Betway 2019 UK Championship

[JimMalone]

Good stuff from Ding to increase his advantage. He really didn't need too many chance to do that tonight. One final twist in the final interval? It's been known to happen, but I can't see it happening tonight. :smile:

Nah, can't see it happen either. Ding is nervy from time to time, but Maguire isn't the player to take his chances relentless and I think Ding knows this and will continue to play solid.

[Billy]

What did BH mean in that interview about the future of snooker when he said the 'game's going digital and that will open us up to the world' (paraphrasing).

Digital in what sense?

[Billy]

C'mon Ding, FFS. I gotta be up at six tomorrow morning.

[Billy]

Ding's crumbled... again. This has got 10-8 to Maguire written all over it.

[Odrl]

Lovely stuff from Maguire. Used all the colours in that total clearance. :smile:

[bobmikeking]

What did BH mean in that interview about the future of snooker when he said the 'game's going digital and that will open us up to the world' (paraphrasing).

Digital in what sense?

I don't know, but I assume that he is going to offer some sort of streaming to any countries that do not currently pay for the broadcasting rights. This is already happening in other sports.

[JimMalone]

Lovely stuff from Maguire. Used all the colours in that total clearance. :smile:

And a great answer by Ding.

[Odrl]

Yeah, lovely break from Ding as well. This has turned out to be a terrific final. Reminds me a little of the final session between Selby and O'Sullivan in 2016. :smile:

Ding's crumbled... again.

Actually, Ding's list of big matches where he's lost from a commanding position is almost empty. He doesn't tend to crumble in situations like this one much. :smile:

[bobmikeking]

Great standard of play, hopefully Ding kicks on from this and it makes Maguire more hungry. Good to see the forum picking back up as well. Looking forward to Scotland

[itsnoteasy]

Great final, well done Ding, wanted SM to win but Ding thoroughly deserved it.

[neuronic]

Damn it... I was right

[Cue crafty]

A great quality final to boost the UK back up where it belongs. Well done Ding, deserved victory but well done Stevie too because he never beat himself up and acquitted himself very admirably. Great to see. :snooker:

[JimMalone]

Happy for Ding to win a bit tile again.
3rd UK Championship for him, only O'Sullivan (7), Davis (6), Hendry (5) and Higgins (3) reached that number before.

[Cue crafty]

Can someone tell Jimmy it's gonna be difficult for Ron to win the Masters!! :excitement::biggrin-new:

[Odrl]

I said earlier this match reminded me of the 2016 final between Selby and O'Sullivan... Well, that one had five centuries in the last six frames, and tonight did as well, in almost identical circumstances. :smile:

I guess Maguire will look back at the start of the match when he missed some easy balls to go 4-0 down. He started to play really well after that and matched Ding in the remainder of the match, but he could never make up that 4-frame gap. In any case, it's nice to see him reach a big final again after a while, and the good thing for him is that his home tournament starts tomorrow, so hopefully he can carry that form to Glasgow and do some damage there. :smile:

Fantastic to see Ding back to his best as well. He was pushed somewhat close by Carter and O'Sullivan in the early rounds, but there is no doubt at all that he was the best player in the tournament. He never once looked in trouble, even when strong players were coming back at him in matches. He kept his composure and just raised his game when he needed to. I guess we have another name we have to keep an eye on in the big tournaments in the second half of the season, not least the World Championship of course. If he plays anything like he did today, he will be tough to beat over multiple sessions. :smile:

What else is there to say about the tournament? I think it's fair to say it wasn't a classic, and the two finalists were arguably the only two players who played world-class snooker at times. Allen and Higgins did okay as well, but the rest of the top players were really disappointing. I guess you can kind of expect something like that in the big three Chinese tournaments in the first part of the season, because the season is still young and some players don't deal with travelling so well, but I would expect a big tournament like the UK Championship to be a bit more predictable and to have more players close to the top of their game. It happens I guess...

There was of course some suggestion that the standard suffered because the pockets were a little bit tighter than usual, and I do have to admit I enjoyed that quite a lot. There is nothing worse than seeing all kinds of questionable balls go in, and it tends to level the playing field unnecessarily, but this week the best players clearly rose to the top. That said, the other common feature of the UK tournaments was present as always when it comes to table, and that's of course the big bounces. It's really hard to adjust to that after watching the Chinese tournaments where that kind of thing doesn't tend to happen much.

Also, nice to see at least some life back on TSF after the struggles we've had... Great to have the sub-forums back in the Professional Tournament Discussion for the first time in years, but it's kind of sad to see only one active thread. It kind of defeats the purpose. :smile: I remember when we had the fantasy games and stuff like that, so perhaps we can make more of an effort for the Masters. Would there be any interest in reviving some of that stuff, or are there too few of us left? :smile: