snooker world championship final

up the trump

It's slipping away for the youngster.

needs to turn the adrenaline tap down

Yeah, he's not a great safety player yet by a long way. Great pots are great, but this is the world championship final, you need to be the best at multiple things at once.

Yeah, he's smacking shots all over.
to be fair, he is only 21 and he is handling it pretty well considering.

When he calms down and learns more safety play, maybe over the next couple of years, he'll be untouchable.

Higgins' steady perfection can be boring compared to the Trumps and Ronnies of this world, but boy does it get him frames you'd think were long gone

Not often you see Higgins pick the wrong shot - wtf was he thinking with that cut? He's been watching too much of that Trump fella.

I don't see Higgins losing this now, not anymore.

No pressure at all here for Higgins!

From BBC i player

From Russell, on text: "You probably won't publish this as it's not pro-Trump, but he's anti-snooker. He's a glorified pool player going for every shot without a thought for positioning. It's just thump thump thump in the hope the balls go in. Comparisons to O'Sullivan are an insult given his cue control. Unsurprisingly I'm very much in Higgins' camp."

What a finish! Cost me a few quid but well done John Higgins.

Worthy winner, but the end of a generation, possibly? That Ding/Trump match was some taster of what's to come, imho.

Fuvk you, Hazel. You got him to cry by dragging his dad into this again. Hope you're happy.

What poor sod has to hoover all that up :(

Fuvk you, Hazel.

Seriously.

The Crewcible cru will. Xpost

lol typo, but you know what I mean. This whole "tears = zoom in = emotion = good TV" formula pisses me off every damn time.

cheat came good, we're all happy.

That Hazel Irvine shit was some shameless tear-chasing bullshit.

Awesome finish! It was really nice of John to say that Judd was the better player (in a convincing manner n'all). He knows that this victory was due in a large part to more complete matchplay and experience to get him over the line.

Wouldn't say 'glorified pool player' but his cue control gets rough at points (why he needs those long pots!), which lapses into pressure that lead to that pink missed off the spot. But Judd's cue control, shot selection and safety (cause they all need 'em) will get better.

I'd say Murphy's run of potting to win the title unexpectedly a few years ago was far more underrated just as Judd's run to become runner-up is overrated. And to just compare to past players he is certainly not as exciting as Ronnie or Mark. The former had amazing cue control (and was just so fast! and then we found out he could play left handed!), the latter was just a revelation as a long potter (and had an even better temperament). And when John first arrived, his shot selection and safety were incredible, too.

300k pays for a lot of tears

twat bastard bollocks twat bastard

Lu Ning looks like a possible One To Watch. The 18-year-old wildcard entry to China Open just knocked in back to back centuries vs Murphy to lead 4-2.

He's "Lu Ning" ("learning") the game fast!

Luca Brecel just beat Mark King 10-8 and has now qualified for the final. He will be the youngest player ever at 17 and one and a half months old (Hendry was 17 and three months) - and the first Belgian ever too, obv.

Heard of Brecel before Trump.

Can't wait to see him.

so yeah, here's some infographics to explain snooker to Belgians: http://www.standaard.be/extra/snooker

Is Hendry suddenly back to his best?

Don't want.

John Higgins must have made a fortune this week eh?

Not even as joke please - you'd send Steve Davis on suicide watch.

Beyond seeds crashing the erm, 'culture clash' has been of interest.

I liked Hearn's quote about Mark Allen's "cheating Chinese" tweets:

"Now is a very good time to be a snooker player, it's not a good time to be an idiot."

Terry Griffiths has been a bit mental in his commentary - he said something yesterday about a player (either Higgins or Cao, can't remember) losing confidence after a run of needlessly lost frames that went something like "you lose faith in yourself... you question your value... you feel utterly worthless inside... and that's being kind..."

He also said a player should "open the doors in his mind to positive thoughts".

I wish John Virgo would stop going WHERE'S THE CUE BALL GOING all the time when it's clearly not going to go in.

Anyone watching this Trump/Carter final frame nailbiter stuff? I think I'm gonna just look at something else now, this isn't healthy

Actually thought Trump was going to, er, trump Carter there with all those snookers. Carter v lucky not to give a free ball away.

I know people love an underdog but it kind of annoys me when guys who can't win the tournament beat guys who can - especially when it's someone like Trump who goes for all sorts of shots.

Carter seems a good guy though, bit of a geezer in' 'e

I don't think we'll ever see him do a fist pump like that again until he's 120% certain it's really really REALLY in the bag.

Man. This sport. First that Carter/Trump stuff, now THIS from Ronnio:

Foul and a miss, Mark Williams four.

I wish John Virgo would stop going WHERE'S THE CUE BALL GOING all the time when it's clearly not going to go in.

― StanM, Monday, 30 April 2012 16:01 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ronnie just went in-off to the echoes of that very phrase.

A couple of years ago I visited an old aunt and, noting his portrait on her mantelpiece, asked her why she was such a big fan of John Virgo.

It turned out to be Padre Pio
http://www.padrepio.org.uk/images/@image_padre_pio_photo01.jpg

What's his maximum break like?

dunno but he was known to take advantage of the stigmata when faced with an awkward bridge

Hendry just lost 13-2 to Maguire and according to the Eurosport guys he told the press conference he's retiring.

snooker players can be so over-dramatic

Good way to go I suppose - knock in a 147 and beat the World Champion before giving a fellow Scot a bye into the semis.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/snooker/17917326 <- just a short bit at the mo, with "more to follow"

"I am officially retired now from tournament snooker," he said. "I made the decision about three months ago."

Hearn: it was the wrong decision. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/snooker/17923450

Have they always had this subtle wave effect thingy in the yellow score boxes on BBC TV? I suddenly noticed and now it's, well, almost distracting I suppose.

I noticed it last year and it annoyed me (and made me wonder how long they'd had it).