The Snookerbacker Blog

Congratulations to Johnny ‘The Sniper’ Williams and John Sutton who today became the 5th and 6th qualifiers to the Finals Day of the Snookerbacker Classic on the 24th February in Gloucester.

They join Jamie Barrett, Allan Taylor, David Gray and Martin O’Donnell in the finals with one event to go in Essex, the draw for which will be made live on Twitter by myself and Mrs SB tomorrow at 6pm.

I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Fin Ruane at the Crossguns and David Caulfield of SnookerHQ blog for helping out today in Dublin. I had hoped to attend all the events but unfortunately it was impossible for me to go today, but they kept me fully briefed on things here.

A full report on the day by David at SnookerHQ is here

Here are the snaps of the winners outside the Crossguns.

John Sutton

Johnny 'The Sniper' Williams

Shameless aren't I?

Today sees us revert to a one table format in Berlin as the semi-finals are played over the best of eleven frames. Ronnie O’Sullivan, Stephen Lee, Shaun Murphy and Stephen Maguire are those doing battle.

Last night saw a cracking match between Maguire and Trump with the Scot making a pressure clearance look very easy and pipping young Judd on the final black. It’s about time that Mags started playing like a player who is consistently in the top 8 in the world without ever really winning anything, maybe his PTC win in January has given him the thirst for trophies again.

Ronnie came back from 3-1 down to beat Matthew Stevens and only needs to win today to get back provisionally inside the top 16. He will still need to put in a decent performance in the Welsh Open however to hold onto this when the next seeding cut-off takes place. Only then will he be sure of his automatic place at the Crucible. My guess is that he will be OK.

Stephen Lee’s good run continued and he managed to knock out defending champion Mark Williams, finishing off with a century. Big Ste now faces Ronnie and claimed after the match that he would be in full attacking mode from the off. His record against the Rocket is pretty poor so hopefully he’s thought about his tactics a little more carefully this time.

Shaun Murphy and Mark Selby had them rolling in the aisles all night. Hilarity ensued as the Jester cracked visual gag after visual gag, but try as he might to put Smurf off with his Chaplinesque routines it didn’t work and Shaun won 5-3.

On another note, it was great of Dave Hendon to mention the SB Classic (twice) on Eurosport last night. OK, it was a nod to Smurf’s sponsorship from yesterday but a plug is a plug and that’s good enough for me. Big thanks to him and he should feel free to remind people of why Smurf is such a good bloke this evening.

I also went to bed far too early last night and missed a right old ruck between Michael Holt and the rest of the civilised world. Holty was on a one man crusade to rubbish Matt at Pro Snooker Blog’s opinion to a chorus of widespread derision from the masses. The volatile cueman asked Matt was he on drugs, which to the best of my knowledge he isn’t, unless you count all that Coke he drinks to keep him awake while he works tirelessly for free to support the sport that pays Holt’s inflated wages. Whilst I quite like Michael this time he made a total bellend of himself. If you want to pick on a blogger, come and have a go at me ya’ big bully and don’t come the ‘I’m dead clever’ bit either until you have as many letters after your name as wot I’ve got.

Anyway…. to the semi’s.

2pm CET Ronnie O’Sullivan v Stephen Lee 

OK, get ready for this. The head to head between these two is 11-1 in favour of O’Sullivan, Stephen’s only win coming in the 2004 European Open when he beat Ronnie 5-4. I get the feeling that the Rocket is loving being in a packed arena and is probably enjoying the fact that he is playing every day and not hanging around. Maybe he’s even enjoying a bit of sausage action over there. Lee has been threatening to get to the business end of a big tournament all season and has been an ever present in the PTC’s. He is clearly one of those players enjoying the new opportunities afforded him by Bazza and he is making the most of them. However, that head to head coupled with the fact that Ronnie is playing as well as he has been for years says to me that there is only one result here so it’s maximum bet time.

Recommended Bet: 5 points O’Sullivan (-1.5 frames) at 8/13 with Apollobet

8.30pm CET Shaun Murphy v Stephen Maguire

This will be billed as a grudge match between two players that have a bit of history. Who can forget Shaun insisting that Mags be docked a frame all those years ago because the hapless Scot forgot his chalk? There is no love lost between them and I for one love all that. Surprisingly for two top 8 players they haven’t met since 2008 when Shaun beat Mags 9-4 in the UK semi-finals. Shaun holds a 7-5 advantage in the head to heads, but of the semi-finals they have played it is two a piece. For me this one has 6-4 or 6-5 written all over it, I can’t see any way that it won’t be close. They are both in form and when that happens they are as evenly matched as any two players out there. I have backed Smurf in the outrights at 14/1 so I hope he wins, but I really can’t call it. Heart says Murphy, head says Maguire. Have a correct score bet, sit back and enjoy it.

Click the banner below to take advantage of Apollobet’s opening offer to new customers.

Live Updates from the SB Classic will appear on this post. To find out more about the tournament and see previous results click here.

THE DRAW – All matches Best of 7 Frames

Robert Bell 0-4 Joe Delaney (79)

Ray Whelan 0-4 Johnny Williams

John Sutton 4-1 Andrew Doherty

Robbie Redmond 2-4 Keith Sheldreck

Final Qualifying Matches

Joe Delaney (88) 1-4 Johnny Williams (Qualified)

 John Sutton (75) (Qualified) 4-1 Keith Sheldreck

UPDATES

And that’s it. Huge thanks to the players and to David Caulfield and Fin Ruane for all their help.

3.22pm RESULT: John Sutton joins Johnny Williams at Finals Day. Well done to him.

3.09pm Sutton wins the 4th on the pink and is one frame away from qualifying

3.06pm SnookerHQ says ‘bit of a slog here, neither playing that well at the moment, important frame to win though whoever can. 

2.40pm 2-1 to Sutton on the black after ‘a very odd frame indeed’. SnookerHQ says ‘he’s just informed me he had a 75 to go 1-1 earlier. Gutted to hear about Joe’s 88 ha’

2.30pm A slower paced match between Sheldreck and Sutton but might we have the only decider of the day?

2.17pm RESULT: Williams beats Delaney 4-1. Congratulations to Johnny Williams who qualifies for the Grand Finals of the Snookerbacker Classic in Gloucester on the 24th.  

2.15pm From Fin ‘Think I’ll have to get a photo of these two playing, along with the picture of the bombed hall in Soho, I have another picture of Joe Davis playing Horace Lindrum on the same table, I wonder what those two greats would think of the pots these two guys are pulling out today?’

2.05pm From Fin at the Crossguns: ‘Joe and Johnny are playing on the clubs oldest table, it’s a Burroughes & Watts table, it came from the old Burroughes & Watts hall in Soho Square London. I have a picture of the hall when it was bombed by the Luftwaffe during WW2, the hall was badly damaged and the tables were covered in debris but the tables survived and here is one of them today hosting a qualifier for the SB Classic.’

2.03pm Delaney pulls a frame back with an 88 break, highest of the day so far.

1.56pm 3-0 now to Williams ‘going for everything and getting it’ 

1.55pm ‘Johnny Williams is known as ‘The Sniper’, can see why. potting machine and lightning around the table’ says SnookerHQ 

1.53pm Williams is 2-0 up on Delaney

1.42pm Williams playing like his namesake MJW according to SnookerHQ on Twitter

1.41pm Sutton and Sheldreck underway for their on Final 

1.36pm Fin says ‘this old club has seen some great matches in the past and this Delaney v Williams game could be up there with the best of them.’ Williams leads 1-0.

1.25pm RESULT: Keith Sheldreck beats Robbie Redmond 4-2

1.20pm Williams and Delaney now underway

1.10pm RESULT: John Sutton completes a 4-1 victory

12.55pm John Sutton 3-1 up but no news as yet on the Sheldreck/Redmond clash. Delaney and Williams chomping at the bit to start their final eliminator.

12.33pm Delaney and Williams play each other to set up a clash for a Finals slot – described by Fin as ‘Crash, Bang, Wallop with these two’

12.30pm RESULTS: Delaney and Williams both through.

12.25pm Everything running ‘Smooth as Silk’ according to Fin

12.20pm Latest is that Delaney and Williams look on course for a clash for the right to join Finals Day.

11.55am – Really hard to pick two qualifiers, some big names in there, Delaney would be local favourite but Johnny Williams is a dark horse. In the other section John Sutton and Keith Sheldreck have PTC pedigree whilst apparently Robbie Redmond hit a 147 last week in a league match, all to play for. 

11.30am – Play now under way, according to Fin Ruane the Crossguns is like a library ‘you can hear a pin drop’