2020 World Snooker Championship

[PR1977]

Qualifying is underway ahead of next Friday's start of the actual Championship itself; 3 months later than usual due to the ongoing pandemic.

Apparently crowds will be allowed into The Crucible, albeit at 30% of usual capacity of what is already a compact venue. Snooker has done a pretty good job of coming back with a couple of spectator free tournaments taking place successfully with all sorts of safety measures in place.

Anyway, the seeds have been determined and the bottom half looks a lot tougher, in particular the bottom quarter with Selby, Robertson, Murphy and Hawkins all there. Ronnie and Ding are also in that half of the draw as are two other former champs, Mark Williams and Stuart Bingham. Top half looks a bit more straightforward with Judd Trump and Mark Allen the two top seeds in it.

I'm going to predict the winner will come from that tough bottom quarter and I'm leaning again towards Selby, he won a couple of Home Nations tournaments earlier this year and will have been practicing harder than ever for this, he's the sort of character who would have enjoyed the extra chance to practice during the lockdown. Ronnie I think isn't too happy about the crowd situation and looks like he'd rather be commentating at The Crucible these days so I'm ruling him out. I think Selby will play either Trump or Mark Allen in the final, the only threat to them in the top half in my opinion is Kyren Wilson if his temprament is right, can't see John Higgins having another good run after the mediocre season he's had and although Stephen Maguire is in good form I think maybe he peaked too early and his motivation might not quite be there after trousering 250k for winning the Coral Series.

Good to see Jimmy doing well in the qualifiers, some good players in there like Graeme Dott, Ryan Day and Joe Perry and also Thepchaiya Un Nooh of LOS who will be dangerous if they qualify.

Anyway, I'm still working from home so looking forward to enjoying more of the tournament than usual 

 

[Memurtle]

F**king pi**ed off. I love snooker and went to many matches while I lived in the UK.
I was watching the snooker back here in Oz on FOXTEL but they decided to drop the Euro sports channel so can’t watch it anymore!! Gutted!!
Go Neil Robertson!!!

[jocky king]

 Looking forward for the World Championship back on Friday 31 st July .. The crowd will be allowed back ( not sure if the numbers is limited due to social distancing)  , Ronnie threaten to pull out if the house is full ( he is definitely right ) ... Remember James Cahill last year who shook the world snooker by beating Ronnie in the first round  10-8 ,  well , James had been beaten this week at the qualifying round by a Belgian teenager , Ben Mertens , 2-6 who is only 15 yrs old .  But Ben won’t be around in the crucible, he just lost 4-6 to Sam Baird despite leading 4-3 ....  

I fancy Ryan Day & Stephen Maguire & Shaun Murphy to do well in this championship, they are are playing very well recently .  Maguire was back to his best when beating  Mark Allen recent final with load of century breaks .. 

1952 World Championship final won by Horace Lindrum , he beat Clark McConachy 94-49 ....  I think a record scoreline .. 

Edited July 25, 2020 by jocky king

[Red-Devil]

Thai Guy,  147.  What a start....

[jocky king]

Two former  finalist  , Jimmy White & Ken Doherty are out of the World Snooker Championship , they both lost yesterday   . Saw Jimmy won the first round last week , played terribly , I switched the channels in the middle the of the match .

Edited July 27, 2020 by jocky king

[jocky king]

Another former finalist  , Ali Carter is out .. 

[petehoax]

Alex Ursenbacher, just qualified for the crucible main round. Excited!
First Swiss guy to ever do so. He beat Gary Wilson in the 2nd round. 

[PR1977]

[PR1977]

Draw posted above; Ronnie v Thepchaya Un Nooh looks the standout match.

Neil Robertson v Liang Wenbo another potential classic and Mark Williams v Alan McManus and John Higgins v Matthew Stevens both matches for the ages.

For me the best qualifying performance in the final round was Martin Gould v Graeme Dott, scored heavily and safety game looked in good shape to keep a very tough opponent at arm's length throughout. Anthony McGill also looked goodbut he is a top 16 player on ability IMHO and will fancy his chances v Jack Lisowski.

Aside from Thepchaya, Noppon Saengkham is the other Thai player and there are 4 debutants - Elliott Slessor, Jordan Brown, Ashley Carty and Jamie Clarke. Anthony Hamilton returns after a long absence as does Mark King.

Edited July 29, 2020 by PR1977

[PR1977]

On 28/07/2020 at 03:34, petehoax said:

Alex Ursenbacher, just qualified for the crucible main round. Excited!
First Swiss guy to ever do so. He beat Gary Wilson in the 2nd round. 

Not the worst draw for Alex, Barry Hawkins has been struggling for a while although he does have a good record at The Crucible.

If Alex come through that quarter he might be in with a shout of winning it!

[jocky king]

The bottom half have a tough going to the semi ... Mark Selby , Robertson , Shaun and Hawkins .. Shaun Murphy  had been playing very well since January after he moved to Ireland . I think Shaun is the man to watch for ... 

[jocky king]

Wenbo cheat his way to the last 32 at crucible on a decider frame with Fergal O Brien ... Cue hitting a red after a cue ball.. 

 

[petehoax]

i don't see it honestly. do you think the red rolls "back" unto the cue stick after it touches the other reds? or do you think he hits it after going "through" the white ball? to my eye it seems like a clean hit. MAYBE the red "rolls back" (don't know how to say this better) and touches the cue, but i don't think it's possible for certain to tell based on this video. 
the ref stood right next to it and apparently didn't see anything. 

Edited July 30, 2020 by petehoax

[PR1977]

Couple of interesting stats this year:

First time all top 4 seeds will be left handers.

Mark Williams will be the 9th different World Champion that Alan McManus will have faced at The Crucible.

[PR1977]

Great start from Tom Ford here; 2-0 and missed the 13th black on a maxi in the first frame.

Trump looking twitchy; will the Crucible Curse strike again?

[PR1977]

And with crowds having been allowed back in to the Crucible as a pilot event, this has now already been veto'd so behind closed doors from tomorrow.

Bad news in particular for Anthony Hamilton, who pulled out over health concerns due to the presence of a crowd and gave Kyren Wilson a walkover.

Begs the question as to why Hamilton entered the qualifiers in the first place.

[jocky king]

7 hours ago, PR1977 said:

And with crowds having been allowed back in to the Crucible as a pilot event, this has now already been veto'd so behind closed doors from tomorrow.

Bad news in particular for Anthony Hamilton, who pulled out over health concerns due to the presence of a crowd and gave Kyren Wilson a walkover.

Begs the question as to why Hamilton entered the qualifiers in the first place.

Hamilton didn’t want to lose points in the ranking list ... He got £20,000 for qualification to last 32  and points in the ranking list after his walk over ... Very unfair to his losing opponents. Hamilton will be kicking himself after finding out about the empty crowd starting tomorrow..... 

[jocky king]

Trump just scraped through 10-8 to Tom Ford ... Feared that he would have got a crucible jinx , many first time champions lost their first round a year after claiming the first championship. 

[PR1977]

41 minutes ago, jocky king said:

Hamilton didn’t want to lose points in the ranking list ... He got £20,000 for qualification to last 32  and points in the ranking list after his walk over ... Very unfair to his losing opponents. Hamilton will be kicking himself after finding out about the empty crowd starting tomorrow..... 

He gets the 20,000 quid alright, i dont think theres any ranking points for a first round exit though. Could be wrong, but I’m sure that was mentioned today on commentary.

[PR1977]

4 minutes ago, jocky king said:

Trump just scraped through 10-8 to Tom Ford ... Feared that he would have got a crucible jinx , many first time champions lost their first round a year after claiming the first championship. 

8 former champs in total apparently, his long game came back towards the end there and that helped to make the difference.

[jocky king]

40 minutes ago, PR1977 said:

He gets the 20,000 quid alright, i dont think theres any ranking points for a first round exit though. Could be wrong, but I’m sure that was mentioned today on commentary.

His £20,000 goes towards the world ranking ... look below . 

[Red-Devil]

Ronnie O'Sullivan of to a flying start....

[Red-Devil]

Ronnie rockets to an 8-1 lead.....

[mikeyboy]

55 minutes ago, Red-Devil said:

Ronnie O'Sullivan of to a flying start....

8-1  Ronnie ,  the Thai boy can play but not being allowed to .  Outrageous fluke by Rocket in 8th frame , as if he needs any help !

Pockets look as enormous as ever .

Mikeyboy

[Somchai1]

Thought Ronnie might not be mentally right for this but 8-1 is a good start. The Thai player Thepchaiya has had a decent season but can do nothing if he’s stuck in his chair. Quite fancy one of the Chinese boys to do well and that might be a good value bet. Ding might go well but will have to get past Ronnie in the second round!!!