Snooker 2017

[ACVilla]

Ermmm... nah. Maybe the sort of people who only bother watching football when Man U are involved, but I think snooker (in Britain) tends to be watched by an older demographic who have been watching since long before O'Sullivan came along.

Not a great long term proposal for the game is it.

[cdbearsfan]

The game is bigger than it has ever been. Just not in Britain. The domestic viewing figures were always going to diminish from the massive totals of the eighties when people went from having three or four channels to having hundreds (plus catch-up, streaming, DVDS, etc).

It still attracts far better viewing figures than most daytime telly, but clearly doesn't compete with the likes of Eastenders and Coronation Street in the evening (not helped by the fact that generally only show an hour or so in the later sessions until the semi-finals).

Pleased Ding recovered from four-nil down to beat John "Bung" Higgins. Surely the best sporting comeback of the day? 😜

[cdbearsfan]

World Championship starts tomorrow. My favourite sporting event of the year.

Have gone for Trump at 9/2 and an outside bet on Kyren Wilson at 50/1. Both are in the easier part of the draw.

The top half looks deadly, with Selby, Neil Robertson, Fu, Murphy, Ding and O'Sullivan all in it.

If my bets don't come in, I'd like to see Ding win. He's replaced Jimmy White as the greatest player never to have won it, imo.

Hopefully O'Sullivan doesn't win, he's a great player but also a massive twat.

[somec]

World Championship starts tomorrow. My favourite sporting event of the year.

Have gone for Trump at 9/2 and an outside bet on Kyren Wilson at 50/1. Both are in the easier part of the draw.

The top half looks deadly, with Selby, Neil Robertson, Fu, Murphy, Ding and O'Sullivan all in it.

If my bets don't come in, I'd like to see Ding win. He's replaced Jimmy White as the greatest player never to have won it, imo.

Hopefully O'Sullivan doesn't win, he's a great player but also a massive twat.

Which bookie did you go with? Quite a few of them have promos on.

 Ladbrokes, back an outright tournament winner with at least a tenner and get a 2 quid free bet for every century break they make. Toals had a similar promo but stake 20 quid and get a 2 quid free bet for every game they win.

[cdbearsfan]

Didn't think to look for promos! Stupid boy.

I went with Bet365 for Trump. They're my main bookie, I feel a sense of loyalty to them as they are just about the only one that regularly has good offers for existing members. One of which led to me winning £1,100 last year.

I went with Stan James for Wilson as they had him at 50-1, whereas all the others had him at 40s. As a new customer I get a free bet of the same value once my initial outlay has been settled.

[Villafirst]

World Championship starts tomorrow. My favourite sporting event of the year.

Have gone for Trump at 9/2 and an outside bet on Kyren Wilson at 50/1. Both are in the easier part of the draw.

The top half looks deadly, with Selby, Neil Robertson, Fu, Murphy, Ding and O'Sullivan all in it.

If my bets don't come in, I'd like to see Ding win. He's replaced Jimmy White as the greatest player never to have won it, imo.

Hopefully O'Sullivan doesn't win, he's a great player but also a massive twat.

I hope O'Sullivan wins. Best player ever to grace the game.

[cdbearsfan]

It's close, but I would still give it to Hendry. I think if both players were at their best it would be impossible to separate them. Indeed, I remember a session at the Crucible which finished 4-4 when they both played the best I've ever seen two players play. I think there were seven centuries in the afternoon, or something stupid like that.

Where I think Hendry has the edge is that he would be more capable of winning if both players were slightly below their best. Peak O'Sullivan threw in far more shock defeats against players that should never have been good enough to compete against him than Peak Hendry did.

I also think that, had he not got "the Yips", Hendry could have won nine or ten World titles in which case there wouldn't even be a debate as to who was better.

1 Stephen Hendry
2 Ronnie O'Sullivan
3 John Higgins
4 Steve Davis
5 Mark Selby
6 Mark Williams
7 Alex Higgins
8 Joe Davis
9 Ray Reardon
10 Neil Robertson
11 Ding Junhui
12 Jimmy White
13 Peter Ebdon
14 Ken Doherty
15 Judd Trump
16 John Spencer
17 Cliff Thorburn
18 John Parrott
19 Dennis Taylor
20 Terry Griffiths

Top twenty ever, imo. Have probably missed someone obvious.

[cdbearsfan]

Fu vs Brecel, match of the tournament so far.

[devilla]

Fu vs Brecel, match of the tournament so far.

Agreed. Great result for Rory McLeod tonight, that's one of the favorites out. Trump did have a shoulder injury though and looked quite out of sorts.

Big one tomorrow night with O'Sullivan playing Murphy. That could could be very interesting, bit of needle between those two.

[cdbearsfan]

Didn't take long for the curse of me betting on him to get rid of Trump.

Some excellent looking Round Two matches:

Murphy v O'Sullivan
Ding v Liang
Fu v Robertson
Allen v Higgins

[DB]

I see that chap is back this year next to the players, wears a different Cov top every day.

[peter w]

Midnight here in istanbul and too tired to stay up for the rest of Fu v Robertson. 11-11. Robertson missing some unbelievably 'easy' shots. fu should have gone 11-10 up but missed a relatively straight forward black and lost. We've had in-offs, fouls for waistcoats touching the balls, flukes, loss of positions, and some great pots (mostly from Fu as the match progresses. Whose bottle will stand up? Fu, just potted a good red and now the yellow. 11-11 3-0. Good place to end for the night.

[devilla]

Midnight here in istanbul and too tired to stay up for the rest of Fu v Robertson. 11-11. Robertson missing some unbelievably 'easy' shots. fu should have gone 11-10 up but missed a relatively straight forward black and lost. We've had in-offs, fouls for waistcoats touching the balls, flukes, loss of positions, and some great pots (mostly from Fu as the match progresses. Whose bottle will stand up? Fu, just potted a good red and now the yellow. 11-11 3-0. Good place to end for the night.

Marco Fu looking favourite for me, standing up to the pressure better. The second cracking match he's been involved in.

[four fornicholl]

What a kick that was.

[German James]

What a kick that was.

Awful! The poor sod!