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.

ITV extend their interest in Snooker

Barry Hearn has just announced a five year extension of the Champion of Champions event on ITV4. Due to the success of last years CoC ITV4 have also signed up for a new non ranking event called the World Grand Prix.

At this stage all we know is that the prize pool will be £300,000 with the winner taking away £100,000 and only the top 32 on the money list will be eligible. The event will make it's debut in early March 2015.

The CoC event will only feature tournament winners this November, winners from EPTC's, APTC will be invited. In the likely event that there isn't 16 individual tournament winners Barry said they would even invite the Shoot out and Seniors champions.

Barry was also very positive about the increasing viewing figures from Eurosport & the BBC during this years World Championship. However he stated he would be having discussions with the BBC over some of their coverage, specifically over the leaving matches at crucial times in order to show a repeat.

2013 UK Championships Preview

I think this year’s UK Championships might be the most important for a long time. It’s the first time Barry Hearn’s new flat 128 player draw is being played on the BBC, the sport’s most prestigious broadcaster.  It is widely regarded that the World Championships fate in Sheffield goes hand in hand with the BBC’s commitment to continue broadcasting the event.

From the onset I think this tournament looks badly thought out, with the two organisations idea’s of a good event clashing. The event starts today but the main coverage doesn’t being until the traditional Saturday, with the top four seeds opening matches held over for Saturday. The BBC has negotiated that the draw is seeded, so the 1^st seed plays the 128^th and so on – in an effort to protect the bigger names of the sport. So Saturday see’s the four top seeds playing amateurs in what I expect will be extremely one sided matches, not the best of starts.  

In the past the BBC had complained about matches happening away from the TV cameras and the event being harder to follow. This is only going to be magnified as so many matches are crammed into a 13 day period. You could have Shaun Murphy losing to a rank outsider and not have any highlights of the match. 

Last week at the Champion of Champions the top players voiced their opinions that the tour lacks rewarding events for the top players. I personally think with the rolling ranking system its fair that the top 32 all qualify for the UK championship with the remaining 64 playing each other for the remaining 32 places. With the first round taking place at Gloucester, so when we get to the event we only have 32 players. The event can have a more structured feel and supporters can work out when and where their favorite players will be playing – something that is impossible with the current system.  

It’s going to be very interesting to see how it plays out on the BBC, which attracts higher UK viewing figures & more general fans who will be experiencing this new set up for the first time.

I’ve picked out my five favorites for the title.

Ronnie O’Sullivan

Only a week after winning the Champion of Champions the Rocket looks to be playing quite well, his all round game and aura will make him hard to beat. 

Neil Robertson

Is having a very good season, with almost 50 centuries to his name Neil is creating chances and finishing them in one visit almost every time. His safety play is as good as anyone and with the Wuxi title already under his belt it’ll take someone playing very well to defeat the young Aussie.

Mark Selby

It was a very slow start to the campaign for Mark, however in the last few weeks he looks to have stepped it up just at the right time – with the defence of his UK and Masters crowns coming up. Along with John Higgins he is the most capable of defeating an inform O’Sullivan & if he gets to the later stages he will be very hard to defeat.

Mark Allen

He is a bit of a wildcard but if he is on form he will be a formidable opponent as he has shown in two ETPC’s this season in Germany and Antwerp. He should be feeling confident off the back of those triumphs and along with Ding Junhui he has been the form man of the last two months.

Ding Junhui

Everyone knows that he won three ranking events on the spin earlier this season, becoming the first person since Stephen Hendry to achieve this feat. However his faultless technique and added bottle makes him a fearsome opponent. He was only beaten at the last minute by O’Sullivan in the Champion of Champions and was slightly unlucky so his confidence should still be sky high.

Ronnie O’Sullivan is Champion of Champions

After defeating Stuart Bingham 10-8 in last night’s final. 

The inaugural 888.com Champion of Champions ended last night with the current World Champion proving he is still the man to beat in major tournaments. While he or Stuart didn’t play their best in the final it was always a tight match with O’Sullivan having enough to pull away at the end. 

Just before the Masters and the UK Ronnie has reasserted himself as the man to beat, defeated the two players of the season Neil Robertson & Ding Junhui in final frame deciders on route to the final. He might not have been at his fluent best this week but he showed he still has an aura about him and a grit and determination to win. 

Stuart Bingham had a great week, playing some excellent snooker & looked genuinely gutted in his post match interview last night. A little more sharpness when break building under pressure and the result might have been different last night. However it almost feels unfair comparing anyone’s break building with O’Sullivan. 

This event has been a rip-roaring success and I can see it only getting stronger over the next few years. All credit to Matchroom for setting up an excellent event and ITV for their impressive coverage, strengthening from their Haikou World Open coverage.  A few tweaks in production and maybe the scheduling is required. The first match should start an hour earlier so there is more of a break between afternoon and evening sessions. Contradicting that I also felt the first round was slightly too short given the pedigree of match ups. 

However this fits nicely into the calendar at this time and builds up nicely to the UK Championship, which starts on Tuesday.