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I like the look of Mark Williams so far...he's in devastating form. This lad Sean Murphy :confused: I think thats his name anyway is certainly putting it up to them, and as an outside bet I might throw a sneaky fiver on Matthew Stevens.
Who do you fancy??
I think Steven Hendry looks pretty unstoppable.. dunno what odds you'd get for him though
O'Sullivan is such an ignorant c**t :mad: . As long as he doesn't win I don't care who does.
Explain!Quote:
Originally Posted by JGKyne
Three morning century breaks set up Ian McCulloch for a tense 13-12 win over former champion Mark Williams.Quote:
Originally Posted by joeSoap
Just listen to his interview's after his matches this year. he said after his win over Carter that when he won last year 2 hours later he felt nothing not even excited that he won his 2nd world championship. Most players would love to be as talented as him and all he does is complain that his had a hard life and he is looking forward to quitting but yet he never does.Quote:
Originally Posted by Superhoops
He sickens me! :mad:
What can he do about that? He didn't feel excited, I'm sure he'd love to be feeling over the moon for weeks after it. I haven't a clue how he can be called arrogant for having a messed up head.Quote:
Originally Posted by JGKyne
I never seen anything like today's match between Ebdon and Ronnie. Ebdon spent 5 minutes and 30 seconds on a simple break of 12. That is longer than Ronnie's 147. He was obviously trying to annoy O'Sullivan so Ronnie wouldn't move from his seat when Ebdon missed a pot and sat down. Ebdon wouldn't look at Ronnie and while Ronnie was breaking his shíte laughing, Ebdon wouldn't crack a smile.
Then a few minutes later Ronnie missed a pot and was about to concede the frame but just about stopped himself. In the same frame again Ronnie hit a red and it looked like touching ball. It obviously wasn't as the ref didn't call it but Ebdon asked the ref to have a look again. The ref didn't change his mind and Ebdon kept looking to see if it was touching. Ronnie got up off his seat and looked at it. He said to Ebdon it clearly wasn't touching and sat down in his seat with a smile on his face.
The crowd were really reluctant to clap Ebdon and the commentators and pundits were saying he had went a bit far. He has made a terrible name for himself with 1 game of snooker, just after he had got a good name back.
If he doesn't enjoy playin' snooker, then why does he? :confused:Quote:
Originally Posted by eirebhoy
I never said he didn't enjoy it. Of course he goes through spells where he doesn't. It wouldn't matter where he worked he'd still go through spells of depression, its just him. Anyway, would you give up such a well paid job?Quote:
Originally Posted by JGKyne
It worked for him anyway, snooker is boring enough without this man making it worse.Quote:
Originally Posted by eirebhoy
"I probably won't play next year. I'll take a year off. I'll let you know before the season starts, but I'm 90% positive.
It's not an irrational decision. I've been thinking about this for quite a while and maybe it'll be good for me.
I need to see a few people to see if it's worth coming back next year. Maybe if I have a year off and am quite happy I have another year off.
It breaks my heart to have to turn my back on the game. But I have to put myself first. It's not making me happy, mentally and physically it's taking its toll.
It may be the case I'm saying goodbye. You all have a special place in my heart. Thank you for your support."
Schedule for today
Semi-final
Shaun Murphy v Peter Ebdon (1400 BST)
Matthew Stevens v Ian McCulloch (1830 BST)
I got the Mark Williams thing wrong, but have a €10 on Stevens @ 10/1 and €5 each way on Murphy @18/1. Ideally I need both of them in the final, with Stevens winning, but knowing my luck..... :eek:Quote:
Originally Posted by joeSoap
He was quite up front about it last night when interviewed. He said thats how pressure affects him, and he sounded pretty sincere about it. He said it just slows him down and makes him play that way. Anyway, he broke no rules, so give the man a break for christs sake. He played a very conservative game which messed Ronnies rhythm up, and to me thats good tactical play.O'Sullivan made more enforced errors than him, and at the end of the day he cracked because he didn't get things all his own way. Neither did Ebdon earlier in the game and at 10-6 down, but he showed resolve...thats why he's through, and fair play to him. I hope he had a few quid on himself at 33/1 at that stage in the match, O'Sullivan was 1/50 to win it.I'm sure he doesn't give a toss how pretty he looks or how fast he plays...he just wants to win at all costs and you gotta admire that.Quote:
Originally Posted by dublinharp
joeSoap, did you see the match? I seen the match and I seen Ebdon's interview and while it seemed like he was being sincere I am 110% sure he wasn't. You really would have to see him when he told the ref the balls were touching. He knew quite well the balls weren't were touching but spent the best part of a minute trying to wreck Ronnie's head. Ronnie got out of his seat and it took him 2 seconds to see the gap between the balls. He was deliberately slowing his game down to mess with Ronnie and it isn't good for the game. As soon as it looked like Ebdon was going to make a big break I just switched channels and I'm sure I wasn't the only one.
OK, pressure may make him slow his game down but come on. He was taking ages on shots and then he would see Ronnie move in his seat. He would then tell the ref to clean the cue ball. Actually, he must have told the ref to clean the ball 3 times during his 12 break.
So...he upset a few people...so what?? He broke no rules, and is out for himself, nobody else. This isn't a team game, its an individual battle of skill and wits. He psyched out his opponent, forcing him into terrible play, and was very pernickety and boring.....Again, I'll say, so what!! And what rules did he break??
Get over it Ronnie, take your beating and pick up your rattle....
It's called [SIZE=5]Gamesmanship[/SIZE]bad form maybe, but not illegal..
They should introduce that time frame thing they did a few years ago....
Eh, you mustn't have seen Ronnie's interviews? He was full of praise for Ebdon.Quote:
Originally Posted by joeSoap
BTW - Deliberate slow play is illegal. They were saying on BBC that Ebdon should have been warned for slow play yesterday. Time wasting and diving in football is accepted by fans on the continent. I don't think deliberately turning a game into a dire specticle to upset your opponent is the kind of thing that we should accept. Not a lot of people would want to watch Ebdon make a century the way he was playing yesterday. It was more exciting looking at Ronnie falling asleep.
Fair play to him...didn't see that..Quote:
Originally Posted by eirebhoy
It's not illegal. It is down to the referees discretion as to how long he allows a plyer take over each shot.Quote:
Originally Posted by eirebhoy
For the record, I wanted Ronnie to win.....
Not a chance, I'd love to play snooker/pool professionallyQuote:
Originally Posted by eirebhoy
Article in todays Times.
Quote:
THERE have been close to a maximum 147 euphemisms rolled out to describe Peter Ebdon’s shameless tactics on Wednesday night, when the former world champion recovered from 10-6 to defeat Ronnie O’Sullivan, the champion, 13-11 in the quarter-finals. The one word that has been absent is the one that crossed my mind while tuning in to that session of excruciating snooker: cheating.
The facts: Ebdon’s average shot time in the final session was a coma-inducing 40 seconds. In the twentieth frame, he took 5min 30sec to compile a break of 12, ten seconds slower than O’Sullivan took to knock in a maximum 147 at the same venue in 1997. He took 3min 5sec for a single shot in the opening frame of the final session, five seconds longer than it took Tony Drago to win an entire frame in 1988. Ken Doherty, a former world champion, said: “I’m a friend of Peter’s, but taking that long is bordering on the ridiculous.”
When asked about his tactics, Ebdon broke into an expression of shocked innocence. “I did not deliberately try to knock Ronnie out of his stride,” he said. “I did not even know what I was doing half the time.”
Pull the other one, Peter. O’Sullivan’s mounting frustration was visible to everyone in the auditorium. In the second frame of the evening, he asked someone in the audience for the time. He spent most of the rest of the session slumped in his chair looking half-asleep and at one point gouged his forehead with his fingernails.
Sport, you see, is about rhythm and it is virtually impossible to get into the groove when your opponent keeps switching the music off. You have got to admire Ebdon’s resourcefulness, though. His water-sipping, slow-walking, head-scratching shenanigans were a masterclass in how to waste time. He had the cue-ball cleaned so often it started to shrink. He will be asking for the Crucible carpets to be cleaned between shots should he get through to the final.
Time-wasting reared its ugly head in table tennis in the 1980s. Desmond Douglas, the turbo-charged former British No 1, faced Ulf Thorsell, of Sweden, in the final of an international competition. The Swede spent a good 30 seconds between points wiping imaginary perspiration from his brow in a successful attempt to knock the affable Englishman out of his stride. “Champion Towel-master” was the subsequent headline.
When the governing body changed the rules so that towelling down could occur only every five points, the time-wasters responded by tying their shoelaces instead. Eventually umpires were encouraged to use their discretion to invoke the catch-all rule that players should not indulge in “ungentlemanly conduct”.
I know — give arbiters enough subjective rope and the egomaniacal fringe of the blazered brigade will hang the sport. But, after Wednesday night, most in snooker would welcome a dose of officiousness if it put a stop to such gruelling gamesmanship.
Yet snooker referees already have the power to clamp down on slow play. The rule states: “If a referee considers that a player is taking an abnormal amount of time over a stroke or selection of strokes he shall warn the player that he is liable to have the frame awarded to his opponent.”
Disgracefully, there was not a peep from Colin Brinded, the jovial referee from Great Yarmouth. There is no suggestion that Brinded was fearful of Ebdon’s position on the board of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, but there is a possible conflict of interest, which needs to be reviewed.
O’Sullivan, too, must take his share of responsibility for failing to question the referee’s apparent spinelessness. As John Parrott, the former world champion, put it: “If it had been me, I would’ve asked the referee if what he was doing was in the rules and I’d have said it loudly enough for everyone to hear me.”
Ebdon was unapologetic after some hostile questioning. “To be honest, I don’t care what people say,” he said. “I won the match. Ronnie is an absolute genius and I have the utmost respect for him.” It is not his attitude to O’Sullivan that is in question, but his respect for the integrity of snooker. In a sport that is now bereft of tobacco sponsorship, Ebdon’s quest for supremacy through monotony could prove to be nothing less than disastrous.
Great final last night, well done to Murphy.