The Snookerbacker Blog

Jamie Clarke – still in the hunt.

It’s another life-changing day over in Sheffield today as the 16 players left in Q-School 2 start at 10am knowing that they are all just 8 frames away from the main tour, by later today 4 of them will be on the tour and the other 12 will know that Q-School 3 is their only remaining chance of getting that coveted spot in the professional ranks.

It’s an exciting day for me too as it’s great to see so many familiar names still involved. No fewer than six Snookerbacker Classic stalwarts are still in the hunt although up to now the champion David Gray is not making the impact that he might have expected. But the one thing I will say about David is that he tends to do things the hard way if the Classic is anything to go by, preferring to play his best when it’s, to use a technical term, shit or bust.

There remains no fewer than 4 past SB Classic Grand Finalists still there, unfortunately 3 of them are in the same quarter, those being 2012 finalist Syd Wilson and 2013 finalists Ant Parsons and Jamie Clarke.

The other past finalist from 2012 Zak Surety is also still involved as well as Classic regulars Ben Harrison and Reanne Evans. It would be great if 3 of those 6 names were on the tour come tea time.

For anyone catching up on Q-School, event one saw another SB Classic regular Elliot Slessor qualify in quickfire fashion despite being a bit under the weather, I think he could be a real danger on the tour next time. Alex Davies also returned to the tour as did Lee Page and making up the foursome was London’s Hammad Miah. You can read a summary of that event here.

The 2014 Snookerbacker Classic preparation is now into it’s later stages with all venues now confirmed.

The launch date for the event will be in June after myself and Mrs SB return from our week away in the middle of nowhere early in the month and the headline news is that the prize money will be increased by a further 50% to just over £6000, with prize money extending to the Last 16 rather than the quarter-finalists.

The Grand Finals this season will be played at the South West Snooker Academy on March 1st 2014.

But for now it’s all eyes on Sheffield and I’d like to wish all those I know personally the very best of luck.

10am

Ahmed Saif 4-2 Ant Parsons
Syd Wilson 3-4 Jamie Clarke
Mitchell Travis 0-4 David Morris
Mitchell Mann 2-4 Ross Muir
Ben Harrison 0-4 Ryan Clark
Dylan Mitchell 0-4 Zak Surety
Reanne Evans 1-4 Alexander Ursenbacher
Paul Wykes 4-2 Jeff Cundy

Finals

Ahmed Saif 4-1 Jamie Clarke
David Morris 0-4 Ross Muir
Ryan Clark 4-1 Zak Surety
Alexander Ursenbacher 4-0 Paul Wykes

I just had to share this with the group. It’s Friday, I’m off for a game of snooker, but I am a bit worried about where I leave the car. THIS is what I have been waiting for……….(with thanks to Joe Gibney for unearthing this treasure)

After an exhausting day for yours truly, I can now reveal the winners and losers of this season’s Willies. The only snooker awards that really matter to fans.

Upton Snodsbury Comrades Club again laid on a cracking spread and everyone left in jovial mood. The police turned up at the end but it was nothing to do with any of the lucky award recipients.

You can take a look at what happened by clicking here or the Great WT below. Enjoy.  

I’m having a few days off while I get things sorted out for next season’s Snookerbacker Classic but I am keeping an eye on Q-School and in particular the Snookerbacker Classic boys from whom I expect big things.

It’s covered by the World Snooker scoreboard in real time but to keep up to date with the scores please visit the increasingly excellent Cue Tracker website’s results page here. 

I’ll be back refreshed and ready when the time is right, there may be some news on Stephen Lee before the start of the next season so if I hear anything I will be sure to pass it on. It’s also not long until the Upton Snodsbury Comrades Club once again plays host to this season’s Willie Awards.

Who would you like to walk off with an erection and why? A reminder of last season’s winners can be found here.

David hopes to keep the 100% record in tact.

Tomorrow sees the start of two more weeks of snooker as the amateurs play in their very own World Championship in pursuit of 12 more main tour places for next season at the Q-School. It is being played at the World Snooker Academy in Sheffield and will be covered on the World Snooker scoreboard, but unfortunately not live streamed.

Among the hopefuls lining up is the 2013 Snookerbacker Classic Champion David Gray who hopes to keep the 100% strike rate of champions going following 2012 champion Martin O’Donnell’s success in Q-School 1 last season. So the very best of luck to this year’s champ who is aiming at a return to the professional ranks after a few years away, a bit like a phoenix from the flames.

There are many more familiar names from the SB Classic competing, the likes of past finalists Oliver Lines, Jamie Clarke, Sydney Wilson (who faces David Gray in Q-School 1), Adam Wicheard, Zak Surety, Ant Parsons and Sanderson Lam are all in the mix along with SB Classic stalwarts like Ben Harrison, Ryan Causton, Elliot Slessor, Gaz Allen, Jack Bradford and Alex Taubman. So with such a high number of SB Classic boys and girls (I can’t leave out Reanne after all), we are surely going to be seeing a few familiar names lining up next year against the big names.

For those unfamiliar with the format, there are 3 seperate events, each in effect comprising of 4 knockout competitions all played over 7 frames. From each of the 3 Q-School events there are 4 qualifiers making a total of 12 at the end, with qualifiers from earlier events dropping out of the draw in later ones. All 12 receive a two-year tour card.

The draw for all 3 Q-School events can be found here along with the schedule of play.

The preparations for next season’s Snookerbacker Classic are well underway and most of the dates and venues are now confirmed. I’m in the process of getting some promotional things sorted out and this year will see two big new initiatives. The first will be an Order of Merit list which will run alongside the main event and determine two finalists (Finals Day will now involve 16 rather than 8 players) and the second is Ref School, more details on that exciting initiative to follow for budding referees.

The Classic will also be upping the game when it comes to prize money, with prizes extended to the Last 16 and a total prize fund increase of a massive 50% to over £6000. This makes the Snookerbacker Classic the most financially lucrative event for amateurs in the UK.

In short, the SB Classic (adopts X-Factor style booming voice…..JUST GOT BIGGER)

As well as the two Q-School places up for grabs for the winner and runner-up, there is also the chance for those who do well to attract the interest of sponsors. Indeed Sanderson Lam did just that with his run to the semi-finals last season where he was narrowly pipped by the eventual winner Gray, he was actually spotted by a sponsor interested in putting a player through Q-School and as a result lines up in Sheffield from tomorrow.

Sandi said ‘All amateurs wanting to do well in snooker need to enter the Snookerbacker Classic. It is a great tournament and is run as a tournament should be. It is the best amateur competition there is and it brings out the best in you and gives you the exposure to attract sponsors like I did, without the SB Classic I might not be in Q-School this year and I didn’t even win it!’

But for now it’s just left to wish all the players the best of luck, especially those that I have had the pleasure of meeting these past two seasons.

Hopefully I won’t be seeing too many of you again next time.

He came. He saw. He scurried off with the trophy.

It’s the morning after the night before and newspapers and internet sporting based sites are awash with images of Ronnie with the World Championship trophy which he came back to defend successfully last night in true champions fashion.

Amid the talk of burnout and slipping standards, the one player that can still ignite the sport to new levels did his thing. He’d had a year off, he got a bit bored, put a bit of practice in and came back to claim his trophy. In the process he made Simon Bedford a great pub quiz answer in the not so very distant future.

Is he the greatest player the sport has ever seen? Yes, of course he is. He may well even go on to better the seven world titles of the only player that could challenge for this title and seal all arguments that way, he doesn’t need to in my opinion but I would not bet against him doing just that.

Where does this achievement rank in snooker? Well, it’s never happened before so it’s out there on it’s own. I didn’t actually think that lack of match practice was ever going to be a problem for him once he’d negotiated the first round and it wasn’t, but in the great scheme of things it has to rank up there with one of the great sporting comebacks.

Does his win prove that the standards overall have dipped? Well, no it doesn’t really, although I think it’s more or less accepted that they have. Ronnie is the best player in the world at the moment and he proved it again. OK, some of the big names most notably Selby and Robertson just didn’t turn up but the championship was still won by the best player, which it usually is. I don’t think even if the two players mentioned had played their best they would have beaten him, but the fact that they didn’t will make some question falling standards.

Are there too many tournaments? Yes there are. Players that have chased ranking points and played in everything and done well have arguably suffered as a consequence at the biggest event of them all. But this is nothing that better planning can’t fix for next season when I expect the big guns to be fully prepared having learned their lesson this time. Is it that big a deal to fall down the rankings if your game is in better shape for the main events? Of course it isn’t. The choice is clear and it’s either to play in everything and risk burnout or to select and be at the top of your game in the tournaments you want to target. I know what I’d do if I was a top player and I suspect we’ll see a lot less of the likes of Selby and Robertson in the smaller events next season.

Was this the worst world championship ever? That’s impossible to answer in an objective way. It was good in spurts but suffered through the poor performances of some big names. On the plus side, Ronnie was superb and the championship saw a new light shed on Barry Hawkins who must surely take so much out of his performance in the final which was nothing short of outstanding.

Overall, I enjoyed it and from a betting perspective it was magnificent. OK, it didn’t have the stand out moments that some have had but in the end the only man that can possibly claim that snooker needs him more than he needs snooker put the sport back in the limelight. I think we’ll see him in a few events next season; the UK, the German Masters and The Masters at the very least and he’ll probably be in tip top shape again next year for the Crucible where he has already been installed as a short-priced favourite.

So at the end of a long hard season and only a couple of weeks away from the start of the new one all that’s left to say is well done to Ronnie, he’s a one-off, he’s crackers but he’s bloody brilliant.

Will it be back in the Chigwell trophy cabinet tomorrow night?

The culmination of the months and months of snooker we have seen this season is the World Championship Final and this year Ronnie O’Sullivan and Barry Hawkins take to the baize for what is now the only two day final left on the calendar, over the traditional 35 frames.

Back in the day this signalled the end of the season and a time when the potters could pack up their cues for a few months and head for sunny faraway places until the nights grew colder and the mornings darker and the new season started up again.

But that isn’t the case these days and the end of season break is now barely enough time for a long weekend in Skegness since Bazza waved his magic wand and made all these tournaments appear, to mixed receptions from the players.

The new season begins in earnest on the 27th May, yes May, this month, May. This is far too early in my opinion but it is then that the Wuxi Classic qualifiers kick off with surely a hugely depleted field and in between this time we have Q-School where amongst other hopefuls the 2013 Snookerbacker Classic Champion David Gray hopes to win through to the main tour. For anyone that thinks they can stomach any more snooker this month you can take a look at the new calendar here.

But before this post threatens to become another rant about there being too much snooker these days let’s instead concentrate on the matter in hand and that is, can Ronnie win his fifth world title to eclipse his lifelong rival John Higgins tally or will the unlikely finalist and huge underdog Hawkins shock the snooker world with a famous victory against all odds?

Well, the obvious answer is that it will take a shock of Joe Johnson-esque proportions, perhaps even greater, for Barry to do so. It was a huge deal when the dapper red-shoed Bradford potter and Joe Jogia lookalike made history by defeating Steve Davis way back in 1986 but there is that little matter of history having a tendency to sometimes repeat itself when you least expect it, but in layman’s terms this is not so much David against Goliath as David against Goliath and his Dad and big brother.

Hawkins reaction to winning last night was a joy to behold, he looked like a kid who had just been woken up in the middle of the night and told he was going to Disneyland as he struggled for words before finally saying ‘things like this don’t happen to me’ in one of the great Crucible quotes this year.

He is sure to have won people over on the strength of that line alone and his general demeanour after his victory over Ricky Walden, who may take a while getting over his final session performance. The fact that the name Barry Hawkins was briefly trending on Twitter as news of his victory came through is possibly one of the most unlikeliest tales to emerge from what has been an otherwise largely forgettable world championship so far.

Barry is more than aware how big his task is but is going in with the mentality that he can win. He said “Everybody loves an underdog and I was a massive outsider before the start of the tournament. Hopefully people will warm to me and the neutrals are on my side. Ronnie is an unbelievable player but I have to just try and concentrate on what I am doing. In the final I will just go out there in the frame of mind that I can win. If I don’t then there is no point in me even turning up. I have got nothing to lose, but there is still pressure. I don’t mind that – if there is pressure it shows that you care and that you want to win.”

To see what the less animated defending champion Ronnie had to say after beating Judd click here.

In terms of the betting, both semi-final recommended bets landed including the maximum one on last night’s match so I hope a few of you made a bit on those. For those who followed the outright staking plan it’s crunch time as the 4 points recommended on O’Sullivan a couple of months ago at 9/1 reaches it’s climax.

I will admit to laying a very small section of the possible winnings off before yesterday afternoon’s session against Judd and I will be keeping a very close eye on this match in running. If I detect that Joe Johnson’s spell has been weaved on Barry I will lay some more off, but for now I will sit tight and hope Ronnie takes the early initiative to allow me to lay a tiny part of it at silly odds this afternoon.

The Final:

Ronnie O’Sullivan (1) v Barry Hawkins (15)

Stunned

It’s five years since the two finalists have met and as you can see and would probably expect, Ronnie has a very good record in the head to heads. But take a look at the scores, three deciders and two close ones (one of which Hawkins won on the pairs first ever encounter), with only one demolition job which is possibly skewed by the fact it was Barry’s first ever final as a professional in 2007, after six years on the tour. But does this have any bearing on what will happen here?

Well, Hawkins will know that Ronnie is beatable as he’s done it before, he will take confidence from his semi-final performance which saw him gradually improve with every session, he might also know that despite the fact he appears to be in cruise control Ronnie is yet to be really tested in any match, Judd and Ali both got close to doing this but Ronnie, sensing the threat knuckled down and pulled away keeping his lead in both matches throughout with some incredible safety play and solid break building. It’s also interesting to note that nobody has ever won the world championship having never been behind in a match and I’d hazard a guess that nobody has done it winning the first frame of all their sessions either, Ronnie can achieve both if he keeps these records in tact here and once again add his name to the history books.

So what about a bet then? Well for the reasons I have stated above I won’t be having one at the start of the match, if Ronnie takes the first session 6-2 or better he’ll go close to 1/20 I reckon and at that point I will lay some off. But for those looking for a bit of interest in the match I would have pitched the handicap at -8.5 for this, but most bookies have pitched it at -6.5, indeed some have gone as low as -4.5. The bet I would recommend would be there to be less than 29.5 frames in the match at 10/11 with Skybet, this covers a comfortable win for Ronnie and an unlikely Joe Johnson romp job and ride to glory for Hawkins, in terms of a score it would be the one below.

Selection: O’Sullivan to win 18-9 (Best Price 10/1 at Apollobet)

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CONTINUED APPRECIATION AND THANKS GO TO MONIQUE LIMBOS FOR THE PHOTOGRAPHS THAT ACCOMPANY THIS BLOG. YOU CAN FIND HER ON FACEBOOK BY CLICKING HERE AND FOLLOW HER ON TWITTER BY CLICKING HERE.

She can spot a wanker a mile off.

Today is the day that we find out who will be contesting this years World Championship Final with Ronnie O’Sullivan currently leading Judd Trump 14-10 and Ricky Walden holding a narrow 9-7 lead over Barry Hawkins.

Last night saw Ronnie extend his lead to four frames in front of a right old Crucible rabble. It was clearly ‘Bring a Chav’ night last night as the shaved chimps in the audience continually shouted out phrases that only they themselves found highly amusing.

The behaviour clearly rubbed off on the easily led Rocket who also received a ticking off from Michaela for what she perceived to be an obscene gesture by snooker’s bad boy. He proclaimed his innocence in the matter claiming that when he has a sticky cue he always pretends to masturbate with it but tough girl Tabby was having none of it and gave Ronnie one of her steely looks, he won’t be doing that again.

You can see her bringing him down a peg or two during the marathon frame 23 here.

The crowd also appeared to have been infiltrated by the world farting champion who continued to let rip throughout the session, raising a titter from both players. You pity the poor unfortunates that were sitting nearby as this individual clearly has some real issues in the bowel department and god only knows what kind of stench purveyed the Crucible when he was at his rasping peak (I pray to god and all the apostles that it’s a he anyway). World Snooker may have to send Rentokil in to clear the arena of unwanted guests or failing that issue the knowledgeable Crucible crowd with gas masks for the rest of the championship.

While Ronnie was cue masturbating, Dennis finally got to see Cliff who he has been telling an uninterested audience for the duration of the event was being flown in ‘first class’ by Jason Francis of ‘Legends’ fame. The non-reaction of his co-commentators to this totally insignificant drivel is an indication of exactly how shit Dennis has become in the commentary box. If I hear him say ‘Watch out there’s a Rocket about’ one more time I will not be responsible for my actions. But as the BBC clearly favour halfwits over substance I’m sure he’ll cling onto his contract. If only Davis would have potted that black, we had no idea at the time what that ball meant.

Anyway, Ronnie played OK last night and Judd didn’t capitalise on his mistakes, plenty of which happened in the controversial frame 23, or the sponsors frame as I prefer to call it. Inexplicable misses from both of them and £125k matched at Betfair should satisfy the men in suits who signed the contract and got the World Championship at the eleventh hour for a lot less than it’s worth if the stories I have heard have any substance, come back Betfred, all is forgiven.

The lead Ronnie has going into this afternoon means he needs just three more frames to make the final. I still haven’t laid any off but I am considering it now although I do feel there is not so much a gulf as a canyon sized difference in class between him and the rest of the field, even when he isn’t at his best, the only thing that is a slight worry is his increasingly erratic behaviour and the potential for him to get a bit bored if he does make the final.

In the other match, Barry Hawkins did what he needed to do in the second session and it’s now all to play for in that one. It’s fair to say that the standard isn’t very high and that they are both feeling it. There is a decent payday at stake of course and you can understand the nerves and this may result in a real tense one tonight if it continues to be close after the morning session, but you have to fear for the victor in what might end up being a procession for the winner of the other encounter, on the other hand they may go into the final feeling they have nothing to lose. We shall see.

10am

Ricky Walden 9-7 Barry Hawkins

2.30pm

Ronnie O’Sullivan 17-11 Judd Trump* 

7pm

Ricky Walden 12-12 Barry Hawkins*

If you like betting in-running blog partners Apollobet have launched a new live service that is well worth a look, click on their website here and click the live betting section.

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Thanks as ever to Monique for use of the image, her Facebook album can be viewed here

The Boys are Back in Town.

It’s day two of the semi-finals today and a cracking day ahead which sees Judd and Ronnie slug it out this morning and this evening. Will we be any closer to knowing the winner later tonight?

I will admit that when Ronnie went 4-1 up I was fearing the worst for Trump who was beginning to look a bit jaded in his seat, but all credit to him for fighting back and they start the day level at 4-4. Ronnie has still not been behind in a match in this championship and has also won the first frame of every session he has played in, I wonder if that pattern will continue today?

In the other match Ricky Walden has started much the better of the two and leads Barry Hawkins 6-2 after the first session. There is a long way to go of course but Barry could do with winning the session this afternoon to finish the day no worse than 9-7 down, which wouldn’t be a disaster going into the concluding day of the semi-finals tomorrow, we shall see.

There has been a lot of talk about the overall standard of play in this event and for me it goes without saying that this has been one of the poorest World Championships that I can think of on that front. There have been some very good performances, Walden and Michael White in Round 1 spring to mind, Ding and Shaun Murphy showed flashes of quality and Ronnie and Judd have done the same, Ronnie’s first session display against Stuart Bingham for me being the stand out session of the championship, but otherwise I’d say it’s been pretty mediocre overall.

So why is that? Well, the new phrase that pays amongst the potters is ‘burn out’, with Neil Robertson, Mark Selby and others saying that they are simply too tired to perform over this end of season marathon after a long hard season in every corner of the globe. Now I’m not saying that burn out doesn’t exist but if you look at the calendar from last season there were breaks for players, particularly if they weren’t winning much or decided not to play in all the PTC events.

For John Higgins to claim he was tired is a bit hard to swallow, he started the season late and missed the first few events instead deciding to have a longer summer break and since winning the Shanghai Masters in September he’s only won 6 matches in the main events. Perhaps if he’d stuck to ranking events instead of chasing the cash merry-go-round of the non-ranking Championship League which for me is now surplus to requirements on the calendar he’d have faired better here. Or perhaps, just perhaps, he’s just not playing very well or not practicing as hard as he used to?

Higgins is just an example of course, but he also didn’t have to play in qualifiers which dominate some months in the calendar and you don’t tend to hear the players from the lower ranks moaning about burn out as they are usually too busy mustering up the cash to pay their hotel bills and living expenses on the miserly prize money floating around at the lower levels which to me is a much greater concern than a few of the top boys complaining about being knackered. Even Ronnie is claiming to be tired and that really takes the piss as he’s been by his own admission festering in bed until midday for half the year and basically living like a doleite.

Stuart Bingham and Dark Mavis are good examples of top players who play in everything but don’t come out the other end moaning and it shows in their results which continue to improve, qualifying regular Michael Holt who has played in everything this season including the Asian PTC’s has said that burn out isn’t an issue for him as he keeps himself fit.

As fit as a fiddle: You never heard Bill complain of feeling tired.

In the old days when a player didn’t perform on the big stage it was put down to pressure. The 1980′s saw loads of events on the TV, far more on the mainstream channels than we have now and the players seemed to thoroughly embrace it. I think that both Selby and Robertson felt a weight of expectation, some of which was possibly coming from themselves to make an impact here, same with Ding, though he also has the ridiculous and unrealistic level of expectation from China on his shoulders too.

Those who claim not to look at the draw are invariably lying and they all must have seen what a great chance they had to make it to at least the semi-finals and when it all opened up for them they simply couldn’t hack it and this was the most convenient excuse rather than they blew it.

So, I’m firmly with Bazza on this one, if some of the players are burnt out as a result of actually having a job which let’s face it isn’t even a full-time one then they probably need to have a good think about why that is, is it more a state of mind than a physical problem? I think it probably is.

Perhaps another factor is that the standard of the top players of today is simply not as high as it has been previously. I think anyone who claims that any of today’s top 4 or 5 could live with Hendry, Higgins, Williams and O’Sullivan at their peak or even dare I say it Steve Davis at his, might need to reassess their views on snooker and their life in general. The fact that O’Sullivan is still the best player out there and that Higgins and Williams are still in the top 16 bears this out, even the Nugget is moving up the ranking list and he’s about 3 million years old.

So that’s my rant for the day on that particular issue. Tomorrow I shall tackle the problem of third world poverty and perhaps touch on the miss rule.

It’s probably fairly obvious that I’m just killing time until 10am when the possible match of the championship recommences. For the first time yesterday I actually thought that Ronnie might not win this, in terms of the bank balance I hope I’m wrong. Can Judd ruin the snooker comeback of all time?

Feel free to post your views on anything in this post in the comments section, especially if you are killing time too, ranting is good for you and it won’t give you burn out.

10am
Ronnie O’Sullivan 4-4 Judd Trump (finished 9-7)

2.30pm
Ricky Walden 6-2 Barry Hawkins (finished 9-7)

7pm
Ronnie O’Sullivan 9-7 Judd Trump   

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Thanks as ever to Monique for use of the image, her Facebook album can be viewed here