2024 German Masters

[DeanH]

Main venue starts today at 2pm UK on Eurosport with some heldover L128 matches and some L64.

Love the arena and the audience is just brilliant, would love to go one year

WST Match Centre (if it works) has the matches as well as snooker.org.

[SnookerfromtheThatcherEra]

I'm off to the opening evening tonight, 8pm, then tickets for both sessions of final on Sunday.

For comparison with UK prices (I only know how expensive the Crucible is these days), tonight is €36, and a day-ticket for Sunday was €86.

[fkhan]

Fu is playing really well. I thought it would be a close match. Not so far.

[PatBlock]

Fu is playing really well. I thought it would be a close match. Not so far.

Love watching Marco when he's in this kind of form, so smoooooth! Hope he can keep it up for the rest of the tournament.

-

[Cue crafty]

It's a shame with Michael White, I always enjoy watching him play this game and kinda live the yourney in each frame with him. I guess there's always been that little quirk in his game that leads him to miss at inopportune moments and lose frames.

[Cue crafty]

I'm off to the opening evening tonight, 8pm, then tickets for both sessions of final on Sunday.

For comparison with UK prices (I only know how expensive the Crucible is these days), tonight is €36, and a day-ticket for Sunday was €86.

It looks fantastic there, such a great set up and atmosphere! Let us know how the experience goes. Enjoy it. 👍

[theplough]

the games I`ve tried to watch on Discovery+ have had a tv Director who can`t seem to concentrate on the frame, keeps switching to crowd/stadium shots or bits of other games,or the back of Trump`s head, unwatchable this afternoon.

[SnookerfromtheThatcherEra]

It looks fantastic there, such a great set up and atmosphere! Let us know how the experience goes. Enjoy it. 👍

The actual match I watched was absolutely dire - four hours of missed pots and fouled snooker escapes and Mark Allen woeful, and very very lucky to get through with a win, against a Thai player I confess I'd never heard of before, who was "okay" but about 90 places below Allen in the rankings. Four hours, with about a 50% pot success rates, and no break over 60 until Allen knocked in exactly a tonne to finally finish it off on the dot of midnight. Truly tedious.

On table next door, I missed Brecel getting a spanking (again, off a new Indian player I'd never heard of). Saw him knock in 84 to win the first frame and assumed it would be a walk in the park for the world champion. Next think I knew, he was going home 5-2 down and out.

On the "other" table of the three I was in front of, Robertson got off to a very shaky start, losing the first frame after 45 minutes of safety. And giving the table a few quizzical looks, too, as balls didn't drop for him. By the end he was cruising in his usual suave and elegant style, but he's far from back to his best.

The venue itself is great - like a big modernist Circus top. Seven tables, six in a circle out outer perimeter, and the "TV table" in the centre. Free seating, so sit where you want at this stage - the Brecel/Allen/Robertson side was busiest, obviously. Poor old Jamie Clarke/Scott Donaldson on the far side were playing in front of one man and his dog.

Venue about 1/3 to half full - about 600-700 people (it's a big place.) German Eurostar commentator, Rolf Kalb, embarrassingly ****ed up the intros, after introducing all the players bar the Trump-Kleckers on the centre table, he welcomed German local boy Lukas in as "Lukas BRECEL!". Which can't have helped the poor boy's nerves, and he promptly got whitewashed very quickly. Trump looked in very good form - think this tournament is his, unless someone really plays out of their skin for the next six days (or Trump switches off.)

Credit to the German fans - and they come from all over Germany, not just Berlin - they are very appreciative, very attentive, and know their snooker.

[Cue crafty]

The actual match I watched was absolutely dire - four hours of missed pots and fouled snooker escapes and Mark Allen woeful, and very very lucky to get through with a win, against a Thai player I confess I'd never heard of before, who was "okay" but about 90 places below Allen in the rankings. Four hours, with about a 50% pot success rates, and no break over 60 until Allen knocked in exactly a tonne to finally finish it off on the dot of midnight. Truly tedious.

On table next door, I missed Brecel getting a spanking (again, off a new Indian player I'd never heard of). Saw him knock in 84 to win the first frame and assumed it would be a walk in the park for the world champion. Next think I knew, he was going home 5-2 down and out.

On the "other" table of the three I was in front of, Robertson got off to a very shaky start, losing the first frame after 45 minutes of safety. And giving the table a few quizzical looks, too, as balls didn't drop for him. By the end he was cruising in his usual suave and elegant style, but he's far from back to his best.

The venue itself is great - like a big modernist Circus top. Seven tables, six in a circle out outer perimeter, and the "TV table" in the centre. Free seating, so sit where you want at this stage - the Brecel/Allen/Robertson side was busiest, obviously. Poor old Jamie Clarke/Scott Donaldson on the far side were playing in front of one man and his dog.

Venue about 1/3 to half full - about 600-700 people (it's a big place.) German Eurostar commentator, Rolf Kalb, embarrassingly ****ed up the intros, after introducing all the players bar the Trump-Kleckers on the centre table, he welcomed German local boy Lukas in as "Lukas BRECEL!". Which can't have helped the poor boy's nerves, and he promptly got whitewashed very quickly. Trump looked in very good form - think this tournament is his, unless someone really plays out of their skin for the next six days (or Trump switches off.)

Credit to the German fans - and they come from all over Germany, not just Berlin - they are very appreciative, very attentive, and know their snooker.

Thanks for the update and background, I watched a couple of frames of the Allen match and it was so dire I switched off and went to bed at 4-4 because I didn't even care who won. I'm hopeful the rest of your experience will be much better match wise. Cheers.

[trains]

Watching Robertson vs Robertson on Betfair, i like the higher camera angle, gives you a clearer appreciation of the difficulty, reminiscent of the vaunted pre Rob Walker and Hendon days in the 90's.

[trains]

Watching Zhang vs Un Nooh, i like this open plan, less robotic than the cubicles.

[Nifty50]

Watching Zhang vs Un Nooh, i like this open plan, less robotic than the cubicles.

Good result for Un-Nooh.

[SnookerfromtheThatcherEra]

I do like the way Milkins compliments opponents - in 10 mins alone I've heard a "Shot!", a clap on the knee from his chair, a "GREAT SHOT!" and a thump on the table. What a geezer.

I also like the way he feathers - ie, gets down, one feather, bang.

[itsnoteasy]

Watching Zhang vs Un Nooh, i like this open plan, less robotic than the cubicles.

The only thing I have against it is the main table seems to be the furthest away from the crowd, I don't know how you solve that problem with this style of open plan set up though.

[SnookerfromtheThatcherEra]

The only thing I have against it is the main table seems to be the furthest away from the crowd, I don't know how you solve that problem with this style of open plan set up though.

It is ironic that the hardest-to-see table is the centrepiece show table. With the ones around the perimeter ring, you're almost as close as at the Crucible.