Snooker World Championship

[figbat]

Well he made a meal of it but got there in the end. Judd just didn’t seem to be all there, despite the heroic fightback.

 

[mikeIow]

A game of many halves 🫣
Utterly dominant in the afternoon, then looking like he was gonna crumble after taking the first frame in the evening. Nice fella (met him briefly in the bar after a tournament in Leicester a few years back), I was glad he did it 💪

 

[Vapin' Joe]

An intriguing match, Trump lost it by going five - nil behind. A tough guy like Selby knows how to hang onto a lead like that and survive a bad patch when his opponent strikes back.

 

[Chromatic]

Not sure controversy is the word, just incredible sportsmanship and fair mindedness. Agree the ref was correct though. He should have invited Selby to look at it with the other ball in position.

Remarkable sportsmanship by Selby. Trump on the other hand, unless something has been said behind the scenes that we don’t know about, has appeared to get away scot free with refusing to accept a referee’s decision, a decision that by general consensus was the correct one. Of course he was entitled to ask the ref to check it, which he did, and he may of course have eventually accepted the referee’s decision, that we will never know, but he didn’t seem to be ready to accept it.

 

[figbat]

Remarkable sportsmanship by Selby. Trump on the other hand, unless something has been said behind the scenes that we don’t know about, has appeared to get away scot free with refusing to accept a referee’s decision, a decision that by general consensus was the correct one. Of course he was entitled to ask the ref to check it, which he did, and he may of course have eventually accepted the referee’s decision, that we will never know, but he didn’t seem to be ready to accept it.

I’m still not convinced it was the right decision; there really ought to be better technology available to assess these close calls. But even so, the ref relented when Selby said he could see it all; so that was two professional players at the highest level agreeing that they could see the whole ball.

Placing extra balls to make a visual assessment is fraught with errors - the extra balls weren’t actually touching the balls in play, the incident angles have to be precisely perpendicular, and so on.

 

[Beebo]

I’m still not convinced it was the right decision; there really ought to be better technology available to assess these close calls. But even so, the ref relented when Selby said he could see it all; so that was two professional players at the highest level agreeing that they could see the whole ball.

Placing extra balls to make a visual assessment is fraught with errors - the extra balls weren’t actually touching the balls in play, the incident angles have to be precisely perpendicular, and so on.

Pros will also slightly swerve the ball to create an angle, so they both thought they could hit the ball, and I don’t doubt them, but they would have probably bent the cue ball a little to avoid the yellow.

As I said up thread a basic laser pen would solve this.

 

[N0bodyOfTheGoat]

Pros will also slightly swerve the ball to create an angle, so they both thought they could hit the ball, and I don’t doubt them, but they would have probably bent the cue ball a little to avoid the yellow.

As I said up thread a basic laser pen would solve this.

But freeball isn't about swerving, you have to be able to hit the ball on through its entire normal shot range, without another ball preventing options.

Marginal cases like in the final are rare, but it was a freeball IMO and I'm not sure why Selby disagreed with the ref.

 

[mikeIow]

I love the idea of a laser pen! You’re right, it would solve it!
Selby was, I think, wrong - he didn’t get the middle ball added. When the ref checked that earlier, I felt (hard to tell, of course) that it proved it was a free ball.

 

[figbat]

As I’ve said, neither of the ‘check’ balls were touching the balls in play, and this small margin can be significant with such small margins and using only visual perception. And I can’t be sure that either or both were perfectly perpendicular to the notional cue ball line of travel.

 

[Vapin' Joe]

Ronnie O'Sullivan has made the world record break of 153 at the World Open in China. He snookered Ryan Day before a ball was potted in the frame and got a free ball after Day's failed escape. Taking the green as a red followed by the black he was eight points up with all fifteen reds remaining. He cleared the table with thirteen blacks and two pinks, leaving himself two points short of the highest possible break.

Quite a remarkable feat.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVg70qVju2w

 

[albion]

O'Sullivans form had dropped off a cliff, since the move to Dubai, as I expected. I judged needed lifes pressure to get him on a higher level.
Whilst surprised on his return to form at long last I do wonder if the sudden Gulf shock has helped him focus more.

 

[Vapin' Joe]

O'Sullivans form had dropped off a cliff, since the move to Dubai, as I expected. I judged needed lifes pressure to get him on a higher level.
Whilst surprised on his return to form at long last I do wonder if the sudden Gulf shock has helped him focus more.

He now seems to play well in patches, which has been the norm for dominant players once they pass their peak and start to fall behind.

 

[figbat]

Ronnie O'Sullivan has made the world record break of 153 at the World Open in China. He snookered Ryan Day before a ball was potted in the frame and got a free ball after Day's failed escape. Taking the green as a red followed by the black he was eight points up with all fifteen reds remaining. He cleared the table with thirteen blacks and two pinks, leaving himself two points short of the highest possible break.

Quite a remarkable feat.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVg70qVju2w

There are anecdotal tales of 155 breaks in non-televised or exhibition matches but nothing in formal professional match play.

A great break which was also part of a whitewashing of Day, with a lowest frame winning break of 62!

 

[Vapin' Joe]

Thai player Thepchaiya Un-Nooh made one in practice in 2021, following Jamie Cope who also achieved that back in 2005. It has never been done in a tournament, and the pockets on practice tables are not always to professional tournament standards.

 

[albion]

He now seems to play well in patches, which has been the norm for dominant players once they pass their peak and start to fall behind.

Yes, he certainly has a habit of turning up for the big pay cheques. So maybe the war is a red herring.