Day 6 at the Crucible is the day when the first round finishes and the second round starts. The last two first round matches were played to a conclusion, with wins for Ronnie and John Higgins.
You will my my report on Ronnie’s win here.
And here is WST report on John Higgins 10-6 win over Jamie Jones
HIGGINS HANGS ON TO TOP 16 HOPES
John Higgins, ever present in the top 16 for a record 29 years, maintained his hopes of keeping that elite status with a hard fought 10-6 win over Jamie Jones in the first round of the Cazoo World Championship.
Higgins first climbed into the top 16 at the end of the 1994/95 season and, incredibly, has been there ever since. But after a lean two years, he could drop out at the end of this Championship. Having knocked out Jones, he must still win one more match to have a chance of keeping his place in the top bracket of the rankings, and the 48-year-old Scot faces a tough test against world number three Mark Allen over 25 frames on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The pair have met five times already this season, Allen winning three of those.
The result means that the record for the most seeds falling in the first round – eight – has been equalled but not beaten.
Leading 5-4 overnight Higgins took the first two frames today to extend his lead to 7-4. In frame 12, he led 39-18 when a routine pink to a centre pocket hit the far jaw, and Jones responded with a 49 clearance to pull one back. Higgins regained control as breaks of 59 and 64 helped make it 9-5. Frame 15 came down to the colours and Higgins, trailing 58-38, missed a long pot on the yellow, which allowed Jones to narrow the gap. Both players had chances in the 16th, but Higgins got the better of an exchange on the last red and cleared to get over the line.
“Jamie still fancied it at 9-5, you could see by his body language,” said four-time champion Higgins, who has not landed a ranking title since the 2021 Players Championship. “He probably came into the match feeling he could beat me because he knocked out Neil Robertson in qualifying and he has beaten me a couple of times before. The draws are tough but you just have to roll with it and try to play your best. I felt my game was pretty good tonight.
“I’m really looking forward to playing Mark Allen over 25 frames, I have beaten him twice here before so I’ll have to draw on those memories. Mark is a fantastic player and competitor. I’m not thinking about the top 16, I’m just focussed on the next match. Tonight was a great win for me because you don’t know how many more times you’re going to play here, and it’s the the best place ever to play snooker.“
Jones said: “From 9-5 I was trying to battle as hard as I could. I could see John was trying a bit too hard and I tried to just stick in there. If it had gone 9-7 then who knows? I enjoyed the occasion, it’s always an amazing experience to play here.”
I didn’t watch any of it. After what happened in 2010, I will never again watch John Higgins unless I have to. I already explained why I feel that way, so I won’t bore you repeating it. Let’s just say this, if it had happened in 2024, and if John was Chinese, he would have been banned for many years, not just for a few months (most of it in the summer when nothing happened back then). His opponent Jamie Jones was banned for longer and fell off the tour merely for failing to report a corrupt approach, although he was cleared of match-fixing. He wasn’t even the one being approached, it was one of his mates and Jamie found it too difficult to denounce/report him. So, I dearly wanted Jamie Jones to win but it wasn’t to be. Don’t get me wrong, John is a great great player, with immense skills and a shrewd mind. But, even before the 2010 affair, for some reason I can’t understand myself, I never enjoyed watching him, he bores me.
Other than that there were some really interesting quotes by Barry Hearn reported in the press yesterday.
Here is Eurosport about Barry’s annual “announcements” at (and about) the Crucible
EXCLUSIVE: BARRY HEARN AIRS VIEWS ON CRUCIBLE AS HOST – ‘YOU CAN’T EAT HISTORY’
BY DESMOND KANE
The Crucible Theatre has staged the World Championship since 1977, but former World Snooker Tour chairman Barry Hearn has cast doubt over the future of the sport’s biggest event in Sheffield beyond its current agreement in 2027. Hearn, speaking to Eurosport, said: “There is no point in saying: ‘Oh, think of the history’. You can’t eat history.”
Barry Hearn has been on a career-defining journey over the past 43 years when it comes to the ongoing subject of the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield being a suitable host venue for the World Snooker Championship, the sport’s landmark and most lucrative tournament.
When the former World Snooker Tour chairman was manager of Steve Davis in the 1980s and 1990s, he famously bounded down the stairs of the venue to greet Davis after the first of the Romford player’s six world title wins against Doug Mountjoy in 1981.
While it could be argued the Crucible was the scene of Hearn’s greatest moments in snooker overseeing the growth, development and dominance of Davis during the halcyon days of saturated TV coverage, sentiment will not get in the way of forward thinking when it comes to finalising the future direction of travel for the green baize’s blue-chip competition.
As president of Matchroom Sport, majority shareholders in WST, the Essex businessman has appeared to cast doubt over the future of the event being staged by the Crucible when the venue’s current agreement with Sheffield City Council expires in 2027 – the year that will mark 50 years of the World Championship in Sheffield.
The size of the Crucible in being able to house only 980 fans, and greater prize money to satisfy the 128-player professional tour at a bigger venue are the two main sticking issues confronting the sport with Hearn previously intimating that the £500,000 first prize could easily be doubled by moving beyond the UK.
Amid several media reports suggesting Saudi Arabia and China could be new destinations for the World Championship, Hearn – who once described the Crucible as “one of the world’s most iconic sporting venues” – told Eurosport: “Look, I can’t be more honest, my hand on my heart, I want to stay at the Crucible.
“I want to stay in Sheffield. Obviously, money talks and we are getting inundated with offers around the world.
“And there’s a certain argument that says we should actually take the World Championships around the world to a different venue every year. Some of the venues want to pay money I’ve never experienced, others just want to show their love and support for snooker.
“We’ve been very consistent. Broadcasters that we’ve worked with and have done a good job for us and have been part of our history, we’re going to stay with as much as we can if they want to stay with us.
“Venues that we’ve used and people that we’ve relied on to be the fans, have been good to us, we want to stay with them as long as they want us.
“Common sense says I have a fiduciary duty to the players to provide the biggest prize money because they’re professional athletes.
“And there is no point in saying: ‘Oh, think of the history’. You can’t eat history.
“Sport, to be progressive, has got to provide bigger and bigger prize funds or it is not going to be competitive in today’s world, and will no longer be aspirational to young people that we want to see come into the sport.“
As a celebrated sports promoter, Hearn traditionally uses the annual World Championship to deliver a state of the nation address on his plans for snooker, with the subject of the Crucible never far from his thoughts.
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You can watch and listen in this short video shared by ES on Youtube: https://youtube.com/shorts/E44YPOuySJ8?si=iu3a3_FvQUcEc0Oj
There was also this, reported by Phil Haigh about Hearn’s stance on players wanting to play in events “outside” the main tour:
Barry Hearn: ‘If people want to leave for a quick buck then I wish them well’
Phil Haigh
As some players remain at odds with World Snooker Tour over what events they can and cannot play in, Barry Hearn says he will wish anyone well who leaves to chase a ‘quick buck’.
There is disquiet among professionals after the Macau Five situation this season, which saw John Higgins, Mark Selby, Luca Brecel, Ali Carter and Thepchaiya Un-Nooh sign up for a lucrative exhibition in China which was set to be held during the Northern Ireland Open.
WST were not happy about it and told the five in question that they would be in breach of their players’ contract if they took part in the exhibition while the ranking event was being played in Belfast.
The exhibition was eventually moved to December to avoid the clash, but the five men had already pulled out of Northern Ireland so they didn’t play in anything during that week in October.
Shaun Murphy told the BBC during the coverage of the UK Championship that he was ‘offered the same amount of money to go to that event in the Far East as I would have had for getting to the final of the Northern Ireland Open.’ Ronnie O’Sullivan has also spoken out on the subject, saying it is very hard to turn down the huge sums of cash being offered in China.
‘I get paid so much more for going to do that,’ the Rocket said of the Chinese events. ‘It’s really hard for me to turn them down, I can’t. I’ve got to think of my family and all that sort of stuff.
‘It’s all right if you win all of these tournaments, great. But if you get beat first round you’re struggling to pay your bills and stuff.’
WST say players are free to take part in exhibitions when professional events aren’t being staged, but Hearn, the president of Matchroom Sport, says that if there is a clash then players will have to choose between being part of the tour or exploring other opportunities.
‘Everyone has a choice in what they want to play in and whether they want to be a part of our tour,’ Hearn told Metro.co.uk.
‘I think the game’s in really good hands. There’s always going to be temptations for a one-off quickie, but we don’t do one-off quickies. We are a sustainable business that’s growing very well, with some great news that’s coming in the next month or so, we’ve got a big month coming up.
‘Look, you’ll always get someone who wants to do something for a quick buck, but that’s just not the way that I run businesses, nor will it ever be.
‘If people want to leave for a quick buck then I wish them well, they’ve got their own lives to run, they make their own decisions.
‘I won’t be unreasonable with anybody, but we have rules, contracts in place and we’re always happy to sit down and talk to them, but in a professional dialogue.
‘I don’t think there’s going to be any real issues, to be honest with you, I think Ronnie in particular is in demand in China. They offer him a lot of money and he wants to take advantage of that, I understand that.
‘But he can’t do anything that’s harmful to the players’ contract. He has the choice not to sign the players contract, that’s his call, not mine.’