CueSport TV – The Blog

I had been covering everyday of the Northern Ireland Trophy last week until I had to make a trip to Manchester for the GB 9 Ball Tour.

Those of you that are avid snooker fans will undoubtedly know the final result that Ronnie O’Sullivan demolished Dave Harold 9-3 in the final. The win cements Ronnie’s position at the top of the rankings as he is over 6,000 points above Stephen Maguire in second, unless Ronnie has a huge dip in form I think he s safe for the rest of this year.

The biggest surprise of the tournament was of course Dave Harold, the Stoke cueman reaching his first ranking final in a number of years. This performance though has catapulted Dave, a very thorough and precise snooker player, to a provisional ranking of number 14. Form however, can be temporary and the qualifiers for all major tournaments are tough and it will require a lot of determination, luck and of course skill (which Dave no doubt pocesses) to duplicate this result and maintain his ranking.

There are a number of players this season that need to find some form and confidence if they are to stay in the elite of World Snooker. Peter Ebdon is one of them, the Dubai based professional who was instrumental in getting the Bahrain championships on the calendar, has struggled of late but has always played his best snooker in the longer formats of the game, The World Championships and UK Championships. Reaching 1/4 finals in these tournaments is not going to give him the anking points required to stay in the top 16 and he needs to find some way of battling to victories in the lesser events as well. He has always been known for his battling qualities and dogged determination and now needs to put that to use more than ever!

The Shanghai Masters qualifiers are in progress this week and the main event takes place from the 29th September – 5th October.

In the meantime if you want a fix of professional snooker then you can watch the Belgium Open Snooker Live Online from the 19th-21st September. It costs just £8.00 for the three daysand tickets are available by logging into CueSport TV and clicking on Buy Credits.

The biggest surprise of the first ranking event of the season is Dave Harold. The 42 year old Staffordshire based cueman has always been a talented player and has on a couple of occasions broken into Snooker’s elite 16. For someone of his ability he has often struggled to push on and finds himself languishing just outside the top 16.

This season’s Northern Ireland Trophy has certainly built up his confidence though with a spot in the last 8 against defending champion, Stephen Maguire. Harold’s win over Stephen Lee yesterday cemented his place in the 1/4 finals and with it comes some decent prize money and all important ranking points.

Harold’s opponent today, Stephen Maguire, had a tough 5-4 victory over Aan McManus and has kind of glided through to the last 8 without a mention.

Another to look for is Mark Allen, in front of his home crowd he could be difficult to stop and has certainly started well in his first season in the top 16.

The other major shock was Ian McCulloch beating Mark Selby 5-4, Selby one of the most consistent players on tour last year has a new cue action (See: The Long and the Short of It - Snooker Scene Blog). In his first match it didn’t seem to trouble him as he comfortably won 5-1 over a less than impressive Andrew Higginson. This match was different and against the battling attitude of McCulloch trying to contend with a new action as well was obviously too much. Good luck to McCulloch in the 1/4 finals but I do think there is a lot more to come from Mark Selby this year.

Complete Last 16 Results

Stephen Maguire (Sco) bt Alan McManus (Sco) 5-4
John Higgins (Sco) bt Liang Wenbo (Chi) 5-1
Mark Allen (NIrl) bt Mark Williams (Wal) 5-3
Dave Harold (Eng) bt Stephen Lee (Eng) 5-4
Ali Carter (Eng) bt Mark Davis (Eng) 5-2
Ian McCulloch (Eng) bt Mark Selby (Eng) 5-4
Ronnie O’Sullivan (Eng) bt Joe Perry (Eng) 5-3
Barry Hawkins (Eng) bt Ryan Day (Wal) 5-3

Quarter-Final Draw

• Stephen Maguire (Sco) v Dave Harold (Eng)
• John Higgins (Sco) v Ian McCulloch (Eng)
• Mark Allen (NI) v Allister Carter (Eng)
• Barry Hawkins (Eng) v Ronnie O’Sullivan (Eng)

After yesterdays surprise of only two seeded players from eight progressing to the last 16 today has been a little better for snooker elite players.

Every single seeded player has so far moved into the 3rd round although Ryan Day did sweat a little bit being pushed to a 5-4 victory by Stuart Pettman – it was a very scrappy affair with neither player knocking in a respectable break.

The last two World Championship runners-up had a good day as Mark Selby and Ali Carter defeated Andrew Higginson and Rory Mcleod respectively, both by the same 5-1 scoreline. Mark Selby was one of the most consistent players last season and has started off in the same veign wth his first match of the season.

Current Results from Day 4

• Mark Selby (Eng) 5-1 Andrew Higginson (Eng)
• Ali Carter (Eng) 5-1 Rory McLeod (Eng)
• Marco Fu (Hong Kong) 2-5 Barry Hawkins (Eng)
• John Higgins (Sco) 5-2 Dave Gilbert (Eng)
• Joe Perry (Eng) 5-2 Jamie Cope (Eng)
• Ryan Day (Wal) 5-4 Stuart Pettman (Eng)

Playing this evening:

Ronnie O’Sullivan v Ken Doherty & Ding Junhui v Mark Davis