Fatty Facesitter's Snooker Loopy thread

[deathrey]

I have wondered if there is some undiagnosed ADHD/neurodiversity though I'm sure with his wealth of involvement from therapist etc it's probably been explored. I think it was John Virgo who said he is the greatest sportsman of all time and given the level he is playing at at the lofty (for sport) age of 48, I really think he may be.

Edited January 21 by deathrey

[SuperBacon]

Ronnie's withdrawn from the Welsh Open due to stage fright.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/feb/10/ronnie-osullivan-withdraws-from-welsh-open-snooker-due-to-stage-fright-anxiety

[Pork Pie]

Sorry for the live discussion but Gary Wilson is in good form in his match against John Higgins. In the first frame he was on for a 147 and missed the second to last red, then in the second he did make a 147.

[Pork Pie]

Gary Wilson beat Martin O'Donnell 9-4 to win the Welsh Open. Wilson is having a decent year or so. He's won the last two Scottish Opens and not forgetting his 147 last week too. O'Donnell can be a bit slow when playing but it's always nice to see a lower ranked player have a good run in a tournament. The money and ranking points can be life changing. 

The Players Championship starts tonight on ITV (ITV4 most likely) which consists of the top 16 players on the 1-year ranking list. 

Here's the line up I copied and pasted from Eurosport:

Monday February 19th

7pm

 

 

• Judd Trump v Chris Wakelin
• Ding Junhui v John Higgins

Tuesday February 20th

1pm

• Mark Williams v Mark Allen
• Gary Wilson v Hossein Vafaei

7pm

• Ronnie O'Sullivan v Zhou Yuelong
• Tom Ford v Ali Carter

Wednesday February 21st

1pm

• Barry Hawkins v Mark Selby
• Zhang Anda v Noppon Saengkham

[Gus Mears]

Was delighted to watch Selby batter O'Sullivan the other day. It's the best match in snooker and Selby has had such a shit time off the table recently that I think few would begrudge him a win in this tournament.

So, he'll inevitably lose to Zhang Anda this evening.

[wordsfromlee]

I've just flicked the TV over onto Channel 5 to check out that Snooker 900.

It's fucking shit. I think they've seen the popularity of things like T20 and The Hundred in cricket and hoped it would transfer to snooker. It just makes it loads worse and the playing is so sloppy because they're playing to a timer.

[Gus Mears]

Delighted to say I'm not watching this shower of shit.

 

Bigger crowds at the English Open qualifiers in Leicester. Not that it matters of course.

Edited March 4 by Gus Mears

[SuperBacon]

Is that Lisowski?

[Gus Mears]

23 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

Is that Lisowski?

Nah, that's Ken Doherty mate.

[Pork Pie]

The mixed doubles last night was not a great standard with eight frames taking over five hours to play. But sometimes I don't mind terrible snooker as I still quite enjoyed it. 

Today is the final day of mixed doubles, tomorrow the Tour Championship starts and then it's almost time for the World Championship. Some big names are having to play the qualifiers. Neil Robertson, Stuart Bingham and Jack Lisowski need to qualify. 

[The Gaffer]

On 3/31/2024 at 12:19 PM, Pork Pie said:

The mixed doubles last night was not a great standard with eight frames taking over five hours to play. But sometimes I don't mind terrible snooker as I still quite enjoyed it. 

Today is the final day of mixed doubles, tomorrow the Tour Championship starts and then it's almost time for the World Championship. Some big names are having to play the qualifiers. Neil Robertson, Stuart Bingham and Jack Lisowski need to qualify. 

Really looking forward to the worlds this year. 

I've not watched any snooker this season so I'm coming in blind. The golden ball thing gave me that classic sports washing disenfranchisement buzz and as good as it was, the exposure and furore around O'Sullivan's movie ("Did you know he's not just moody but also proper deep?") kind of burned me out on him for the first time. 

Any particular bullet points heading into it this year? I'm thinking people expected to do well, people you'd expect to do well who are having a shite season. It's always the time of year for the house that Fatty Facesitter built to become UKFF's grandest stage of them all. 

I'll probably go for Ronnie. It'll be history, won't it. 

[Pork Pie]

The next 17 days will be the World Championship. One of my favourite times of the year.

I watched a bit of the qualifiers which had a few surprises. Stuart Bingham came very close to losing but just got over the line, Jack Lisowski looked pretty good in wining his matches and Dominic Dale has reached the main stages for the first time in ten years. The biggest surprise though is that for the first time in 20 years Neil Robertson won’t be in the tournament. He lost 10-9 to Jamie Jones.

Here’s my predictions for the first round:

First-round:

Luca Brecel vs David Gilbert

This is a tough one. Brecel hasn’t shown anything this season that makes me believe he can win again this year. But he didn’t show any form to make me believe he’d win last year and he ended up playing ridiculously good and beating Mark Selby in the final.

Gilbert seems to save his best snooker for the world championship. He’s such a solid player but often falls short of killing matches off.

Overall I have to go with Brecel. I think coming out as world champion will light a fire inside him and he’ll get over the line. Gilbert will push him but run put of steam. I don’t think Brecel will get past the last eight though.

Winner: Luca Brecel

Robert Milkins v Pang Junxu

Pang plays some very good snooker and I expect to see him at many more world championships. Milkins has the experience and standard of play that will see him thourgh though

Ali Carter v Stephen Maguire

Ali Carter has been one of the top players of the season. Maguire hasn’t really done anything of note. It has to be a Carter win. I think he’ll go quite far into the tournament.

Shaun Murphy v Lyu Haotian

Murphy won the Championship League at the start of the season and got to the Semi-finals of The Masters. Other than that’s he been quiet.

Lyu is a decent player but hasn’t been in many later stages of tournaments and I can’t see him doing so this time.

Winner: Shaun Murphy

Mark Selby v Joe O’Connor

Joe O’Connor can be a tricky player to play against but I don’t think he’ll be enough to beat one of the Crucible Kings. Selby hasn’t always been at his best this season but he’s been in good form recently.

Kyren Wilson v Dominic Dale

I’m looking forward to seeing the weirdness of Dominic Dale back at the Crucible. He will likely sing a song and do that cue balancing thing that he does. He’s had a decent season for someone who is in the later years of their career.

I’m glad to see Dale make it to the main stage and although Wilson has had a poor season, I don’t see Dale winning.

Winner: Kyren Wilson

John Higgins v Jamie Jones

Jamie Jones will be feeling confident after beating Neil Robertson to get to the main stages. Higgins still shows moments of greatness but just not enough to win tournaments these days. I wouldn’t be surprised if I end up being wrong but I’m actually going to say Jones wins this match.

Winner: Jamie Jones

Mark Allen v Robbie Williams

Robbie Williams is a decent player but Mark Allen will be too much for him. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Allen get to the later stages again this year.

Winner: Mark Allen

Judd Trump v Hossein Vafaei

Trump is my second choice to win this year but he’s been given a tough opening match. Vafaei has had quite a quiet season but has looked good in his qualifier matches. I don’t think many players can stop Trump at the moment so I think he will win but I doubt Vafaei will make it easy for him. This should be a very good match.

Winner: Judd Trump

Tom Ford v Ricky Walden

This is quite a hard match to predict. Ricky Walden came very close to defeating Luca Brecel in the first round last year which would have massively changed things, the obvious being that we would have had a different world champion. Tom Ford is a great break builder and I think he’s quite underrated. I think Fords break building will see him win this one.

Winner: Tom Ford

Zhang Anda v Jak Jones

Zhang Anda has been in the form of his career this season. O’Sullivan and Trump have been players of the season but I’d put Zhang up there with Carter and Gary Wilson for being in-form players this season.

Jones had a fantastic run in the world championship last year and looked really good.

This is tough but I’ve got to go with Zhang because of the form he’s been in this season.

Winner: Zhang Anda

Mark Williams v Si Jiahui

Si had an incredible run last year at the world championship reaching the semi-finals. He should have been in the final having led Brecel 14-5 only to then lose 17-15. At the start of this season he got to the final of the German Masters but lost to Judd Trump 10-5. I thought this was the start of Si having a good season but he’s not done much since then.

Mark Williams has had a decent season with winning the British Open and then a few weeks ago coming from 5-3 down to beat Ronnie O’Sullivan 10-5 at the Tour Championship. That has to be one of his best tournament wins ever so he should be feeling confident.

Winner: Mark Williams

Ding Junhui v Jack Lisowski

Jack Lisowski will play some incredible snooker before losing interest. Ding will keep things tight with his great break building which will win him the match.

Winner: Ding Junhui

Gary Wilson v Stuart Bingham

Bingham has had a terrible couple of seasons and looks like his best days are behind him, but he loves to come through the qualifiers and go on to make it deep into the tournament.

Wilson has been one of the best players this season and is starting to look like he belongs in the later stages of tournaments.

You can never count Bingham out but I’m going for a Gary Wilson win on how good he’s been this season.

Winner: Gary Wilson

Barry Hawkins v Ryan Day

Ryan Day hasn’t done much this season. He had a very good 2022/2023 season but has dipped out of form this time around.

Barry Hawkins won the European Masters at the start of the season and has made a couple of semi-finals. Not his best ever season but it does include a tournament win and I think he’ll be fine getting to the second round.

Winner: Barry Hawkins

Ronnie O’Sullivan v Jackson Page

Jackson Page had a decent showing last year by beating Barry Hawkins in the first round before being destroyed in the second round by his father figure Mark Williams.

Ronnie O’Sullivan is on another level. When he’s been at his best this season only a few players such as Trump and Selby could stand a chance of stopping him. This has to be an O’Sullivan win. I don’t see Page getting close to the win here.

Winner: Ronnie O’Sullivan

Tournament Winner: Ronnie O’Sullivan

He’s had the best season of his career and could end up winning the triple crown series in the same season for the first time in his career. Not forgetting that he’d also overtake Hendrys record by winning his 8th World Title.

Judd Trump would be my second prediction. He’s had a fantastic season and won 22 matches without defeat earlier in the season.

 

 

 

[The Gaffer]

Well that was a belter of a first day. Gilbert clinches it from Brecel 9-10 and knocks the champ out! 

[Pork Pie]

At times it looked like Luca was trying what he did last year. Pulling out crazy shots to make something happen. But it's a risky way of playing and more often than not you're going to get caught out. 

Joe O’Connor is leading 7-2 after the first session against Mark Selby. I like O’Connor and if he can keep improving he could be a top 16 player for a good few years. Although I'm not counting Selby out. If anyone can come back from being 7-2 down it's Selby. 

[The Gaffer]

Gotta feel for lovely Ding, crashing out again like that. Delighted for Lisowski though, hopefully he has a great run. With that excellent match and Ronnie coming up today too it feels like the tournament finally has a bit of lift off. This marathon of a thing always tends to take a few days.