Month: May 2016

Second Irish stop: Mitchelstown

Monique Snooker Legends event

LegendsMitchelstown17May2016

Ronnie and Jimmy were in Mitchelstown yesterday, for the second of their three Irish exhibitions. Before that they enjoyed a bit of tourism in beautiful Limerick .

The exhibition itself was a tremedous success, it was absolutely packed.

Both Jimmy and Ronnie played two amateurs, over one frame, and the professionals prevailed in all four frames. After that they played each other in a best of 5. Ronnie won the match 3-2, but it was Jimmy who made the highest break, a 115.

Here are a few images posted on twitter by Jason, the promoter, Mike, a friend of Ronnie, and fans.

 

First Irish stop: Limerick

Monique Snooker Legends event

LegendsLimerick16May2016

After a very short night of sleep – no more than four hours – Ronnie traveled to Limerick, Ireland, yesterday, where he was joined by Jimmy White for an exhibition with a slightly different format.

Based on the feedback on twitter, and information supplied by a very tired and overworked promoter, this is my understanding of what happened:

It was packed and very, very busy.

Both players played 3 frames against local amateurs. Jimmy won two, lost one; Ronnie won all three with a 100 in the first one.

They then played each other, in a best of three, that Jimmy won 2-1.

I hope that Ronnie gets a good rest today because they have two more similar exhibitions coming today and tomrrow. It’s hard to play well when shattered, and he hates playing badly and letting the fans down.

There were also a few pictures posted on twitter by Jason and fans

Rocket on tour: the Hoddesdon stop

Monique Snooker Legends event

Legends15May2016

On his way to Ireland, Ronnie made a stop in Hoddesdon, where played Stephen Hendry.

This is Jason Francis, the Snooker Legends promoter, account of the night

  • Packed in Hoddesdon

  • Ronnie v Stephen tonight, place is rammed

  • 2-1 to Ronnie at the interval, highlight an 86 from Stephen

  • Ronnie 3-1

  • Ros won 4-2 tonight. Top break 109

  • Ireland tomorrow!!! #rockettour

  • Manchester airport hotel… 4 hours sleep are all ours.. #tour #tired #globetrotters

And a couple of pictures

 

More smokies …

Monique Snooker Legends event

This is an early tweet by Jason Francis, the Snooker Legends promoter

Up early to start the long trip south for legends tonight in Hoddesdon #sellout Ronnie v Hendry

So, Ronnie is on his way to Ireland today, but not without being fully fed and prepared

Last smokie of my Arbroath trip, this time I’m having it with poached eggs. 🐟🐟🐟🍳🍳

was this morning first tweet, whilst yesterday evening was

I’ve had 4 smokies today

Arbroath9

He also informed us, on twitter, that they are so good that he’s getting some shipped to England. Clearly he’s in love!

But what about the snooker?

Well, again, not much filtered …

Jason Francis on twitter , posted a few pictures and told us that Ronnie started with a “shabby” 118, playing one of the club owners, Mark Fleming, and had a 109 in frame 3 … then I’m not sure what happened. Maybe they were following Eurovision (only kidding).

Anyway, this looks like a happy aftermath picture, posted on twitter by Jason

The two brothers who made it happen. Mark and Ryan Fleming @shotz147

ArbroathBrothers

Update: I’ve just been informed by Jason that Ronnie won all 16 frames, made 2 centuries the first night and 3 centuries on the second night.

Trips and treats

Monique Snooker

Ronnie is back on the road for about 10 days, traveling to Scotland, Ireland and Germany – with a one night stop in England in the middle – for exhibition and club nights. This is  his warm-up for the Eleven-30 series with Judd starting on June. You can check the where and when here .

First stop was yesterday evening in Arbroath, Scotland, for a club night. Very little filtered about the action but we were informed that the Legends gang duly sampled the local smokies. Obviously important things have to come first and a famished snooker player isn’t any good!

Arbroath1

We also got to know, thanks to Jason on twitter, that Ronnie made back to back centuries at a point, including a 118 – he missed the blue for a possible 136. Also it filtered that John Virgo nicked Michaela Tabb’s white gloves for the last frame …

Here are a few pictures posted on twitter:

 

I’ll post more if / when I know more…

Meanwhile you can enjoy those two treats:

This is Ronnie in Morocco on April 9; it was posted very recently (9 May 2016) on YouTube!

As someone made this: Ronnie’s first and fasted 147 … in LEGO

 

Midweek Matchzone is back

Monique Radio or Television Show

Midweek Matchzone n°34 was broadcast last Thursday and is now available on PhoenixFM website if you missed it.

The show was the latest featuring five-times world snooker champion Ronnie O’Sullivan and Alan Bentley as Chris’s co-hosts.

Chris, Alan and Ronnie were joined in the studio by Wayne Banks from Fitness In Mind UK and karting champ Lochlan Bearman. Plus they talk snooker, football and F1.

Snooker wise, Ronnie gives a good assessment of his World Championship and how he wants to tackle the coming season. He also speaks about Marco Fu’s tip incident and how having to put a new tip on can ruin a championship. Finally he expresses quite mixed views about the Shootout becoming ranking: in short he doesn’t mind … but not under variant rules and not with a 10 seconds shot-clock. In short not if it’s the Shootout as we know it.

News Of The World … of Snooker

Monique Professional snooker tournament

Various news have emerged in the recent days, some of them rather … surprising and, erhhh, controversial.

Let’s start with the good / non controversial ones

Worldsnooker has published the (provisional) calendar for the new season .

Betfred has extended their sponsorship of the World Championship up to 2019, you can read more about this on Worldsnooker site .

The Q-School is underway and you can follow the scores on Worldsnooker website or on Snooker.org.

AND, now the controversial bit,  it was announced today that this season the Shootout will be extented to 128 players and will be ranking . Yes, you read it right!

It’s an understatement to say that this news wasn’t well received by many players and they made their opinions clear on the social media, twitter and facebook (Peter Ebdon Mark Williams, Neil Robertson, Mark Allen being the top protesters)… and Barry Hearn dismissed them as he does, and promised more “news”. We better be prepared then.

Now what follows is my – Monique Limbos- personal opinion and mine only .

This decision is ludicrous, stupid and devaluates the rankings and snooker as a sport. This is an event where “matches are played over ONE frame, under variant rules (need to hit a cushion, ball in hand after foul), with a ridiculous shot-clock time of 10 seconds for half of the “match” and a time limit of 10 minutes. Add to it a vociferous and often drunken crowd and you have the perfect recipe for slapstick, and it’s indeed what you get.

The prize money for this, last season was 32K, more than a PTC where players had to win 7 best of 7. If the current logic of doubling the prize with each round is used, it will be 64K this season, more than the Welsh Open last season. Remember that it would mean that the player who wins 7 frames  under variant rules and a preposterously short shot-clock, would get more ranking points than the winner of a proper ranking event with a huge history. You’re kidding Barry ? Apparantly not… I though ranking was supposed to reflect who the better players are, I’m probably outdated and naïve, but to me this is a disgrace and an insult to players skills.