If you listened to the latest Snooker Scene podcast you'd have heard my predictions for the semi-final line-up at this year's Betfred.com World Championship, which were:
Ronnie O'Sullivan v Mark Selby
Mark Williams v Stephen Maguire
Thank you very much and see you next year.
12 comments:
I watched the murphy v hendry clash and i have to credit Mr Murphy for sporting play here on this site.
Cant remember which exact frame was it in the last session - probably the 4th or 5th last.
Anyway Murphy played a backspin on a tricky yellow very near to the cue ball.
He potted it but then alerted the referee that the cue ball on spinning back had hit his cue ever so slightly even a slow-mo video reply could only just about ascertain it.
Nobody else did notice it - not the ref or the commentary team so full credit to him for upholding the spirit of fair play on there.
Ali Carter had a similar one in his match with Neil Robertson, neither Jan or Neil spotted him feathering the white.
As for predictions, I knew I was doomed when I picked the same semi-finalists as you did Dave!
At least Phil Yates got one, not a total washout.
Ken Doherty's fingerprints are all over this year's championship.
He has obviously allowed John Higgins to utilize his 2003-go-5-frames-behind-1st-against-player-on-form-before-mounting-hellofaComeback-to-win-on-deciding-frame trademark.
Matt, very good to see sporting play even when stakes are high.
brings back memories of hendry rejecting a free ball which the ref had wrongly given to him during the deciding session against white in 1994.
Funny you should say that, I was randomly thinking back to that incident on the bus earlier. Agree totally though, it's one aspect of snooker that I think everyone involved can be proud of.
To the other anon, I thought exactly the same about Ken 2003. Be interesting to see if unlike Ken, John can complete the job.
Just been reading his quotes on the World Snooker website, he's so thrilled and understandably so.
I've been watching, playing and following snooker for 28 years - ever since seeing Steve Davis lift his first world crown when I was a slip of lad, and it got me hooked for life.
I mention this because it helps get in context the following commment:
The Mark Selby v John Higgins match was one of the greatest matches of all time.
Probably top 3, maybe even higher. It was phenomenal. I can't remember ever seeing anything like it in my life. That's why I'm still up at 2am, I'm still buzzing!
I'm a Mark Selby fan and have been ever since I saw him in new light after the 2007 semi-final against Shaun Murphy. Everyone's finally caught up with me (pundits, commentators, forum posters etc) and knows now what I knew back then. He is a great of the game and he's at the start of his peak years.
His defeat happened in the only way I could take it, because it is beyond comprehension how good John Higgins is and how well he played to beat first Jamie Cope and now Selby. It is also testament to how good Jamie Cope is - another name I've been shouting about for over 2 years!
I was at the Crucible for both Higgins last two matches (various sessions). At 12-10 to Jamie Cope, Higgins didn't give him a sniff. Cope didn't play a bad shot. That's how good John Higgins is.
Mark Selby usually dictates safety, but John Higgins had the better of him a lot of the time which is how he won 13 frames out of 25. How many other players get the better of Selby in the safety department? I've never seen anything like it before, the tactical play was phenomenal. Not just the shots, but the timing of the shots in relation to the scores and psychology of the match. Truely truely breath-taking.
Sorry for the late night ramble. I thought I'd share my thoughts with the world at this late hour.
One more thing. As well as spotting Selby earlier than most, I also wrote off Ali Carter and Stephen Maguire as incapable of winning the Worlds. Maguire flatters to deceive against weaker opposition and fools a lot of people in the process.
I also predicted the demise of Matthew Stevens immediately after Murphy came back from 12-7 to beat him 13-12.
I'm a harsh critic and call a spade a spade and sometimes rub people up the wrong way because they don't like what I say but I know what I'm talking about more than a lot of so called "experts". Dave and Clive excluded naturally.
I'm so upset that Mark Selby is gone. He threw it away with that attempted plant.... he played so good until that point. I'm totally gutted, he could have won 13-8 the way he played was so good.
That said (and sorry to clog your site Dave, I'm going after this one) my read of the tournament is as follows:
Selby, Higgins and Cope have been the best players with Murphy, Hendry and Allen in the next 3 positions. The first 3 would beat the next 3. Therefore I'm going for a Higgins v Murphy final with a Higgins win.
The names of the 2010's are Mark Selby, Ding Junhui, Mark Allen, Jamie Cope, Judd Trump, Liang Wenbo, Shaun Murphy and Ronnie if he doesn't quit. (Higgins has a couple more years before the slide).
The names you will not see winning a great deal of tournaments after the next 2 seasons are Stephen Maguire, Ali Carter, Ryan Day and Marco Fu. Between them they may total 3 rankers over the next 2 seasons.
It's just my opinion. Thank you and good night.
I tipped Murphy to make final so not bad i sort of went higgins for sf. Im suprised Williams he is bit better again but past his best now.
Murphy had to call the foul on himself. The TV cameras had clearly picked it up and would have been spotted by someone afterwards.
As far as fair play goes I think all the players are class acts. A point of pride for the sport.
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