How about "you know what, I'm not doing it, it wouldn't be right"?
Considering the calm way he's discussing the ease of cheating and money laundering, I think that a considerable u-turn after toasting the deal would be such a stretch of the imagination that anyone seriously suggesting it has no grasp on reality or the human condition..
The video does speak for itself and it was only yesterday that I actually bothered to look at it as I was pro JH..
I'm still pro JH as a fellow (club) player admiring his talent, however I'm not so star struck that his actions off the table become invisible..
The WPBSA handled this badly and their actions clearly intended to favour JH, when other cheats have been more severely reprimanded.
I doubt anyone can dispute he is WC material, the question is whether he should've been allowed to compete in any of this year's events.
Well worth reading zawtowers similar posts and flicking through his photo album, there's some excellent stuff there, and from Elanor too.
Thanks again for all the feedback folks, it's nice to have a bit of love in this thread
Cheers too TC for your excellent report on your day at the final, really gave a good insight into what was going on there. And we all spotted you straight off.
It's been good stuff all round the last two weeks with some excellent snooker, and lots of great moments to take with me. Might even try and get to the final next year as well, so I'll keep my fingers crossed for that or be ready for when the tickets go on sale (usually end of October if I remember)
Might try and get to Bolton Albert Halls if possible, but anyone near York or Radlett might want to go along next week and see Ronnie v Jimmy.. that'd be worth watching.
Normally the other dates have John Virgo hosting, with Jimmy White, Cliff Thorburn, Dennis Taylor, John Parrott and Michaela as the referee. There's standard tickets and VIP ones for champagne pre-match reception with the stars and premium seats too..
Might be something to watch prior to the tour events next season.
The one thing missing from this equation was Trump's biggest weakness in my opinion: positional play. Time after time he found himself running out of position - the amount of times he ended up wrong side of the blue was pretty incredible given some of the other shots he was playing. That wasn't just bad luck, it was a real weakness and one that Higgins, who was much more consistent with his positional play, exploited.
It does show up in one stat, which is that Higgins had far more breaks over 50 in the final than Trump did. That's often more important than centuries when it comes to winning a match.
Good point - His safety game wasn't as good as it needed to be. A lot of shots he got the length wron, and didn't put his opponent in enough trouble.
As I already said, the trouble is that it is very hard to maintain an out and out attacking game, and keep getting shots that are maybe only 70-80%. Ay some point you get punished.
The trouble is that attacking players end up looking unluckly, and more-defensive minded ones looking lucky - but that maks the truth.
Might try and get to Bolton Albert Halls if possible, but anyone near York or Radlett might want to go along next week and see Ronnie v Jimmy.. that'd be worth watching.
Normally the other dates have John Virgo hosting, with Jimmy White, Cliff Thorburn, Dennis Taylor, John Parrott and Michaela as the referee. There's standard tickets and VIP ones for champagne pre-match reception with the stars and premium seats too..
Might be something to watch prior to the tour events next season.
Am very tempted by the 27th May at the Waterfront with Kirk Stevens special guest. Will ask my dad later or else go with a friend. Thanks for pointing this out.
Maybe I am reading too much into this but, on the closing credits for the snooker last night I read the order of commentators. It read - Dennis Taylor, Willie Thorne, John Virgo ( no surprise as they are the top 3 now and that is in alphabetical order ), then - Neil Foulds, Terry Griffiths ( again in alphabetical order and these guys did up to the quarters ) then - Stephen Hendry and Clive Everton. It was only a few years back Clive's name was first now he gets shunted to bottom billing.
Higgins showwed why he is the world No1, the standard of play, his pure potting power and his superb safety play allowed his to beat all challenger this year.
Judd was great also, i think tonight, we were watching the start of the carreer of smookers future star.
Judd is going to be hUGE!!! IMO.
But for tonight the best man prevailed, not on flukes or cheating as some on here would like everyone to beleive, but he won through years of practice, nerves of steel,and because he was simply the better of the two players on the night.
My only annoyances at tonight are the inabillity of some to enjoy the match rather than call higgins silly names "scottish potato" ect and constantly try to excuse bad playing by calling it "unlucky" or good playing by calling it "flukey".
Other than that, an amazing tournament.
Cant wait to see more judd.
I think Judd Trump lost because of his slightly poor positioning. As the match went on he lost control of the white ball. He over-hit balls all the time - which is a consequence of hitting the ball too hard. It's okay to whack the ball if you get on the next red or colour but when you hit the white ball so hard and lose position the break sizes drop dramatically.
Also, he fell into the classic Higgins trap of doing a safety shot and leaving Higgins with an easy shot to lay a snooker. That's how he lost the final frame. Higgins is a master at finding ways to lay a snooker. Someone like Davis in his prime would not fall for all the Higgins' type snooker shots because he'd anticipate what Higgins would do. Trump, Williams and the rest rarely anticipate Higgins' next shot. Higgins is like a chess player when it comes to close frame, he works out in advance where to put the white and the other players rarely think so far ahead. You could argue he's more 'tactically intelligent' than all the other snooker players. I'd say there's no doubt about it.
Had Trump repeated the form he showed against Ding I think he would have won the final against Higgins. In terms of potting ability I rate him higher than Higgins.
My slight concern about Trump is he doesn't appear to have any B game. It's all out attack with Trump and that won't work if your positional play is off. If Judd can develop more of a tactical game he could win the event in the near future.
I would say "well done!" to John for winning but seeing as he's a cheat I'm not going to say well done to the guy. Having said that, his late father would have been happy to know he won another world title.
Good posts. I had to wade through a lot to find them
Well worth reading zawtowers similar posts and flicking through his photo album, there's some excellent stuff there, and from Elanor too.
Thanks again for all the feedback folks, it's nice to have a bit of love in this thread
Thanks to you TC, zawtowers and other posters for posting genuinely descriptive and intelligent posts. I know I sometimes just posts one-liners and have a laugh but sometimes you need a little more depth and at least some posters have provided us with that
Maybe I am reading too much into this but, on the closing credits for the snooker last night I read the order of commentators. It read - Dennis Taylor, Willie Thorne, John Virgo ( no surprise as they are the top 3 now and that is in alphabetical order ), then - Neil Foulds, Terry Griffiths ( again in alphabetical order and these guys did up to the quarters ) then - Stephen Hendry and Clive Everton. It was only a few years back Clive's name was first now he gets shunted to bottom billing.
I also noticed that Hendon and Yates are listed as statisticians and sometimes you do see them in the press room. So does that mean they are always there because Eurosport don't commentate from the arena do they?
One of the issues I have with that statement is the crowd can hear it, as they get the same commentary as we do on their ear pieces.. so isn't that influencing the crowd to a certain extent? If I were a player I'd be a bit miffed if I found out the commentary box were bigging up my rival and encouraging the crowd to go nuts after certain shots.
I don't mean to suggest they're trying to sway the game but it's perhaps an unintentional side effect.
I was saying the same to my mates the other night when we were watching it. They haven't been watching and didn't know about the earpieces and I told them about when the BBC team waffle on, tell anecdotes/jokes and talk about the families and celebs when the camera goes off into the crowd. I think they should be warned about it because they're supposed to be there to commentate on the match and what they're doing is sometimes interfereing with the crowd and the match.
Might try and get to Bolton Albert Halls if possible, but anyone near York or Radlett might want to go along next week and see Ronnie v Jimmy.. that'd be worth watching.
Normally the other dates have John Virgo hosting, with Jimmy White, Cliff Thorburn, Dennis Taylor, John Parrott and Michaela as the referee. There's standard tickets and VIP ones for champagne pre-match reception with the stars and premium seats too..
Might be something to watch prior to the tour events next season.
Thanks for the link - I've just become very excited to learn that they're going to be in Inverness the first week of July!!! Most definitely going to try to take a trip over the water for that. Uncle Den, JP, JV and good ol' Jimmy White. You have totally made my day
Thanks to you TC, zawtowers and other posters for posting genuinely descriptive and intelligent posts. I know I sometimes just posts one-liners and have a laugh but sometimes you need a little more depth and at least some posters have provided us with that
I also noticed that Hendon and Yates are listed as statisticians and sometimes you do see them in the press room. So does that mean they are always there because Eurosport don't commentate from the arena do they?
I asked about this in broadcasting. Some seem to think they maybe commentate from the press room at times.
It looked a great atmosphere at the tournament in Berlin this year.
I really need to visit Berlin again in the future, I maybe will visit again next year when the tournament is there
Is snooker really popular in Germany now
Last night I looked at the Sport pages on news websites in Germany, Netherlands and Belgium and they all had headlines about the snooker World Championship, showing that snooker really has arrived in mainland Europe.
Well I'm home now and back online - missed all the forum fun! It wasn't the same without you guys to talk to. Having said that, I loved this year's tournament a LOT, it was the best in ages, even though my favourite won last year. It's been awesome, and I met Zawtowers too, which was cool. Judd Trump has been fabulous, and I'm a total convert to the way he plays, what panache! I do feel a bit glum about the overall result, it felt a bit of a let down and a bit like going backwards rather than going forwards, which was what all the rest of the tournament seemed to be about. Oh well, it was still the best final I've seen in a long time, I only wish I'd been there!
Oooh, and the Legends tour? They're doing Derby and they've only got KIRK STEVENS there!! I'm all *falling over myself with excitement*. NOBODY is as exciting as Kirk Stevens.
Well I'm home now and back online - missed all the forum fun! It wasn't the same without you guys to talk to. Having said that, I loved this year's tournament a LOT, it was the best in ages, even though my favourite won last year. It's been awesome, and I met Zawtowers too, which was cool. Judd Trump has been fabulous, and I'm a total convert to the way he plays, what panache! I do feel a bit glum about the overall result, it felt a bit of a let down and a bit like going backwards rather than going forwards, which was what all the rest of the tournament seemed to be about. Oh well, it was still the best final I've seen in a long time, I only wish I'd been there!
Oooh, and the Legends tour? They're doing Derby and they've only got KIRK STEVENS there!! I'm all *falling over myself with excitement*. NOBODY is as exciting as Kirk Stevens.
You didn't miss much on here Elanor except constant arguing and some really pathetic comments about Higgins. I don't know if they've been removed or not but I wouldn't be at all surprised if they had. There's really no excuse for slagging off a player's wife and children and calling them ugly. I noticed you weren't around but I'd forgotten that you said you might not be online so I wondered if you were just avoiding the thread because of all the nastiness and quite obvious trolling.
I agree that it was the best tournament we'd seen in a long time and I'm really looking forward to seeing Judd again. Also agree that it's a bit of a disappointment that Higgins is World Champion but I suppose he won the match fair and square. The argument about whether he should have been there at all has been done to death so I'm just going to leave that one alone Another reason I didn't want him to win was because he would end up with a World title more than Ronnie
Cliff Thorburn is meant to be at the Legends date in Inverness so we'll have a Canadian each
You didn't miss much on here Elanor except constant arguing and some really pathetic comments about Higgins. I don't know if they've been removed or not but I wouldn't be at all surprised if they had. There's really no excuse for slagging off a player's wife and children and calling them ugly. I noticed you weren't around but I'd forgotten that you said you might not be online so I wondered if you were just avoiding the thread because of all the nastiness and quite obvious trolling.
I agree that it was the best tournament we'd seen in a long time and I'm really looking forward to seeing Judd again. Also agree that it's a bit of a disappointment that Higgins is World Champion but I suppose he won the match fair and square. The argument about whether he should have been there at all has been done to death so I'm just going to leave that one alone Another reason I didn't want him to win was because he would end up with a World title more than Ronnie
Cliff Thorburn is meant to be at the Legends date in Inverness so we'll have a Canadian each
Hi! Yes, I did manage to get online a bit, on my phone, but only very slowly so I couldn't read everything, and only when it was convenient with my parents. I did see some of the arguing, which I'm glad I mostly missed. I still don't know what I think about the whole Higgins bribes thing, but it is a shame that's it's overshadowed things, and I think a Trump win would have been better for the sport. Oh well.
I've just checked, and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get to Derby I need to check a bit further, but I really really want to go!
I've also been wondering about going to see other tournaments - I wonder this every year, and I keep deciding not to, partly because nowhere is as convenient as the Crucible for me, and partly because after having spent a lot of time at the Crucible, I'm concerned that anywhere else will be a big disappointment! (I nearly counted up the other night how many sessions I've seen at the Crucible, but it started getting frightening, so I stopped! I dread to think how much I've spent over the years.)
Comments
The video does speak for itself and it was only yesterday that I actually bothered to look at it as I was pro JH..
I'm still pro JH as a fellow (club) player admiring his talent, however I'm not so star struck that his actions off the table become invisible..
The WPBSA handled this badly and their actions clearly intended to favour JH, when other cheats have been more severely reprimanded.
I doubt anyone can dispute he is WC material, the question is whether he should've been allowed to compete in any of this year's events.
He'll have to take out a rest-raining order
I'd like to go to a tournament just to see Hendry before he retires.
Also, great read that was about your Crucible experience TC. Thoroughly enjoyed it thanks.
Boom boom!
Yeah, don't think they could find a sponsor for it so they cancelled it.
Well worth reading zawtowers similar posts and flicking through his photo album, there's some excellent stuff there, and from Elanor too.
Thanks again for all the feedback folks, it's nice to have a bit of love in this thread
Cheers too TC for your excellent report on your day at the final, really gave a good insight into what was going on there. And we all spotted you straight off.
It's been good stuff all round the last two weeks with some excellent snooker, and lots of great moments to take with me. Might even try and get to the final next year as well, so I'll keep my fingers crossed for that or be ready for when the tickets go on sale (usually end of October if I remember)
Roll on next season...
http://www.snookerlegends.co.uk/booking.html
Might try and get to Bolton Albert Halls if possible, but anyone near York or Radlett might want to go along next week and see Ronnie v Jimmy.. that'd be worth watching.
Normally the other dates have John Virgo hosting, with Jimmy White, Cliff Thorburn, Dennis Taylor, John Parrott and Michaela as the referee. There's standard tickets and VIP ones for champagne pre-match reception with the stars and premium seats too..
Might be something to watch prior to the tour events next season.
Very good player.
Possibly future World Champion
Silly name
Even sillier hair:)
It might be the way the new game is going, but it seems to me you are more likely to win by getting ahead, and then keeping the pressure on.
In the last frame, he relaxed after getting a snooker ahead, and that cost him.
I think Mark Selby is the best safety player by a long way, now - and I think he is more likely to win before Trump.
Good point - His safety game wasn't as good as it needed to be. A lot of shots he got the length wron, and didn't put his opponent in enough trouble.
As I already said, the trouble is that it is very hard to maintain an out and out attacking game, and keep getting shots that are maybe only 70-80%. Ay some point you get punished.
The trouble is that attacking players end up looking unluckly, and more-defensive minded ones looking lucky - but that maks the truth.
Am very tempted by the 27th May at the Waterfront with Kirk Stevens special guest. Will ask my dad later or else go with a friend. Thanks for pointing this out.
Good posts. I had to wade through a lot to find them
Thanks for the link - I've just become very excited to learn that they're going to be in Inverness the first week of July!!! Most definitely going to try to take a trip over the water for that. Uncle Den, JP, JV and good ol' Jimmy White. You have totally made my day
Hear hear, much appreciated by me too.
I asked about this in broadcasting. Some seem to think they maybe commentate from the press room at times.
Last night I looked at the Sport pages on news websites in Germany, Netherlands and Belgium and they all had headlines about the snooker World Championship, showing that snooker really has arrived in mainland Europe.
Oooh, and the Legends tour? They're doing Derby and they've only got KIRK STEVENS there!! I'm all *falling over myself with excitement*. NOBODY is as exciting as Kirk Stevens.
You didn't miss much on here Elanor except constant arguing and some really pathetic comments about Higgins. I don't know if they've been removed or not but I wouldn't be at all surprised if they had. There's really no excuse for slagging off a player's wife and children and calling them ugly. I noticed you weren't around but I'd forgotten that you said you might not be online so I wondered if you were just avoiding the thread because of all the nastiness and quite obvious trolling.
I agree that it was the best tournament we'd seen in a long time and I'm really looking forward to seeing Judd again. Also agree that it's a bit of a disappointment that Higgins is World Champion but I suppose he won the match fair and square. The argument about whether he should have been there at all has been done to death so I'm just going to leave that one alone
Cliff Thorburn is meant to be at the Legends date in Inverness so we'll have a Canadian each
Hi! Yes, I did manage to get online a bit, on my phone, but only very slowly so I couldn't read everything, and only when it was convenient with my parents. I did see some of the arguing, which I'm glad I mostly missed. I still don't know what I think about the whole Higgins bribes thing, but it is a shame that's it's overshadowed things, and I think a Trump win would have been better for the sport. Oh well.
I've just checked, and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get to Derby
I've also been wondering about going to see other tournaments - I wonder this every year, and I keep deciding not to, partly because nowhere is as convenient as the Crucible for me, and partly because after having spent a lot of time at the Crucible, I'm concerned that anywhere else will be a big disappointment! (I nearly counted up the other night how many sessions I've seen at the Crucible, but it started getting frightening, so I stopped! I dread to think how much I've spent over the years.)