New Website Launched

After a few years using Blogspot I decided to update and move to a new website. You can now find me at:

http://www.beyondthebaize.com

I'm still tweeting about all things sport at @Beyondthebaize1

Sam

John Higgins wins a record 4th Welsh Title

John Higgins recorded a 9-3 victory over Ben Woolaston in tonight's final in Cardiff.

The Wizard of Wishaw won his first ranking title since the 2012 Shanghai Masters and his 26th ranking event. Higgins was throughout the stronger player as Ben Woolaston struggled to get anything going in his first full ranking event final. Despite being outplayed in the first session, it was an outrageous fluke for Higgins prevented Woolaston leveling the session at 4-4. Instead Higgins took a crucial 5-3 advantage into the evening session.


In the first frame of the evening session Higgins potted a great long red and made twenty before going in-off while splitting the red. Woolaston was never able to get an easy opportunity though and was snatching at any half chance. John wasn't really missing but was running out of position and there was a real feeling of tension for both players. A similar pattern followed in a very tense 2nd frame which Higgins also won. Once 7-3 infront Higgins relaxed and was able to take the next two frames relatively easily.

Unfortunately it wasn't a great final, John did enough to win comfortably without ever really needing to raise his game, while Ben struggled to settle his nerves. However only a few weeks after losing to an amateur in the China Open qualifying this has proven to be the best week of Ben Woolaston's career and he will hope to build on it for the remaining few weeks of the season. He will rise to a career high ranking of 28 and a similar deep run in a ranking event could see him challenge for the top 16.

For John he has all buy cemented his place in the top 16 for the remainder of the season and will be looking to kick on from this weeks success. I've been saying for a few tournaments I believe I've seen some form in Higgins & that it's been the mental side of the game that's been letting him down. It will be interesting to see if he stops beating himself up over little set backs in matches and return to the granite match player which has led him to Four world titles.

The snooker schedule is packed in the lead up to the World Championships in April. Next up is a few of the smaller events before a ranking event pile up in mid March. The players will be flying to Poland in a week for the Gydnia Open.

Taking Flight in Cardiff

Two days are in the books in the 2015 Welsh Open and 92 players are already on their way home. We're down to the last 32 and it's not been without shocks. Well maybe I should change that to "Shock”, Ding Junhui's and Barry Hawkins defeats wouldn't surprise most people given their form this season. However the Shaun Murphy's defeat to the talented Jamie Jones is more of a shock.

Jones came to the attention of the masses after his great performance at the World Championships a few years ago. Still young and clearly very talented he was tipped to keep rising through the ranks, however he's had a disastrous few years in the qualifiers, going down, rather than up the rankings. Jones will face an all Welsh tie versus Mark Williams next live on Eurosport at 8pm.

The other 13 members of the top 16 are still standing though. Robert Milkins, Xiao Guodong & Mark Davis are all out though in the race for the top 16 for the World Championship. With Mark Williams now overtaking Robert Milkins for the last automatic qualifying spot in the WC.

In the betting I fancy a little £5 bet on Perry, Dott, Walden & Higgins - £20.07

John Higgins has a very good draw, if he can get it together mentally I believe he is cueing well enough to get to the later stages. He will probably have to beat Maguire in the Quarters, a complete bogey player for Higgins in recent years - 2011 PTC event was his last victory - but I think this could be his week to reach a Semi Final.

Graeme Dott is in the race for a top 16 ranking and he will most likely face John Higgins in the last 16 in a crunch match for the last 16. At this point Dott is around £30,000 behind Higgins so will require a few deep tournament runs to catch his fellow Scot. 

Ricky Walden will face Martin Gould in a very tough match to call, hence the good odds but I fancy Ricky to just have enough to go through a close match.

Joe Perry is one of my favourite players to watch, he is very good in every department and fly's under the radar. He is 1/3 today to beat Gary Wilson and I think this is easy money, don't let me down Joe!

The quarter finals are on Friday and I’ve got the following match ups coming up:

Ronnie O'Sullivan v Judd Trump

Mark Allen v Joe Perry

John Higgins v Stephen Maguire

Michael White v Mark Selby

Visiting the German Masters 2015

I thought I would put down a short overview of my trip to the German Masters last week.

Originally my holiday with friends to Berlin was to coincide with Hertha Berlin's home fixture versus Bayern Munich in early December, this proved too short notice to muster up funds so the next best match was chosen - Hertha v Bayer Leverkusen.

Tempodrom Berlin

At the time I was unaware that my timing was perfectly in line for the German Masters, an event I had always wanted to attend. In fact the timing was so perfect that I shared a flight out with a few of the Scottish Snooker contingent (picture below).

Stephen Maguire, Me, A friend of their party?, Anthony McGill and John Higgins

So after a few days of heavy drinking I needed a quieter night and the Friday Evening session looked tantalising with 6 of the top 8 remaining in the draw. Purchasing tickets was easy, all the tourist information shops dotted about the city sold them. I got a couple at the Brandenburg gate tourist information just before my excellent walking tour by Stephen at - Free Walking Tour - I highly recommend this if you are ever in Berlin.

The venue is in a central location and like the rest of the city is served by a superb overground/underground rail network. I would recommend buying the 5 day pass for the rail system, it worked out at 40 Euro's but given how much time we spent on the network it was worth it. Ticket conductors are rarely seen but if you do get caught it's a 50 Euro fine.

The tent is an impressive venue from the outside and on this extremely cold evening shelter was greatly received. Inside it was like most modern venues. Bars and cloak rooms lined the space under the stands and there were a few doors at either end for shuffling into the arena. Once inside you are taken aback by the sheer size of this arena. I never got to visit the old Wembley Conference centre but this must be the closest venue on the tour in terms of scale. Finding your seat wasn't so easy I found, the numbering system mixed with my lack of German made it more difficult so we just took any empty seats at the back.

I've read a lot on twitter the last few days about how this is the 2nd best venue behind the Crucible. I would tend to disagree, I think it's the most impressive venue but the view from the back is limited, you just feel too far away. The last row in the temporary seating venues, such as the Barbican will provide a much better viewing experience, it just won't look as good on TV.

There is a sizable lobby where people can amble about and stretch their legs and the Eurosport team where situated in the corner of it. Due to being in Berlin for all but the final day I didn't get enough of an opportunity to judge the new TV panel. However I know from his ITV stint that Neil Foulds is an excellent studio analyst. I don't agree with having Ronnie O'Sullivan commenting though, he's still at the top of his game and I feel it's a conflict of interests. There was a similar situation over the winter when an injured Australian Cricket Captain Michael Clarke was invited to join Channel 9's test coverage and comment on his own players. It all felt a bit uncomfortable, as you knew the usually quite outspoken leader couldn't properly express his opinions of his colleagues.

Eurosport Team

I've not really went into what happened on the night as it's almost a week ago and plenty has been written but I thought I would put down my thoughts on the event from my visit. As I've done for the Crucible in the following two links:

Visiting the Crucible 2013
Visiting the Crucible 2014

I've got a few pics of the moment after Judd Trump his this wonderful 147:

Judd celebrates his 2nd 147

Players are quick to get back to work.

Although I prefer the World Championships at Sheffield this event could easily rival for cost as a visitor, I booked my flights from Edinburgh Airport for £57 return and the tickets were about £20. I would recommend it to all snooker fans as I look to plan my trip to the Welsh Open next.

Snooker Rankings in 2019 - My Predictions

I read Matt at Pro Snooker Blog’s piece on who he thought would be at the top of the game in five years time and it got me thinking. So I have come up with my own list & in five years I will hopefully revisit it.

1.    Ding Junhui

In Five years I can see Ding being a multiple World Champion and sitting third in the all time century list. His expert cue ball control and added years of experience will make him a formidable opponent. Once he gets over the Crucible hump he could well dominate the game and be pushing himself into the Snooker Mount Rushmore (An American sports thing, basically the top 4 of all time).

World Titles = 2
UK Title’s = 1
Masters = 1
Ranking Titles = 8

  2.  Judd Trump

Judd is in an interesting situation, unlike previous snooker era’s where players have come through in groups Judd is currently the only player in his age group that is established at the time of writing this. As he matures I can see his game becoming more complete & him winning more major titles. I don’t think he will be the most consistent player, however with the new money list it would only take a few big wins a season to maintain a high ranking – something I think he will achieve. Along with Ding I can see Judd joining the elite list of players to have completed the triple crown. 

World Titles = 1
UK Title’s = 1
Masters = 2
Ranking Titles = 6

3.     Mark Selby

The recent World Champion is the best safety player in the game and has consistently shown the ability to win whilst not playing his best. This is the one of the most important strings to his bow; whilst his peers could have a bad day and be defeated, he usually comes through. With the new flat 128 draw at the majority of tournaments, there will be more off days for players. I think he will add another World and UK in the next five years.

World Titles = 1

UK Title’s = 1

Masters = 0

Ranking Titles = 4

4. Mark Allen

It still amazes me that Mark hasn’t had more success by this point of his career. I expect he will become more consistent in the future and win more tournaments. On his game he is almost unstoppable; however we’ve infrequently seen this outside of the Haikou World Open. He will be 33 in five years and I expect him to have reached a World Final in that time while capturing one or two of the other big three titles.  

World Titles = 0

UK Title’s = 1

Masters = 1

Ranking Titles = 4

5. Neil Robertson

Usually as players get older one of the first things to go is their long potting. This leaves proficient long potters in a situation, without change you can gift your opponent frame winning opportunities – something Stephen Hendry was doing a lot in the last few years of his career. Now I expect Neil to continue to develop his Safety game which could counteract a potential drop in his long potting proficiency.  Even at the age of 37, I expect him to be at the top of the game, he is just too good a player to drop out of the top Eight & I anticipate he will be winning more of the triple crown events over the next few years.  

World Titles = 1

UK Title’s = 1

Masters = 1

Ranking Titles =6

6. Xiao Guodong

At this time he is the only young player who has impressed me consistently. At this time he is sitting 23^rd in the rankings & I predict by the end of the 2014/15 season he will be in the top 12. I don’t have him winning any of the major titles in my predictions, however in five years time while some of the others on this list will be right at the end of their proficient title winning career, Xiao will be coming into his peak and could then be landing some of the major trophies. 

World Titles = 0

UK Title’s = 0

Masters = 0

Ranking Titles =3

7. Michael White

I’ve always been impressed with Michael White; he is a fearless player who backs his own ability at the most important phases of a match. So far his progress up the rankings has been disappointed and he looks to have stalled. However when he has reached the flagship event, the World Championship’s he has shown real quality. Once he take’s that quality to every event he enters he will shoot up the rankings and will win a few titles. 

World Titles = 0

UK Title’s = 0

Masters = 0

Ranking Titles = 2

8. Anthony McGill

Scotland’s next big hope is Anthony McGill; he is an exciting young talent who shows maturity beyond his years and an understanding of the game. You can see little bits of Graeme Dott, John Higgins and Alan McManus games imprinted on McGill. At this point of his career I feel he lacks a little confidence in his ability, however when he breaks through I can see him being one of the toughest players on tour to defeat, therefore his high ranking. 

World Titles = 0

UK Title’s = 0

Masters = 0

Ranking Titles = 2

A few others to look out for in the next five years: Jack Lisowski, Kyren Wilson, Liang Wembo, Shane Castle, Ben Woollaston, Kurt Maflin & injury dependent a resurgent Jamie Cope.

Visiting the Crucible 2014

2014 and my third trip to the home of snooker & it didn't disappoint.

After the long train journey from Edinburgh and a quick hotel check in it was time for Sheffield’s best takeaway. An excellent large Brisket Burrito from “Street Food Chef” hit the spot & it’s the perfect pre-snooker session lunch.

The view from our seats

We were in the 2nd row this year and watched as Shaun Murphy constructed a 2-0 lead only to fall apart like an Ikea sofa against Ronnie O’Sullivan. Knowing he should have been 4-0 up at the mid session interval (it was 2-2) he got more and more desperate and handed O’Sullivan the remaining four frames to trail 6-2. It was a strange session, entertaining but not the highest quality. Murphy was excellent to see up close, his technique was by far one of the best I've seen up close & obviously the Rocket is in the same category.

We saw the final two frames of Neil Robertson v Judd Trump on the other side and it was clear Robertson was struggling at this point, Trump finished with a good century to a surprising 6-2 lead.
Strolling back through Tudor Square there was a chance meeting with Mark Selby outside the winter gardens. Wearing his full snooker gear he was far from discreet, even the drunk with his bag of lager took notice.

I took the opportunity to ask the rather stressed looking Mark for an autograph, which he kindly obliged, while my dad failed to take a picture of me and Mark, ending up with a fuzzy picture of a bench – one to treasure. You can see the autograph below, it looks like “Marky” to me but I’m not complaining. As I made my way in the opposite direction Mark was mobbed like a member of One Direction outside the Crucible, unlike Harry Styles though he was mobbed by middle aged men & the recently retired community.

In the evening after a disappointing Barbecue meal at the Smoke Point we settled outside for a few beers. A few tables along from us was a couple of Cockneys who had obviously started a few hours earlier, at one point the conversation flowed loudly along these lines

“I love you man, I hate you, you know what I want to kill you!”

We moved inside as it got dark but those hardy cockneys stayed outside for a good few hours yet, whether they were able to construct any coherent sentences we will never know. Inside, to my delight I found out the bar sold Viru, the best of all Estonian beers I might add. This full flavoured and light beer was the perfect tonic after a long day of Snooker and travel.

We talked about how good the Crucible is and other such Sheffield/Snooker based topics. While at the next table Steve Davis sat having his dinner and conducting a rather long winded interview. As the Viru’s flowed the table on the other side of us was filled, it was only snooker legend Matthew Selt, oh and Stephen Hendry was there as well. I then saw the bar staff wheeling away an empty box of Viru, had I really drunk that many?

Surely they had another box?

Davis joined the Hendry, Selt party and we had a table of 13 World Titles, and Matt Selt.
I couldn't bring myself to interrupt Davis, Hendry & Selt. My old man wasn't so bothered and came back with Hendry & Davis’s autograph. An avalanche of fans then descended on them from the tables around us, while Matt Selt had to sit sipping his cocktail sadly not being recognised. The bad news however was that the bar was out of Viru & the recommended replacement was a poor imitation on Talin's tastiest.

The great Steve Davis

The great Stephen Hendry

A much more relaxed Mark Selby walked in after winning 8 of his 9 frames in the evening session to lead Alan McManus 12-4 overnight. A few celebratory drinks were had as a sure-fire place in the semi final was going to be his. At least he hadn't won that evening, as we had tickets to his side of the table in the morning.

In the morning we saw the final two frames in the McManus v Selby match. Alan constructed a lovely break to win the first but Selby clinched an easy victory in the 2nd. For the remainder of the morning we watched as Ronnie crushed Shaun Murphy. Obviously still mentally scarred from the start he threw away in this match.

A burrito for the train home and our quick trip was complete. Till the 2015 championship!

Mark Selby wins the 2014 World Championships

Leicester’s son dedicates 18-14 victory over Ronnie O’Sullivan to late father.

It was a superb display of match play from Mark Selby to defeat the two time defending champion O’Sullivan. With only one frame winning break on the opening day of the final it was an amazing achievement to only trail 10-7. Winning the final two frames of Sunday night’s session to close to 10-7 was crucial, it kept Mark in contention and he knew he couldn’t play any worse. 

Refreshed on Monday he raced out of the blocks winning all four frames, razor tight match play prevented O’Sullivan from being able to create any chances. They shared the following two frames, both missing several opportunities/frame balls, however most surprising was O’Sullivan’s miss on the pink in the final frame. Only needing to pot a sitter of a pink into the middle pocket, he tried to power it in and get on the black, subsequently missing and leaving it on for Mark. It showed that the afternoon of excellent match play had left O’Sullivan a little jaded. Mark potted the pink and a tough black to win the frame and lead 12-11 going into the evening session. 

An interesting intro by the BBC in the evening, depicting the Crucible as a Gladiator’s arena while using the score from Batman instead of Russell Crowe’s Gladiator. We then had a line of World Champions next to the table, all very nice except someone should have brought a dinner jacket for Joe Johnson. 

The evening session was much the same as the afternoon, O’Sullivan starting with an impressive large break but then not being able to create opportunities. Selby’s safety throughout was excellent and his long potting consistent, although he wasn’t winning a lot of frames in one visit I don’t remember him missing once in the balls. Therefore he was able to always play a good safety shot if he missed and left no easy chances for Ronnie. 

Unlike previous first time champions I was quite confident that Mark would have no problem getting over the line & I was correct as he sprinted over it. The break in the final frame was a man full of confidence, ready to grab his opportunity. In winning he picked up the biggest cheque in snooker history, a cool £300,000, catapulting him to the top of the new Snooker Money list - looking at the new money list I think the Worlds has too much of a gap over other ranking events, Ding who won five events and isn’t even in the top two on the new ranking system.

 Overall it was a good tournament and much more enjoyable than the previous two. I enjoyed my visit for the quarter finals and have already booked my tickets for next year’s quarters at the time of writing this. The best player won and the overall standard was better than in the previous two years.

I will have a piece about my 2014 visit up in the next few days and we are only a few weeks away from the start of next season.