Snooker exhibition

Arbroath Nights of 1000 Centuries – 22/23 November 2019

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ArbroathNov2019-Poster

22 November 2019

For what transpired it was a very good exhibition and Ronnie played really well.

Jason Francis on twitter:

Thank you @shotz147 great night with @ronnieo147

3 centuries and one of the best 79 clearances you’ll see… more of the same tomorrow we hope

And a few images shared by the fans

23 November 2019

Ahead of the show, Ronnie posted this on Facebook:

Looking forward to tonight with JV, jason and marc and Ryan
4 smokies done so far…

Earlier this week he had posted

Want to take me on Friday and Saturday? Bring smokies and we will play for them

Good to see the Scottish fans taking him to his word!

This is Jason’s report on twitter after the second nigth, another great one…

Sneaky 142 tonight and 2 other centuries. Thanks to @shotz147

The “victim” of the 142 wasn’t too dispirited. He tweeted this 

It’s not every day you get to meet one of your heroes. Even played a frame with @ronnieo147: he broke off and I played what I thought was a decent safety shot… then he cleared up with a 142 break! Still a night I’ll never forget.

And pictures shared by the fans:

And maybe Csilla can tell us more…

Also this short video popped up on youtube:

Arbroath itself is a lovely place, and not just because of the smokies…

Here are some pictures albums from three weeks ago

Walking around Arbroath harbour

Arbroath old Benedictine Abbey

The coastal trail between Arbroath and Auchmithie – sspectacular sceneries

Ronnie makes a 147 in Bucharest (5.10.2019)

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ROSReanneRomania5.10.2019

Ronnie and Reanne Evans played an exhibition in Circus Globul Bucharest last night.

At the start of the event, Ronnie payed tribute to Marius Ancuta, who sadly passed away in July last year; he was only 52. Marius was the Romanian “Mister Snooker”, Eurosport commentator, MC and passionate about the sport. He was the face of snooker in Romanian media.

Ronnie then played two local amateurs.

After a short break, the match with Reanne started and then this happened!

Thanks to Dana Motruna

Thanks to Jason Francis

Thanks to Ionut Gabriel

And …

O’Sullivan makes a maximum break 147 against Reanne Evans in Bucharest! 5.10.2019

This was probably the first ever 147 made in Romania! Alex Crisan was the man in white gloves.

Ronnie won the match by 4-2. There was no other century. Reanne has a chance to have one but a kick when she was on 79, with two reds left, ruined it.

Two more frames found …

Here are some pictures …

Stephen Maguire wins the Six-Reds 2019 World Championship

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Congratulations Stephen Maguire!

He beat John Higgins by 8 frames to 6, in a quality final. It’s Maguire’s first individual title in five years. Quite baffling for a player of his quality really.

Here is the report on Worldsnooker:

Stephen Maguire six reds champion 2019Stephen Maguire won a tartan tussle against John Higgins 8-6 in the final of the SangSom Six Red World Championship to win the title for the second time in Bangkok.

It’s a first individual title for world number 15 Maguire since he won the 2014 Lisbon Open. He also won the Six Red title earlier that year.

In an exciting final, Glasgow’s 38-year-old Maguire pulled away from 6-6 to win the last two frames, taking the trophy and top prize of four million Baht (£106,000) at the invitation event in the Thai capital.

It’s his second title of the season as he teamed up with 44-year-old Higgins to win the World Cup for Scotland in China in June. This time the two friends and practice partners went head to head, with Higgins playing in the Six Red final for the first time.

Six Reds 2019 actionMaguire took an early 3-0 lead before world number five Higgins stormed back with four frames in a row. Frame eight went to Maguire and he nicked the ninth on the black to lead 5-4.

He won the tenth as well then squandered a clear chance in the 11th, missing a red to a centre pocket. Four time World Champion Higgins cleared the table then made a break of 58 in the 12th to level at 6-6.

With the match in the balance, Maguire made a vital break of 39 to regain the lead at 7-6. And he got the better of a tense 14th frame, the score 34-18, to secure the title.

“It feels good, I was very lucky,” said Maguire. “I’d like to thank the sponsor and promoter for putting on the tournament. All of the boys enjoy this, everyone loves coming out to Thailand.”

All results are on snooker.org

Aside from the tournament proper, there was a six-reds exhibition between two legends of the game: Stephen Hendry and James Wattana. My understanding is that Hendry won by 3-2.

Update! I was wrong! It’s James Wattana who won. This comes from Instagram:

Hendry Instagram - 7.9.2019

The Thai MC, Twitah Warintrakom, a legend himself, told me that the decider was played with 15 reds to entertain the audience, and shared a few pictures on social media:

It’s fair to say that people turned up for it! Stephen Hendry – who was used to being hated for beating Jimmy White more often than not, and winning “too much” –  is now hugely popular! Well, it’s nice that! And it’s nice as well that Stephen now seems to enjoy life to the full. His posts on social media are mainly about fine wines, premium cigars and food (plenty of it!).

As for Twittah,  he also posted those two images side by side

… taken 26 years apart! They haven’t changed a bit, innit?

And here is the exhibition. Big thanks to Silvry!

 

Huizhou Challenge Exhibition – 30 August 2019 – Full coverage.

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Now the full coverage of the exhibition  

Huizou2019Challenge-UKWin

O’Sullivan and John Higgins played against the Chinese team consisting of Marco Fu and Liang Wenbo. In the end, the UK team won with a score of 3-2 and won the competition. [mighty]At the same time, O’Sullivan also won the highest break in this competition [加油], O’Sullivan once again gave the trophy to the small fans in the audience. (source weibo)

There was an individual competition where everyone played everyone. Ronnie won his three matches and as such won the league (source Weibo).

“Double” matches were also on the program and the UK team won the competition.

This is the exhibition:

Plus a compilation on short videos – from Weibo – showing funny/endearing moments

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Ronnie welcoming the little fan is cute and endearing.

And also, of course, more images were shared on Weibo

Enjoy!

Shanghai Masters 2019 – Build-up

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In the build-up of the Shanghai Masters, Worldsnooker interviewed John Higgins

Seven years ago John Higgins came through a 10-9 victor in arguably the best ever Shanghai Masters final against Judd Trump.

With the 13th running of the event just under two weeks away, we caught up with the four-time World Champion to preview his trip to Shanghai for the elite 24-player invitational…

John, looking ahead to this year’s Shanghai Maters what are your targets given there is such a prestigious field in attendance?

“I just want to win one match! I’ve not had a great record in Shanghai apart from that final with Judd Trump in 2012. It is a tough event because you are playing against the best players in the world. I just find it an enjoyable tournament to be a part of. I’m taking my brother and my brother in law out there this year. I am playing in the Six Red World Championship in Bangkok just before that, so they are going to get a holiday out of it. The Shanghai Masters is one of the best tournaments we play in all year and it is a great city to go to.”

How fondly do you look back on that dramatic final with Judd Trump back in 2012?

“That was just a brilliant match. Judd played really well at the beginning and was completely shutting me out. I was 5-0 behind and it looked as if he was just going to go on and win it. However, I managed to make a maximum break which was a special moment. I still ended the first session 7-2 behind and you don’t really give yourself much of a chance from that position. I was lucky that I began to play really well and he missed a couple of balls. We always seem to have good matches against each other and that was certainly one of them.”

After losing Crucible finals in 2017 and 2018, you talked about how hard that hit you at times last season and cast doubts on your future in the sport.

However, you managed to put that aside and reach a third consecutive World Championship final back in May, coming up short against Judd Trump. How are you feeling currently about your game and what is the key to the longevity that has allowed you to still be at the top of snooker at the age of 44?

“Well it does get a little bit harder as you get older, but it is just one of those things. I am a snooker player and that is all I’ve ever known. When you retire that is it for the rest of your life. You need to enjoy it while you still can and while your eyesight is still alright. Snooker doesn’t really have any age barriers. That is one of the great things about it. Especially if you compare it to things like football and tennis where you are finished by your late 30s.

“I’ve never got too high when winning events and I’ve also never really got too low when I’ve lost. That was slightly different over the last couple of years, but I’ve generally kept things at a happy medium and that has stood me in good stead.”

Two places in the Shanghai Masters go to players who have come through the Amateur Masters. How important do you think events like that are to boost the grassroots of the sport?

“I think the Amateur Masters is brilliant and the city always supports it. That is to their great credit because you can see how things like that are helping young talent come through in China. Each year they have more young guys emerging. I played a teenager called Wu Yize at International Championship qualifying and won 6-5. He is a fabulous player and it is events like the Amateur Masters which allow people like him to develop.”

I was there, in the media room, during that match. I can remember vividly how the atmosphere of the match turned when John made that maximimum. He was 7-2 down when the session finished, but the seeds of doubts had been firmly planted in Judd Trump’s mind and it showed from the first ball in the evening. Judd had most of the audience on his side and I’m not sure it helped him. It added more pressure. from the evening MSI on I had no doubts that John would win. You just could see it coming.

In other news, those images were posted on weibo, related to the 30th of August exhibition.

As are these

 

Get well soon Shaun Murphy, thank you Steve Davis!

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The following has been shared on social media by the VSF Snooker – the Flemish Snooker Federeation:

Helaas heeft Shaun Murphy zich gisterenavond wegens een ernstige kwetsuur moeten afmelden voor de geplande Snooker Exhibitie van volgende dinsdag 27/08/2019 te Overijse.
De organisatie heeft op zeer korte tijd gelukkig een vervanger kunnen vinden met name MBE Steve Davis, 6-voudig wereldkampioen, meervoudig wereldkampioen trick shots, top analist en commentator bij BBC en last but not least een super entertainer.
Het beoogde doel van de organisatie blijft hetzelfde namelijk promotie voeren voor de snookersport in combinatie met een huldiging voor de winnaars van de individuele Vlaamse kampioenschappen waarbij de jongeren extra in de schijnwerper worden geplaatst.
Wij hopen ook u te mogen verwelkomen.

Bosuil 27.08.2019Tickets zijn nog te bestellen via https://snooker-exhibition.eventsquare.co/nl/xlxldaioysr3

here is the translation (by me… )

Unfortunately, yesterday evening Shaun Murphy was forced to withdraw from the exhibition planned on next Tuesday, 27 of August 2019 in Overijse, citing a serious injury.

Fortunately the organsers were able to find a replacement at very short notice. His name is Steve Davis MBE, 6 times World Champion, multiple trick-shot World Champion, top pundit and commentator for BBC, and last but not least a super entertainer.

The organisers goal remains the same: to promote snooker as a sport and to reward the winners of the Flemish Championships, with the young players being given extra exposure.

We hope to welcome you all there.

First of all, I want to wish Shaun a speedy and complete recovery.

Next, a big thank you to Steve Davis for stepping up at such short notice. I’m certain everyone will be happy to see him there.

Finally, I can only suppose that this means that Shaun won’t be able to compete in the Paul Hunter Classic 2019. Another blow for the tournament… 😥

Update: Ricky Walden is replacing Shaun in the Paul Hunter Classic.

Catching up with Events.

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While I was snapping around in Sheffield, a few things happened on the Main tour.

China Championship 2019 Qualifiers

Those qualifiers were played from August 15 to August 18, 2019. The format being best of nine, there weren’t that many surprises, but Ali Carter, Stuart Bingham, and Gary Wilson failing to qualify was certainly unexpected. There were also uncomfortably close results for Joe Perry, John Higgins and Ryan Day. Most of the experienced Chines players won their match – the notable exception being Liang Wenbo – but the younger ones had a tough time. Luo Honghao though registered a good 5-2 win over Mark Davis. Michael White downwards spiral continues. “Giant killer” James Cahil and highly rated Jackson Page failed to qualify.

Jimmy White, who was competing in the WSS ROKiT Phones.com World Championship during the same period, narrowly lost to Hossein Vafaei.

This is the decider…

2019 China Championship: Jimmy White – Hossein Vafaei (final frame)

Jimmy was unlucky … and bizarrely, when he played his next match at the Crucible, it’s his opponent, Stuart Watson who was unlucky in a very similar way.

Also, Barry Hawkins missed the last red when on course for a 147 in his match v Barry Pinches

All results can be found on snooker.org

Mark Selby and Ding Junhui exhibition in Tibet

Last year it was Ding versus John Higgins

This time is was Ding versus Mark Selby. This was played last Saturday, 15 August 2019. That was only possible because both of them have their China Championship 2019 first-round match held-over. Mark Selby won 13-9. Ding, however, did this at 12-8 down:

2019 Tibet Challenge Exhibition (15.08.2019.): Ding Junhui 147 – Mark Selby

2019 Tibet Challenge Exhibition (15.08.2019.): Ding and Selby having fun with the fans

Note that the China Championship is particularly important for Ding. He’s provisionally out of the top 16, and for the first time since I remember, (provisionally) China’s n°2. Yan Bingtao is provisionally China’s n°1, and ranked n°16.