Last week saw two qualifying events take place in Preston: the Indian Open 2018 qualifying round (last 128) and the European Masters 2018 qualifying round (last 128).

You can find all the Indian Open qualifiers results on snooker.org including links to the footage of the streamed matches.

This particular tournament never attracts many top players and this year edition is no exception. Relatively low prize money, long trip and a history of tourista epidemics amongst the players are probably the reasons for that. In addition, most of the entering top players have their last 128 match held-over, notably John Higgins (defending champion), Shaun Murphy, Mark Allen and Neil Robertson. So there weren’t many “shocks” at those qualifiers, but the 4-1 defeat of Anthony McGill at the hands of Thor Chuan Leong is certainly a surprise. That said Thor played well and played old-school hard match snooker to which Anthony had no answer.

The results of the European Masters 2018 can be found here, again with links to the videos of the streamed matches.

Here we had a few surprises with Shaun Murphy, Stephen Maguire, Michael White, Martin Gould and Ben Woollaston failing to qualify. Also Mark Selby, Stuart Bingham, David Gilbert, Mark Allen and Neil Robertson all had to face a decider before going through. It’s fair to say that the combination of a qualifiers environment and a short format seems to be a bit of a leveler!

The talking point on social media however today is Rory Mc Leod win over Luckas Kleckers in a deciding frame that lasted (about) 104 minutes! It was all started by Barry Hearn reminding everyone of his intention to send letters of warning to the players with an average shot time (AST) over 30 seconds, in an attempt to make the game more entertaining. This got Peter Ebdon up in arms … and I have to say that I agree with Peter here.

Let me remind you that section IV of the rules states that taking unnecessary long time over a shot, or the conception of a shot is deemed ungentlemanly conduct and hence should be tackled by the referee, starting with a warning and going possibly as far as forfeiting the match if the situation persists. This particular part of the rule seems to be very rarely applied, and is indeed very delicate to apply as a lot of factors need to be taken into consideration: the natural pace of the player, the situation on the table, the importance and stage in the match … to name only a few. Yet, it’s in the rules, and if rules are not applied they need either to be amended – if deemed inadequate – or enforced. Anything else makes a mockery of the sport.

Occurences of breach of the section IV rules are certainly not rife in snooker, but I have seen a few, the last time happening in the last round of the World Championship 2017 qualifiers. It was blatant, and I think that everyone watching snooker regularly would have recognised the situation but the culprit got away with it and won his match at ungodly hours over a gutted opponent. This is not right BUT this is typically a situation that will NOT be identified by looking at the AST, even over the match, as it was a long match , and certainly not over a whole season.

Some players are naturally slower, and need more thinking time. It does NOT make them less entertaining. Peter Ebdon is a prime example of that (*). Some low ranked players are under such pressure that they tend to slow down in an attempt to better gather their thoughts and avoid mistakes. Who can blame them? In fact negative play is more damaging to the sport, and more likely to produce long tedious matches than slow execution of the right well thought shots. But there is nothing in the rules to prevent negative play and it would be impossible to enforce anyway.

In short, AST fines is a daft idea by Hearn and one that is bound to fail and to produce more negative play resulting in less entertaining matches rather than more entertaining ones.

(*) Yes, I know, there was THAT QF in 2005 and IMO he should have been warned then, but it’s a one-off. The 2006 World Final final was just a case of two completely exhausted players struggling to the finish line …

Indeed this page http://livescores.worldsnookerdata.com/Sessions/Tournament/14031/european-masters-2018-qualifiers  now shows that Eden Sharav got at walk over.

Let’s just hope that everything is OK …

He will play Eden Sharav, on August 17 at 1 pm UK time. This should be a doable match for Ronnie. I’m a bit surprised and quite pleased as I have tickets for the first three days in Lommel.

His name does not appear in the China Championship 2018 qualifier, but then the full draw isn’t out a nd maybe his match was held over.  Wait and see …

Update

The draw now shows the held-over matches as well and, indeed, Ronnie has not entered the China Championship. This surprises me a bit. The Chinsesd events carry so much points this season, except for the Shanghai Masters now invitational, that not playing in them might prevent Ronnie to qualify for the very lucrative Grand-Prix, Players Championship and Tour Championship. He’s the defending champion in the first two of those but that does not guarantee him a spot in them. 

Here are the draws and format as published by Worldsnooker

 Tuesday 14 Aug 2018 06:39PM

The Guild Hall in Preston stages the qualifying rounds of three ranking events from August 15 to 22.

Click here for the European Masters draw

Click here for the China Championship draw

Click here for the format

The draw for the Indian Open qualifying round was released earlier – for details click here

You can watch the qualifiers live on the Eurosport Player with coverage of two tables, for details click here

And you can also buy tickets to see many of the top stars live at the Guild Hall – for details click here

Well, at least, it’s unexpected to me.

Tomorrow, Mark Williams, the reigning World Champion, will face David Gilbert, ranked n°29. Gilbert though has reached a final before this one, in China, at the International Championship 2015. He then lost to John Higgins by 10-5. The interesting bit is that both players are part of the sightright stable…

Here are the semi-finals reports on Worldsnooker

http://www.worldsnooker.com/gilbert-downs-hawk-to-reach-final/

Saturday 11 Aug 2018 11:33AM

David Gilbert remained on target for his first career ranking title as he beat Barry Hawkins 6-4 in the semi-finals of the Hong Rui Ma Yushan World Open.

World number 29 Gilbert is already guaranteed his highest career pay day of £75,000, and he will double that to £150,000 if he can win Sunday’s final against Mark Williams or Noppon Saengkham. The title would shoot Gilbert into the world’s top 16 for the first time in his career, and also earn him a place in next month’s invitational Shanghai Masters. For more on that race click here.

Former tractor driver Gilbert reached his only previous final at the 2015 International Championship, also in China, where he lost 10-5 to John Higgins.

Breaks of 101 and 65 helped put Gilbert 3-0 up today, then world number seven Hawkins pulled one back with a 59 and made a 40 clearance in frame five to close the gap to 3-2. A run of 67 from Gilbert gave him frame six then Hawkins responded with a 91 for 4-3.

A scrappy eighth frame went Gilbert’s way and he had a chance for victory in frame nine but failed to get position on the final green, and Hawkins got the better of a safety exchange and cleared for 5-4. But Gilbert took control of the tenth with a break of 45, and when his opponent missed the third-last red he added the points he needed.

“I’m over the moon,” said Tamworth’s Gilbert. “For 90% of the match I played great, then the wheels came off towards the end and someone nearly had to pick me up off the floor. It means a lot because it’s a lot of money on offer.

“I didn’t think I could win a game here this week. I got lucky in the first round because Matthew Stevens pulled out with a bad back, that was a very tough draw for me.

“Last time when I got the final I only had about £10 to my name so I was just so happy to have £60,000 in my back pocket and I didn’t really think I could win. I was a bit in awe of John Higgins. Tomorrow I will have to play to the level I did for the first eight frames today, and then be stronger if I get close to the winning line. Hopefully I can just settle down, start well and get into the game.

“It would mean everything to me to win the title, the only thing I’ve always wanted to do is go home a winner. I haven’t won anything since the Tamworth Open about 25 years ago. To be in the top 16 as well would be where I’ve always wanted to be.”

Asked if he had any plans for the £75,000 he is already guaranteed, Gilbert joked: “My wife keeps telling me how bad my teeth are and she wants me to get a new set of dentures so I can smile in a picture with our little baby Taylor. Maybe she’ll talk me into that, but I quite like my teeth.”

Hawkins, who has now lost 15 of his 22 ranking semi-finals, said: “There was a new cloth on the table and I just couldn’t get used to it. The table played beautifully but the speed was different to how it was before. I’m disappointed to lose.”

http://www.worldsnooker.com/relieved-williams-earns-gilbert-final/

Saturday 11 Aug 2018 05:07PM

Mark Williams got the better of a late night thriller against Noppon Saengkham, coming from 5-2 down to win 6-5 at the Hong Rui Ma Yushan World Open.

Williams goes through to the final in China to face David Gilbert, with first to ten frames to take the trophy and a top prize of £150,000. That would bring the Welshman’s earnings since the start of last season to well over £1 million.

World number three Williams recovered a 3-0 deficit to beat Jack Lisowski yesterday and once again had to fight back from well behind, but showed his trademark calmness under pressure at the business end of the match. Thailand’s Saengkham was left to rue a missed opportunity as he passed up the chance to reach his first ranking final.

On Sunday Williams will be playing in the 34th ranking final of his career and aiming for his 22nd ranking title. Three of those have come within the past nine months as he won the Northern Ireland Open and German Masters last season before capping off the campaign by landing the World Championship. He’ll start strong favourite against Gilbert, who has never won a ranking event.

The first two frames tonight were shared, then Saengkham could have taken the third but missed the final brown, allowing Williams to snatch it by clearing to the black. A superb 142 total clearance – the highest break of the tournament so far – got Saengkham back to 2-2.

Williams looked likely to win the fifth frame when he led by 21 points on the blue, but his opponent laid an excellent snooker behind the black to gain the points he needed. Saengkham then got the better of a safety exchange and potted blue, pink and black to go ahead.

The Thai dominated the next two frames with top runs of 56 and 59 to go 5-2 up. But Saengkham potted just two balls in the next three frames as Williams battled back to 5-5 with breaks of 44, 40, 56 and 64.

Both players missed chances early in the deciding frame, then the crucial moment came when Saengkham botched a safety shot leading 20-17. Williams made a crucial break of 34 which proved enough for victory, the match ending at 11.40pm local time.

“When you’re free-rolling you get the rub of the green,” said Williams. “When I went 3-2 down everything went against me. He was the much better player and I found it hard to get a rhythm going. At 5-2 I just wanted to keep him under pressure, I found another gear and got a bit of fluency going. At 5-5 I fancied my chances because we were playing for over £40,000 for one frame and that’s a lot of pressure so I knew he would start feeling it. I got out of jail.

“If I lose I don’t care because I’ll be living off the Crucible win for the rest of my career. If I can nick another tournament along the way then great, if not I don’t mind. There’s no pressure tomorrow, I’ll just enjoy it.”

From all this I only saw the second mini-session of the Williams v Saengkham match. To me it was obvious that Noppon was feeling it as soon as Willo won one frame back. Yes, the World Champion was playing very well, but he didn’t win frames in one visit. Noppon was making mistakes he wasn’t making in the previous frames, be it missed pots or misjudged safeties. It’s true that he didn’t much wrong, but he had not many opportunities to do much at all. The ones he had, he failed to make anything of them.

As for Barry Hawkins he had to deal with some awful abuse on twitter after his loss. I have no doubts that this came from someone who had bets on him and suffered heavy financial loss. I have zero sympathy for them. Anyone with a brain should realise that if so many betting companies flourish and prosper, it’s because the punters do lose much more on average than they win. Much, much more in fact. In the vast majority of cases it’s not because sports(wo)men don’t try their best or are corrupt, it’s because they are human. Form is not a tap you can turn at will. Everyone, in every type of job, has good and bad days in office. To me, nobody should be allowed to post on any social media anonymously: real identity should always be exposed. I’m certain that it would make the Internet a far better place: the coward keyboard warriors and malevolent trolls would soon decamp and people would think twice before spreading libel.

Three days into the World Open, and as we reach the last 16, this is what tomorrow has in store for us:

This means that the likes of Ding, the defending champion, Liang Wenbo, Yan Bingtao, Neil Robertson, Ali Carter, Judd Trump, Luca Brecel, Mark Allen, Stephen Maguire and Ryan Day are all on their way home. This does not mean that they all went through the same story…

Ding admittetly did not come in Yushan to defend his title under the best circumstances. His wife, Apple, is about to give birth to their first child any day now and this has been a huge source of distraction for Ding. Apple herself insisted that Ding should play, but he came ill prepared and struggling to focus on his snooker. Understandably.

Liang had been playing in Haining the week before this one and there too had got an early exit, plus a fine for conceding the match in a petulant fashion with still enough points on the table to win the frame in progress. This week his performance was simply terrible. Something isn’t right, but what is anyone’s guess.

Neil Robertson who has won the first ranking event of the season, the Riga Masters, less than two weeks ago, has been raking in the centuries but lost to Ricky Walden today despite making two centuries. But a century wins you only one frame and Neil wasn’t able to win the scrappier ones today.

Luca Brecel managed to lose from 4-0 up … to Fergal O’Brien. The always hard as nail Fergal absolutely needs results this season to stay on tour and by the looks of it is firmly determined to do just that!

Ali Carter as well was 3-0 up, then lost 5 on the trot to David Gilbert.   Mark Allen was outplayed by Jack Lisowski – the runner-up in Riga – and admitted that he struggled to sleep properly. That said, Jack is class when on form and seems to finally be playing the way he can.

Now, something that probably doesn’t help is the humid heat that affects both the players and the conditions. Mark Williams was seen putting a towel on his head – towel that had been put in the ice bucket first – in an attempt to cool himself a bit.

I haven’t had much time to watch the snooker, but for what I saw, a lot of players were struggling, with jet-lag, with the heat and with their positional game. Mark Selby was far from his best but got out of jail against Elliott Slessor, and similarly Mark Williams could easily have gone out against Lukas Kleckers.

Interestingly, Marco Fu, whose career looked in jeopardy last season because of eyes problems is still in this. As is also Ricky Walden who has suffered so much from back issues but now looks definitely on the mend.

Anthony Hamilton, another one who looked finished – plagued by neck and back issues –  is still in the draw as well and dead set to pull out the  miracle he needs to stay on the tour.

So, even if the last 16 line-up isnt what most expected, it certainly offers interesting matches!