Ronnie came from 2-0 down to beat Dechawat Poomjaeng in round 2 of the 2022 English Open. It was a very entertaining match. Both players were laughing a lot and things got crazy at times.
O’Sullivan Beats ‘Mr Bean’ To Reach Round Three
Ronnie O’Sullivan compared charismatic Dechawat Poomjaeng to Mr Bean after beating the smiling Thai 4-2 in an entertaining second round match at the BetVictor English Open.
Once described by Stephen Maguire as “not quite the full shilling”, Poomjaeng had been much missed on the tour during a five year absence, but regained his place via Asia-Oceania Q School in August and reminded a packed crowd in Brentwood of his captivating antics around the table. The lowest ranked player on the circuit, at 130, threatened an upset when he led the world number one 2-0, but O’Sullivan recovered to take four frames in a row and set up a last 32 meeting with Martin Gould on Thursday at 1pm.
After losing the opening frame, O’Sullivan made an excellent 49 clearance in the second to force a repotted black. That led to a succession of outlandish shots on the black from both players, before Poomjaeng potted it for 2-0. But World Champion O’Sullivan responded to the challenge by winning the next four frames with breaks of 61, 69, 104 and 76.
“I thought there was no point trying to play straight forward snooker, let’s just have a laugh,” said O’Sullivan. “I went for some doubles and trebles, some of them went in, crazy things can happen when you go for it. He’s like a Mr Bean type character, he pulls these funny faces and his mannerisms – he should go into comedy, he’s such a character. I was enjoying just going for my shots and trying to make something happen.”
Looking ahead to his next match against Gould, O’Sullivan added: “He’s a fantastic player, amazing. It’s good to see him back to form and I’ll have to play a lot better to win because he looks like he’s on fire.”
Those are the scores:
For all the crazy stuff Ronnie played well. The clearance he made to force a re-spotted black in frame 2 was quite something.
Eurosport shared a few videos on their YouTube channel:
The re-spotted black chaos
The last minutes of frame five
The ES post-match interview:
And the WST interview on their YouTube Channel:
Enjoy… 😂😎
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
Although Poomy didn’t do much silliness this time: he didn’t applaud himself, he applauded a shot by Ronnie which was nice, but otherwise played sensible snooker. He missed some and Ronnie is too good a player to lose under those circumstances, but it could have proven costly.
No, he didn’t applaud himself. But the way he approached the re-spotted black was crazy. Ronnie responded in the same spirit and it cost him. Poomy also was laughing hard at his own mistakes. Most snooker players are too serious and would have been put off by that.
After getting down 0-2 Ronnie indeed played well, but I don’t really understand:
“I thought there was no point trying to play straight forward snooker, let’s just have a laugh,” said O’Sullivan.
Why would he think so? And many who watched were not amused.
Probably because most of those who tried to play “100% serious” against Poomy ended up hugely frustrated, like Maguire at the Crucible. He’s a lovely guy but a bit special. Ronnie decided to embrace it rather than to block it out.