Snooker

[flammableBen]

Exiting End to the Ronnie vs. Chuang game this afternoon.

Should be a good one.

[land_of_bo]

Hmmm Wenbo...Liang Wenbo

I like his cos his name sounds like land of bo

Right scrappy frame just then between Higgins and Day.

[land_of_bo]

ooooh, that's a bd miss.

Higgins missed a simple black off the spot. He's going off the boil here

[flammableBen]

Oooh. I stopped watching that, might put it back on.

Ken Doherty joins the list of notable players out of the top 16 next season. Mark Williams will be even if he wins it I think, along with Stephen Lee and Mathew Stevens again. Oh and Steve Davis, but to be honest that was really just a matter of time, he's getting on a bit.

[land_of_bo]

I like Ken Doh.

Billy Bunter can fork off back to Trowbridge to Bowyers.  Williams is a miserable cunt. I quite like Davis, shame he'll drop out but he's just not good enough any more. Matthew Stevens is a bit of a chavmeister as well.

I was gutted Selby went out early doors. I went to Newport to watch the final of the Welsh Open in Feb and Selby was ace, coming back to beat Ronnie.

I'd like to see a few of the chinese do well to be honest, make a good change.

[flammableBen]

I agree with them all being cunts apart from Davis, but it does highlight that Snookers going through a bit of a transition.

Selby will get plenty more chances so it's hard to be too gutted. I agree about the remaining Chinese players doing ok would be good.

Was it Higgins who said recently that the World Championship should move out of Sheffield and get played in different venues around the world? I sort of agree with that idea, although the crucible is sort of the home of snooker now.

I can see the China Open (or whatever it's called) raising in importance over the next few years, I would like to see that tellivised on the BBC, even if the times would be odd.

[land_of_bo]

Yeah that was Higgins. He's setting up a World Series of Snooker. Could be interesting.

[flammableBen]

Is that some 8-player invitation thing I vaguely remember reading about, possibly in the same article.

[land_of_bo]

Yeah, to be hosted in countries like Germany, Russia, China where there are rising stars and a growing interest in the sport.

Hope he pulls it off. Will be good for the game.

[flammableBen]

Anybody know the estimates of how many people in China watched the Ding-Fu game? I imagine it was something stupid like the equivalent of the entire population of England or something.

[axs]

I estimate it was 22,312.

[flammableBen]

Does anybody else love watching Ebdon? His concentration is immense. He has a high consistent level of play which could get boring, but then occasionally he goes for a random shot that no other player would try, normally it's an odd safety or shot to nothing that isn't your standard swinging the white back up to baulk effort. I love it when he picks out something which isn't obvious.

I also love it when the bubbling desire beneath his calm exterior erupts through. It obviously means a lot to him, but the concentration he puts in is amazing. You get those moments when you realise that he's playing like an oxymoron, passionate play with concentration, I'm amazed he doesn't go mental.

[Sippo]

John Higgins just thumped the table.    Very unlike him.

[flammableBen]

That was ace. Proper thump it was.

[land_of_bo]

He's losing his mojo