the first session, Ding cued badly and looked under increasing pressure and irritation at his poor form, and little changed as the match progressed. With the weight of a nation on him, a rather large and demanding nation at that, he crumbled and looked beaten as he came out for the final session trailing 9-7.

Hawkins was clinical and ruthless and took the opening four frames to progress. Although a ranking tournament winner, reaching the semi finals will easily be the best achievement of Barry’s career and his cool and calm finish to the match impressed me.

Barry Hawkins opponent will be Ricky Walden after he completed a 13-6 victory of Welsh prodigy Michael White. Walden was the more mature and composed during the match and was able to steal a few frames that killed off his opponent. Michael White has had a dream Crucible debut and it won’t be long till we see him in a Crucible Semi Final.

Ricky Walden and Barry Hawkins will both see this as a golden opportunity to reach a World Final and I expect a very close and edgy Semi Final.

Shaun Murphy and Judd Trump’s quarter final was heavily hyped and it didn’t let anyone down. We saw all 25 frames and the final frame was one of the all time classic final frame deciders. Filled with tension, emotion and superb play it was probably the quickest 50 minutes of the season. Trumps aggression in the final frame won it for him I felt. Murphy went a little too negative when he got chances, trying to not lose the frame while Trump grabbed it with both hands.

Probably the match the fans wanted awaits us now in the Semi Final when Judd Trump meets Ronnie O’Sullivan. Stuart Bingham was unable to perform to his ability in his Quarter Final with O’Sullivan and was defeated 13-4. While much has been made of how well O’Sullivan played, he was gifted a number of guilt edge chances and wasn’t made to work for many of his frames. What we did learn is that O’Sullivan is cueing beautifully and if you give him a chance in the balls he will won’t hesitate to punish his opponent.

I have just returned from a couple of days in Sheffield and will be posting up a piece about visiting the World Championships.