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O’Sullivan Through Against Exciting Wenbo

October 14, 2008 / The_Teach / No comments

Ronnie O’Sullivan battled back from 2-0 down against Chinese sensation Liang Wenbo. Wenbo, who O’Sullivan beat in the 1/4 final of the 2008 World Championships, has already become a cult hero amongst snooker fans with his very attacking do-or-die attitude. To date I am yet to see him refuse a pot!

The other excitement in the day was the open draw for the second round of the Grand Prix, yesterday on this blog I stated that this was new, according to Steve Davis on the BBC today this format was used in the 80′s.

Regardless of whether the format is new or old it is still exciting and it was very ‘FA Cup like’ having Hazel Irvine in the players lounge as the draw was being made. The funniest thing was that Ryan Day and Mark Selby drew each other and were sat next to each other in the room.

The draw is below and awaits the results of tonights last two 1st round matches.:

  • Jamie Cope (Eng) v Peter Ebdon (Eng)
  • Shaun Murphy (Eng)/Adrian Gunnell (Eng) v Steve Davis (Eng)
  • John Higgins (Sco) v Stephen Hendry (Sco)
  • Mark Selby (Eng) v Ryan Day (Wal)
  • Judd Trump (Eng) v Joe Perry (Eng)
  • Mark King (Eng)/John Parrott (Eng) v Ali Carter (Eng)
  • Ding Junhui (Chn) v Michael Holt (Eng)
  • Marco Fu (HK) v Ronnie O’Sullivan (Eng)

Pick of the round is the Day – Selby match which should be a real belter, it is also important to point out the last match in this round is the repeat of last years final, that Marco Fu won!

Category: World Snooker / Tags: , , ,

Snooker: Selby in top form

October 14, 2008 / The_Teach / No comments

Mark Selby demolished Andrew Higginson 5-0 last night to book his place in the open draw for round two of the Royal London Watches Grand Prix. The win included a 135 total clearance in frame 4 that you can see the closing stages of here: Snooker: Mark Selby makes 135 Break.

Peter Ebdon (being investigated regarding strange betting patterns at last seasons Malta Cup) also progressed with another one-sided victory, 5-1 over Simon Bedford. However, in the first frame Peter’s colour blindness struck him as he mistook an out of position brown ball to be a red. He did see the funny side and surprisingly did go on to win the frame!

Todays hot pick is Ronnie O’Sullivan v Liang Wenbo live on BBC and BBC Interactive from 13:30 today. Wenbo is a very talented and very attacking player who played Ronnie in last seasons world championship final, Ronnie is well… Ronnie and is certainly in form this season.

Category: World Snooker / Tags: , , ,

Grand Prix Snooker Underway.

October 13, 2008 / The_Teach / No comments

The 2008 Grand Prix is underway from the SECC in Glasgow and this year features a very exciting (in my opinion) new format.

Gone is the ill-fated round robin that graced our screens in 2006 and 2007 much to the annoyance of spectators and players alike. I don’t knock anyone for trying and World Snooker also fit into that equation, what is also great is that they have taken advice from players and fans and done away with it.

Now the new format is very exciting, the first round is seeded as usual but every subsequent round is re-drawn with no seedings, this means the top two ranked players culd draw each other opening the door for lower ranked players to progress. It is akin to the FA Cup of Snooker!

Already booked into the open draw are 51 year old Steve Davis who showed awesome battling qualities and a lot of patience in his 5-4 victory over Neil Robertson. Davis has undergone somewhat of a resurgence of late and has realised that the strongest part of his game is the safety, so is trying to outwit opponents rather than out pot them. This was very evident in the Robertson match and could well have accounted for his 1/4 final run at the Shanghai Masters. That run in China moved The Nugget up one place in the provisional rankings to number 28, with the open draw anything can certainly happen and Davis will be one to keep your eye on.

The other results from the first round are below along with the remaining first round matches:

  • Ali Carter (Eng) v Dave Harold (Eng)
  • Joe Perry (Eng) 5-3 Barry Hawkins (Eng)
  • Ryan Day (Wal) 5-4 Ricky Walden (Eng)
  • Stephen Hendry (Sco) 5-4 Dave Gilbert (Eng)
  • Judd Trump (Eng) w/o Graeme Dott (Sco)
  • Ronnie O’Sullivan (Eng) v Liang Wenbo (Chn)
  • Neil Robertson (Aus) 4-5 Steve Davis (Eng)
  • Mark King (Eng) v John Parrott (Eng)
  • Ding Junhui (Chn) 5-0 Jamie Burnett (Sco)
  • Mark Allen (NI) 1-5 Michael Holt (Eng)
  • Stephen Maguire (Sco) 1-5 Jamie Cope (Eng)
  • Shaun Murphy (Eng) v Adrian Gunnell (Eng)
  • Peter Ebdon (Eng) v Simon Bedford (Eng)
  • John Higgins (Sco) 5-0 Anthony Hamilton (Eng)
  • Marco Fu (HK) 5-2 Jimmy Michie (Eng)
  • Mark Selby (Eng) v Andrew Higginson (Eng)
Category: World Snooker / Tags: , , ,
 
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