One
of the undoubted positives of the new UK Championship format is that there are
more faces to see and, for the media, more to write about.
Already
this week there’s been a big feature in the Daily Mail on Shane Castle, who played his part in a
really exciting match last night against Mark Selby, with the defending
champion having to dig deep to come from 3-1 down and win 6-4.
Today
another new face, Chris Wakelin, returns to action a few days after his
dramatic 6-5 defeat of Ryan Day.
Wakelin
was a full time delivery driver for Asda but has gone part time to concentrate
on his snooker after qualifying through the Q School, having battled depression
and debilitating attack of the snooker ‘yips.’
There’s
also John Astley, who edged three times UK Championship runner-up Ken Doherty
in the first round. He faces Stuart Carrington, from the snooker stronghold of
Grimsby, who had a good 6-2 win over Ben Woollaston in the opening round.
And
Chris Norbury, who knocked out Martin Gould, takes on Scotland’s Anthony
McGill, himself a 6-5 black ball winner over Kyren Wilson.
The
big names quite rightly get the TV tables, though, and Judd Trump is centre
stage this afternoon. Winner in York two years ago, he comes to the Barbican
Centre having failed to get past the last 32 of a major ranking event all
season, although he did reach a European Tour final.
Trump
was one of the players to complain about the format after his first round win
but he may be better off focusing on his game. I think it’ll turn around for
him soon but there’s no guarantee it’ll be this week.
Jimmy
White won the UK title in 1992 and reached two other finals. His win 21 years
ago stands as his greatest success and it’s a credit to his pure love of
snooker that he is still prepared to work hard, and that so many people still
will him on.
There
was a large crowd in York for his first round win over Michael Wasley, in which
White played really well, making the 300th century of his career,
the 12th player to reach this milestone.
White
has a foot injury which means he half limps around the table, but you feel that
as long as he can stand up or even hold a cue, he will still be out there doing
his best, whatever the format, whatever the system.
4 comments:
I think this is the *worst* major snooker event I've ever seen.
Neil Robertson and Robbie Williams entered the arena and, no exaggeration, about one person clapped. It was the most dismal entrance for a world number one player I've ever seen at a major snooker tournament.
Chinese player, Tiang, made a 64 break to win a frame against Selby and one person clapped. I've never seen that before. Terrible non-atmosphere to this event.
Mr Hearn, you have ruined the feel of this year's tournament.
Increasing the price money, events and having a 128 player format may be improvements, but if you're destroying the atmosphere that's a huge negative.
Personally i have no interest is seeing top players trounce newbies 6-0. If the wider BBC audience feel the same, the event is dead
Mark Selby was right in his post match interview, yes play 128 but start with 32 at the venue.
Or slightly different, out ten tables in the nearest sports hall and pick the best two L32 matches onwards for the TV tables. This approach could work at theCrucible
Thought it was a tough crowd myself, although a lot of good shots went unnoticed at last weeks CoC event.
You can hardly blame Hearn though. Every minor irritant can'.t be attributed to Hearn "ruining the game".
Love the flat format. Such a refreshing change to see some new faces. Its only right that the top players have to keep proving themselves. You're only as good as your last match.
Don't think you can blame Barry for the audience!
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