Tag Archive for john higgins

Live 9-ball & Live Snooker this weekend

December 10, 2008 / The_Teach / No comments

You can watch live 9-ball pool and live snooker this weekend!

The Mosconi Cup returns for it’s 15th edition and starts tomorrow evening the 11th December live on Sky Sports. The European team (captained this year by Alex Lely) are the defending champions having won the trophy in Las Vegas last year. The tournament MVP last time out was Tony Drago and he will be looking to put on a similar performance as he will be playing in Malta, his home country.

The rest of the European team are Ralf Souquet, Niels Feijen, Mika Immonen and Englands own Mark Gray. European players currently hold all of the world titles and have also been successful in the majors this year as well, Ralf Souquet winning the US Open the highlight.

The US team is captained by Nick Varner and is almost an unchanged side from last year, Earl Strickland returns as the only ever present since this tournament started and is joined by Johnny Archer, Shane van Boening, Jeremy Jones and Rodney Morris.

If snooker is more your tipple then prepare to be mesmerised as the Uk Championships starts on Saturday 13th December from the Telford International Centre. Regarded as the second most prestigious snooker tournament after the World Championships Ronnie O’Suillivan will be on hand to defend the title he won last December.

Other contenders:

  • Shaun Murphy (due some form after losing all first round matches this season.
  • Stephen Maguire (World number 2 could do with a good run)
  • Mark Selby (Looked poor in the Premier League final last weekend but has had a solid season)
  • John Higgins (Always a good performer)
  • Ryan Day (About time he won something)
Category: 9-ball Pool, World Snooker / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Higgins Destroys Ding in Moscow

November 25, 2008 / The_Teach / One comment

The most recent leg of the 2008 World Series of Snooker finished on Sunday (23rd November) with John Higgins recording an emphatic victory over Ding Junhui in the final.

With breaks of 73, 46, 52, 65 & 58 Higgins won the match 5-0 for his second World Series title.

The popularity of snooker in Russia is growing all of the time, probably helped by Eurosports live coverage of all World Snooker events. This event in Moscow further augments the case with a 1000 person sell-out. Is it not about time that World Snooker embraced this growth in popularity and was pro-active about adding additional events to the calendar.

The event in Bahrain, from what I have read as I didn’t see any of it, was a complete wash out in terms of ticket sales. Some of the smallest crowds for a ranking event were recorded at this event in the capital Manama. I think it was the right move to introduce an event to this region but perhaps Bahrain was the wrong country. The UAE always send a strong contingent to the IBSF events and Qatar are also interested in promoting a lot of sporting events, so perhaps additional thought and planning needs to be put into place for next season.

A fully fledged ranking event in Russia seems a long way off, but the popularity in terms of a fan base is already there, add to this the buzz that the event in Poland also received and you have two potential countries to be added to the World Tour.

I know I only have an outside view of what goes on with World Snooker however, it is plain to see that there is a call for additional events with a strong fan base. Russia and Poland have been mentioned but there is also Holland, Belgium, Germany and Austria that also have a big snooker following. This needs to be tapped into now as a resource to further develop the sport.

I am sure the players would be delighted to hear of a further four ranking events throughout the season as it means additional coverage for their own sponsors and also greater earnings potential. It is not as if the season is pushed for time. It seems strange how 5 events are crammed into the August-December period and then only 3 ranking events plus the Masters from January-May. Why does snooker need to have a ‘close-season’ anyway, it is not as if the sport is weather dependent?

Further Reading:

Category: General Snooker / Tags: , , , ,
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