The Snookerbacker Blog

Mr Wonka is down with the kids

Ronnie O’Sullivan aka snooker’s version of Willy Wonka is not content with just coaching his young protege, Charlie Bucket, I mean Joel Walker and is now giving away 147,000 free memberships of Rileys Clubs to youngsters across the country. I hope he’s cleared it with them first.

Thankfully, it appears he has as he tells reporters ‘I’m delighted that Rileys are letting me give away 147,000 Junior Memberships to their clubs. With the summer holidays just around the corner, youngsters will want to try new sports’.

Yes but Ron, don’t you think they might want to be outside? 

He ignores this and goes on: ‘Rileys clubs provide them with a safe environment surrounded by experienced staff. The clubs are good value, and in most cases just down the road. Parents can feel relaxed about them learning my game at Rileys’.

Then everyone’s favourite chocolatier intellectualises things even further by saying ‘Pool and snooker are great for helping youngsters improve their ability to concentrate, and improve their maths. My maths used to be terrible!’

I take his point on snooker improving your maths as long as you specialise in your eight times table, but pool? Come on Ron get a grip any old dunce can understand that.

Put it down or you'll go blind.

Rileys Chief Executive Maurice ‘Mozza’ Kelly said: “Rileys are committed to developing snooker in the UK. We want to work with Ronnie O’Sullivan in every way to encourage young people to play snooker and pool”.

“Our first-ever Future Stars competition attracted nearly 1,000 under 16s trying to become the next Ronnie O’Sullivan. They are the future of the game. We are working at grassroots to give them real opportunities.”

So come on kids, get off your PS3′s, sign off that Facebook account, they aren’t real friends, switch off that music channel that has the scantily clad girls on and put down that ladies lingerie section of the latest catalogue your mum ordered and get a different kind of wand in your hands.

Pick up your cue and go and get one of the free memberships, you could end up being the next Rocket, or failing that a maths teacher.

I’m doing this as a favour to Rileys as our hastily abandoned car didn’t get nicked from outside one of their ‘rough end’ clubs during the Merseyside monsoon season last week.

To find your nearest Rileys club go to www.rileys.co.uk 

When Alex saw red, so did the red tops.

There have been tens of thousands of articles written about the Hurricane during his lifetime and now he has passed away he is still grabbing the headlines.

Years ago he made front pages with headlines like ‘I HATE STEVE DAVIS’, ‘HURRICANE FALLS FROM THIRD FLOOR WINDOW’, ‘HURRICANE URINATES IN WEMBLEY PLANTPOT’, ‘HIGGINS: I’LL HAVE TAYLOR SHOT’ and the like, but today sadly, the newspapers are focusing more on the painfully sad demise of the legend and the circumstances surrounding his death.

It has been obvious to everyone for a long time that Alex was not going to win this final battle despite him defying the odds for many years and still, probably until the very end believing himself to be a top competitive player. But the truth is that despite the offers of help from those closest to him, in particular his great friend Jimmy White, Alex remained his own worst enemy and beyond help.

Sadly, ultimately nobody is to blame for his demise but himself, but that doesn’t make him any less of a legend in snooker, indeed in sport. We were very lucky to have him and the recordings of his brilliance and charisma will stand the test of time, in those and in his prime, he will live on as the Peoples Champion.

For the final word on the Hurricane I will again direct you to Mr Snooker himself Clive Everton here. 

In other news, the BTV Invitational event over in China ended with a home winner in much improving Tian Pengfei who managed to flatten Ryan Day 9-3 in a one sided final. I remember responding to a question about top ten players in five years time on another blog about a year ago and suggested that Tian would be there or thereabouts, to me he is as good as Liang Wenbo and just needs that break in the professional ranks to start racking up the results, I’m pretty sure they will come.

In two other minor events Fergal O’Brien won the Lucan Racing Irish Classic beating Michael Judge in the final and Stephen Lee scooped the Vienna Open with a final win over Bjorn Haneveer. 

The PTC event 3 is underway at the end of the week in Sheffield and I’ll be posting my thoughts on this once I have dissected the draw a little more closely, the usual format will be for me to pick a likely winner (two out of two so far 7/1 and 9/1) and a five man Team Snookerbacker at more generous prices to perhaps cause a shock.

We awake this morning to the news of the death of Alex Higgins who was found dead in his Belfast flat last night. Hacks everywhere will be able to use that pre-prepared obituary that has been pencilled in now for many years.

The end of his life was a relentless battle against illness and at times overshadowed what defined him, his brilliance, his unpredictable often erratic behaviour and his utter genius with a snooker cue. As flawed genius goes he was up there with his fellow Irishman George Best, anyone that is young enough to never have seen him in his prime should start by watching this, it’s widely regarded as possibly the best break ever made and I’m not going to disagree with that. To see how it all began and subsequently panned out I’d recommend anyone to get hold of a copy of ‘I’m no Angel’, you can view part one here.

I’ll recount again my personal experiences of him and the two times that I ‘met’ the Hurricane, in some way it completely describes what kind of person he was:

The first time was during a UK Final against Terry Griffiths when I was a kid, I had tickets for all four sessions and unusually after the first session he just turned up at the bar area on his own to have a drink. As I was a kid I was fearless and immediately went up to him against my dear departed Dad’s advice with my autograph book and addressed him as Mr Higgins (to which he said ‘Call me Alex’), he was really pleasant and kind and signed an autograph personally to me that I still have somewhere to this day. He asked me if I played snooker and what my highest break was, he chatted to me for a couple of minutes then patted me on the head and went to the bar, he smiled at my dad who then duly bought him a pint. I remember also that he laughed when I said I got a bit bored with Steve Davis and he said ‘so do I’. It’s fair to say I was in awe.

The second time was at the Crucible some years later, he was in the middle of a match and he came storming into the bar area in an obvious strop, me and my dad were inadvertantly standing in the way of his path to the door into somewhere or other (practice area I think) and he pushed my dad out of the way and shouted ‘get out of my f*****g way’ – he did it to a couple of others too. This kind of overshadowed the first meeting a bit and somewhat coloured my view of someone I was in awe of prior to this unfortunate incident. But at least he wasn’t holding a hairdryer at the time.

Now regular readers will know that I’m not a religious man, Alex was of course and his death brings to mind a quote by another flawed genius Brian Clough who said ‘When I get to heaven, God will have to give up his favourite chair’.  With Alex there he’ll probably have to give up the keys to his drinks cabinet too.

Whatever you thought of Alex the man, Alex the snooker player we will never see the like of again. Tributes will doubtless be paid throughout the week but I’d prefer to leave this to more experienced journalists than me, such as the brilliant Clive Everton.

Apparently all the money raised for Alex’s dental treatment will be spent on giving him the send off he deserves.

Please feel free to use the comments section of this as a ‘Blog of Condolence’ to the one, the only:

The Hurricane.

Selby: World Champion, well sort of.

Mark Selby captured his second consecutive win with an 8-6 win over Ricky Walden in the final of the World 6 Reds Championship in Thailand earlier today.

This follows his win in the latest PTC event earlier this month.

The Jester is clearly a man in form at the moment and pocketed £40,000 for the achievement and said ‘I’m chuffed to bits to win, especially as it’s back-to-back titles’.

‘I played really solid and did what I had to do’.

‘I’m really happy because Six Reds is such a lottery, anyone can win it, especially when there are so many top-class players who are in it’.

Let’s hope he hasn’t peaked way way too early.

In other trivia, Bazza has echoed the thoughts of 99.9% of snooker fans by giving Ronnie a piece of his mind with regard to his daft comment about the World Championship.

After a drunken midnight rant down the old dog and bone by Fred Done, Baz came out and said: ‘Ronnie must have been asleep for the past 12 months, snooker is buzzing now with new tournaments coming on stream’.

“Ronnie has a laddish lifestyle and plenty of money thanks to snooker. I am staggered he has written off the tournament which made him a household name as ‘boring’.”

I think that’s called never bite the hand that feeds. Silly comments from Ron that should really be forgotten, if only busybody blog writers didn’t keep on bringing it up over and over again. Ooops.

Maybe our Ron should just stick to being his own harshest critic. He’s good at that.

Ronnie: Happy Camper

There is an interesting article this morning in the Scottish Sun, interesting mainly because, wait for it, ‘his own harshest critic’ Ronnie O’Sullivan spent the time cracking jokes with the reporter! It’s true!

In the interview the ever cheerful Rocket laments that even though his recent split from his girlfriend cost him the best part of £6million meaning he had to give back his best flashy car, he is nevertheless ‘in a good place’.

Surprisingly, given that he once accused former world domination tyrant Stephen Hendry of having ‘a sad little life’ he wishes this upon his kids, he says ‘If you’re a father, you’d love your son to turn out like Hendry. I’d be over the moon if my children grew to be like him. It’d be better than winning the lottery’.

He describes going to school and studying as a ‘misspent youth’ rather than the one he had and again says that the time up to 16 years of age for him was ‘ the happiest days of my life’ which I actually find quite sad.

But he is clearly relaxed and happy despite losing all that dosh and his treasured motor, no doubt bolstered by the recent release of his dad from prison. I remember them from when Ronnie was young and they were inseperable, his dad was quite a character, a ‘once-met never-forgotten’ type of bloke and I have to say I liked him. But then again Gazza liked Rauol Moat.

He then moves on to his love/hate relationship with snooker and again heaps praise on Hendry. He reveals that he feels uncomfortable with the walk-on music, though perhaps if he hadn’t started with that dreadful ‘Ali in the Jungle’ song he’d not be so scathing, you have to ask though that if he doesn’t like that kind of thing how will he cope with Power Snooker and all the razzmatazz that will surround him there?

Mags: Minimum Man

Anyway, the full article is available here.

Updates on the snooker this week sees the BTV Invitational heading for the final stages with semi-finals between Stephen Maguire and Ryan Day, with an all Chinese clash in the other one between Liang Wenbo and Tian Pengfei. More over at 110.sport here. Glaswegian Skinhead Maguire has missed two gilt-edged chances at maximums already.

Over in Bangkok the 6 Red World Championship final is between Mark Selby and Ricky Walden who each came through their semi-finals on final frame deciders.

To check on the progress of the final click here, unless of course you can find Modernine TV, in which case you can watch it from 8am this morning.

Be careful who you trust

You don’t mess with Barry Hearn, if you have a cunning plan, he’ll have one that is more cunning, if you know a dirty trick, he knows a dirtier one, and if you even think about cheating, our Baz will kick you out and hang you out to dry.

That’s the message that comes through loud and clear as our Baz sets up his anti-corruption unit to flush out any wrongdoers from snooker. He is even threatening to send out ‘snouts’; undercover agents that will test the players integrity, there’s nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.

Bazza, who has made giving snooker a whiter-than-white image his top priority, said: “We need to install (I think he means instill but never mind)  the fear factor among players. There will be confidential phone numbers and email addresses and if tour players know or hear of anything illegal, they must report it”.

A bit like Crimestoppers, maybe it could be called Potstoppers.

“If they are approached about anything illegal and don’t report it, they will be judged to be as guilty as the person making the approach.”

And he further warned the terrified players: “During the year you may get a few little testers. We might just want to know ourselves that everyone is following the rules.”

So next time Fat Larry from Croyden approaches you to lose the first frame for a tidy sum, think twice boys, it could be one of Barry’s henchmen in disguise.

I’ve just noticed online that the Daily Mail (spits) is reporting that Barry also indicated yesterday that the John Higgins case will be heard before the end of August, this is longer than we were led to believe a few weeks back when it was supposed to be done and dusted within 28 days. 

Away from this kind of thing the frankly pretty poor coverage of the BTV event continues over at 110sport here and the 6-Red event is drawing to a close with the results here, Mark Selby looking like continuing his excellent form to win it. I’m glad I didn’t get tempted to have a bet on it as I would have lost.

Meanwhile the fall out from Ronnie’s silly remarks about the World Championship yesterday continue, Barry doesn’t seem to mind that Ronnie just says the first thing that enters his head and still trots him out for press launches, at least he’s making snooker ‘news’ again. To hear the gruesome twosome talking about the new craze that’s sweeping the nation; Power Snooker click here. To hear Ronnie qualifying why he said the World Championship was boring click here (UK only, sorry).

As a footnote, judging by this video, the Power Snooker people might just have a copyright issue on their hands. It appears the Australians got there way ahead of them.

Oh yes, one more thing, I now have the honour of contributing a weekly song to a very fine blog by one of the more rounded Betfair forumites, it’s an excellent gambling blog covering all sports, he’s currently glued to the darts. You can find him by clicking here.

Ronnie: Sometimes talks rubbish.

While promoting Power Snooker with amongst other things this video Ronnie O’Sullivan (his own harshest critic) also took the opportunity to voice his opinions about the pinnacle of the sport the World Championship, describing it as ‘boring’.

‘I’ve got to be honest, I find the World Championship really boring,” said O’Sullivan.

”I’ve won it three times but 17 days in Sheffield is draining. People just want to pitch up and play”.

”Anything new is a challenge. I definitely think this is the future of snooker. It is just that a few people have got to get their heads around it. It is the year 2010 and we are not stuck in the 1970s anymore”.

”Snooker needs a new audience and the idea of a game coming to an end in 30 minutes is exciting”.

”I can understand that people still like their long endurance games, but for me the excitement of playing a game that keeps you on your toes, keeps you on your edge, is something I am really looking forward to”.

”It is going to change snooker. The crowd will love it and the public will enjoy it. I cannot find a flaw in it. You just want some excitement in your life and this brings excitement.”

While I understand Ronnie wants to promote this new venture, he really does sometimes need to wind his neck in. It’s a gimmick, it will probably be a good laugh, but it ain’t the World Championships Ron, you haven’t won that for a while have you?

Barry was a little less outspoken in his thoughts and simply said ”We are 100% behind Power Snooker. In this new time for World Snooker, it is important for us to embrace new formats and new ideas. World Snooker welcome the Power Snooker event which we hope will bring new audiences and new fans to the sport.”

I think this is a little more balanced, the thought of a diamond shaped pack of reds and Power Zones coming to the Crucible would definitely be a mistake, I think Barry knows that.

Fight the Power: Ronnie's loving it.

I’ve just had the official rundown from the dudes at Power Snooker following the launch this morning with Ronnie and Bazza. Rather than commenting on it at this stage, I have just copied the whole lot below.

Power Snooker is an innovative and explosive re-working of the traditional game and an exciting and interactive experience for both the live and television audience. It is high impact and fast moving snooker in an exciting format never seen before.

The Power Snooker phenomenon has been created by Rod Gunner, together with Ed Simons, it has been fully endorsed and sanctioned by Barry Hearn’s World Snooker and will form part of the World Snooker calendar of events. It’s only fitting that snooker legend Ronnie “The Rocket” O’Sullivan will front this high-octane version of the sport.

Invitations have gone out to current World Champion Neil Robertson, Chinese prodigy Ding Junhui, Mark Selby, Ali Carter, Shaun Murphy, Belgian wonder-kid Luca Brecel and the irrepressible Jimmy White. The final lineup to be announced very soon.

In Power Snooker, it’s points that count, not frames. A PowerBall and a PowerZone deliver double points and the game is presented in an energetic, contemporary style, which will deliver excitement, tension and spectacle.

The eight hour global premiere will be broadcast by ITV Sport, live on ITV4, and talkSPORT are the Power Snooker National radio partner.

The event itself will consist of two sessions:

The afternoon session from 1pm to 5pm will include all eight players in the first round knock out

The evening session from 6pm to 10pm will feature the two semi finals, 3rd & 4th play offs and the Grand Final.

Following the global premiere, it is anticipated that a series of Grand Prix events will take place around the world with a Grand Final back in the UK, more information to follow shortly

Ronnie O’Sullivan commented, “I’m delighted to endorse Power Snooker; having tried it out, it’s the kind of game I wish I’d have thought of myself!”

A picture for all the boys at Snooker Island

Rod Gunner commented, “It had struck me for some time that the game of snooker needed a new and exciting transfusion. Having seen how Twenty20 cricket has revitalised that sport, I am delightedto have come up with the concept of Power Snooker and seen the positive reaction from within the game. To have the opportunity to have our global premiere at the IndigO2, broadcast live on ITV, with talkSPORT as our national radio partner and the support of Barry Hearn’s World Snooker, is the best possible result I could have wished for.”

Jamie is as happy as a pig in mud.

As expected Jamie Cope is the main beneficiary of the ongoing suspension of John Higgins who it has now been confirmed is ineligible to compete in the first full ranking event of the season, the Shanghai Masters.

Cope, currently ranked 17 in the world has been promoted to 16th following Higgins official kicking out. This means he won’t have to play the ever tricky final qualifying round to make it onto the plane to China.

Other beneficiaries are Mike Dunn, Rod Lawler and James Watanna, who though still having to qualify now play one match less than they would have done had Higgins been included.

The fact that Higgins is likely to also be booted out of the second event the World Open will mean that he will officially lose the tag of World No.1 and this will be handed to World Champion Neil Robertson.

The latest from the BTV invitational event which saw Stephen Hendry dumped out yesterday is here and the latest from the 6-Red event where Mark Williams crashed out in the knockout stage is here. The three I flagged as interest bets, Greene, Perry and Watanna are all through to the last 16.