The Snookerbacker Blog

He'll need to concentrate for just one more day.

It’s been over a year now since Ronnie O’Sullivan won a snooker tournament. That is hard to believe of someone with such an immense gift for the game, but it’s a fact. Ron simply doesn’t win tournaments anymore.

He reached the final of a recent PTC event and even held a commanding lead but ended up losing 4-3 to Barry Pinches. Now I know this was only a small event but nevertheless can we read anything into it? Can Ronnie win again? Well, today we might go some way to finding out.

Anyway, before I move on to today’s action I must thank The Blue Boy, co-pilot One step and the regulars for their sterling work yesterday. Despite the fact that I had to wear a forced permanent smile all day, inside I could feel the love. For I knew that in the face of adversity I had you all with me, I felt a warm glow whenever a text came through and a scoreline was revealed. I knew that I wasn’t alone in my hardship and that the crew were working tirelessly in the background to ensure the snooker facts, figures and opinions were updated in the comments boxes.

A far cry from the selfish couple who ‘chose’ to get married on such a big day in the snooker calendar. We rose above it and have come out all the better for it.

As a ‘thank you’ to the saintly backroom staff I have put a link on the sidebar to allow you to have a good old snooker chinwag in my absence this week. Starting this morning. Here it is here.

As I behaved myself yesterday and Mrs Snookerbacker knew what a huge sacrifice it was for me, added to the fact that I only mentioned the snooker after I received the results through she has also made a wonderful contribution to the blog here. She has devised a ‘snooker menu’ for you all to enjoy and to make you all feel like we’re still around when in reality we will be stuck up a mountain somewhere with our Whippet.

Anyway, I don’t really feel qualified to preview the matches today as I didn’t see a shot yesterday, but it did sound like Ronnie played exceptionally well again. Despite the Gould bet I still managed 3 out of 4 and just the 1 correct score in Ronnie’s game. I did have a sneaky double before we left on MJW and the Rocket which helped cover the stake of a bet on poor old Gouldy.

In terms of the outrights, as I am assured of at least one 16/1 finalist and I’ve also backed the Rocket at 13/2, I felt the only sensible thing to do seeing as I won’t see it again today was to back Ebdon to win it this morning at 12/1. This ensures a healthy end to a half decent week. I won’t recommend anything on the semi-final matches as I don’t need to bet on them now, but I’ll give an opinion based on what I have seen so far.

2pm

Ronnie O’Sullivan v Peter Ebdon

Peter will play the frustration game here obviously, expect some slow deliberate play from Ebbo. I laughed when I read Ronnie’s comment yesterday that he was relieved it was only best of 5, if they had met in the slightly longer final you’d probably have to fancy Peter to win. But something tells me Ronnie is actually getting to quite like the idea of winning this event and sometimes with him that’s half the battle. It has to be Ronnie, I’d take him 3-1 which is 9/4 at Skybet.

Mark Williams v Neil Robertson

I can’t really comment in an informed way about this one as I didn’t see them yesterday, though by all accounts Neil continues to be looking like the World Champion after a stuttering start to the season. Mark has looked in great shape this week and isn’t usually one to make the positive noises he’s been making without backing it up. So I think I’ll side with him, a decider, 3-2 which is 4/1 with Betfred.

8pm
Final?

If it is the Rocket and MJW contesting this you should bear in mind that Ronnie’s record against him both recently and in general is extremely good. It’s 2002 since Mark beat him and Ron has won the last nine meetings between the pair.

Good Luck if you’re having a go and I’ll see you all next Saturday!

Final Event Four Prediction Contest Result: (The Top of the Pots Order of Merit has been updated to reflect this event here)

Dani Martinez 48 Joe Gibney 46 Edo 46 liggandestolen 44 Chris 43 Ian White 43 invader 43 Teo 43 totee 43 Darren 43 Ray 42 JayKay 42 Steve K 42 The Blue Boy 42 Black Whippet 41 Lorraine 41 redandblack blog 41 Dan Chipowski 41 Godspeed 41 Spongy 41 Mignon 41 The Game 41 Tina 40 Onestep 40 jjtops 40 Kjbets 40 Cloudyman 38 Volcano 37 Pchell 36 Kimhawkins 36 caberet voltaire 36 Lee Murphy 36 Epure 34 Sonia 34 Duff Man 33 Deco800 33 Taco Bell 30 Kieran Baugh 29