2016 China Championship

[motorhead]

cut

Very similar 'story' to mine! Used to avoid it when switching ES channels looking for tennis matches, then out of curiosity I watched a few safety exchanges in a match, started to get curious about rules and got totally hooked up

[Alba_]

^^ Graham Dott beat Ebbo in 2006

[Odrl]

Bit late with a reply but has it occurred to you that you might be the only person on the planet that can claim that ?

Do you have any desire to play the game Odrl ? Your obvious interest in the game would indicate a natural progression to get yourself on the baize no ?

And after reading your post about not many facilities in Slovenia what made you so interested in the game when I'm guessing you've hardly played before ? Cheers

The only person on the planet? I doubt it. I'm sure there are a lot of snooker journalists and stats enthusiasts that know those stats by heart. :wink:

The prospect of playing snooker to a decent standard sounds quite fun in theory, but I have to be realistic and acknowledge that I have very little talent for cue sports. I have only played 8-ball pool a couple of times in my life, and it's no exaggeration to say that I miscued on about half of my shots. I'm sure I wouldn't be so awful if someone actually showed me what I am supposed to do, but no, I don't have a particularly strong desire to play the game myself. I prefer to stick to things I am good at. As for snooker, I am happy to play it online on occasion, and watch it when it's played well on TV. :smile:

My interest in snooker came about exclusively from watching it on TV. Getting a TV package that included Eurosport was the key thing really. I would come across snooker occasionally when browsing through channels, and I very rarely switched the channel again, because the tactical situations and the masterfully constructed breaks were very intriguing to watch. It didn't take long for me to be able to read the game and know what's going on, and I eventually became familiar with the top players and the various tournaments, as well as the rich history of snooker. I then decided to start watching matches and tournaments from start to finish, and I can say that I've watched the vast majority of televised snooker over the last 12 years or so, either live or delayed, as well as classic matches from the past. :smile:

Of course snooker was pretty obscure in Slovenia at that time, so this forum was a great way for me to discuss snooker with people like myself. I loved the diversity we used to have on here, and still have to some extent, with members from all over the world and their various interests and preferences. Obviously it's difficult to be involved as much as in the past, with snooker events now being played almost every week, but I still try to post every once in a while. It's also a been a little easier to find people to talk to about snooker in person lately, and I'm very happy to be able to say that. :smile:

[Masterdoctorgenius]

2016 Selby - Ding
2015 Bingham - Murphy
2014 Selby - O'Sullivan
2013 Ronnie Hawk
2012 Ronnie Carter
2011 JH Trump
2010 Neil Dott
2009 JH Murphy
2008 Ronnie Carter
2007 JH Selby
2006 Ebbo Dott
2005 Murphy Stevens
2004 Ronnie Dot
2003 MJW Ken
2002 Ebbo Hendry
2001 Higgins Ronnie
2000 MJW Stevens

[trains]

O'Sullivan beat Hawkins and Carter respectively. :smile:

I'm pretty sure I can tell you the finalists of any major tournament in the last ten years, that's too easy. Getting all the scorelines correct would be a better challenge. :smile:

Bit late with a reply but has it occurred to you that you might be the only person on the planet that can claim that ?

Do you have any desire to play the game Odrl ? Your obvious interest in the game would indicate a natural progression to get yourself on the baize no ?

And after reading your post about not many facilities in Slovenia what made you so interested in the game when I'm guessing you've hardly played before ? Cheers

[DeanH]

more like 400m than 100m (ShootOut) :biggrin:

[Dan-cat]

I always considered 6-Reds as snooker-lite

BO7 "short format"

The ES guys favour the term 'Sprint'

[JimMalone]

Just my assertion but I think this angle is a little overrated,people simply associate snooker with the Crucible and don't have a great deal of knowledge or recollection of tournaments outside of Sheffield.

A good example is the 2nd biggest tournament in the calendar the UK Championship,how many people off the top of their head can reel off the finalists of this tournament over the last ten years or a good number of semi's and quarter finals ? I certainly can't and I'd wager I'm in a very low tier of the population as keen on the game,same with the Masters too but perhaps not quite as striking.

You might be right. I watch most of the tournaments, but of course the World Championship is much, much more important than everything else. This is the title that counts. I can easily tell all the World Champions and the finalists back until 1985. But even for the UK Championship it's probably just the last few years that I can tell the winners. Though I could probably say, who has won this tournament and who hasnt.

[itsnoteasy]

Jeez I couldn't even get as far as Jonny, and I'm not joking, I didn't remember Bingham beat Murphy.

[Odrl]

O'Sullivan beat Hawkins and Carter respectively. :smile:

I'm pretty sure I can tell you the finalists of any major tournament in the last ten years, that's too easy. Getting all the scorelines correct would be a better challenge. :smile:

[jonny66]

Just my assertion but I think this angle is a little overrated,people simply associate snooker with the Crucible and don't have a great deal of knowledge or recollection of tournaments outside of Sheffield.

A good example is the 2nd biggest tournament in the calendar the UK Championship,how many people off the top of their head can reel off the finalists of this tournament over the last ten years or a good number of semi's and quarter finals ? I certainly can't and I'd wager I'm in a very low tier of the population as keen on the game,same with the Masters too but perhaps not quite as striking.

I can't even do this for the worlds

2016 Selby - Ding
2015 Bingham - Murphy
2014 - Selby - O'Sullivan
2013 - fog
2012 - fog
and so on

[trains]

I'm with you on dumbed-down simply because the reasons are stupid. Also "Butchered" and "*******ised" though that may be considered inapppropriate language on here. I have no objection to shorter matches as part of a varied calendar, but the way they've tried to pass it off as fan service is insulting: if everyone is so desperate to see a result in one session, why does the World Championship sell out every year?

Still, Champion of Champions starts tomorrow, and it's a tournament I've always enjoyed

Just my assertion but I think this angle is a little overrated,people simply associate snooker with the Crucible and don't have a great deal of knowledge or recollection of tournaments outside of Sheffield.

A good example is the 2nd biggest tournament in the calendar the UK Championship,how many people off the top of their head can reel off the finalists of this tournament over the last ten years or a good number of semi's and quarter finals ? I certainly can't and I'd wager I'm in a very low tier of the population as keen on the game,same with the Masters too but perhaps not quite as striking.

[JimMalone]

Great performance from Higgins in the semi-finals and of course the final. Wouldn't have thought before the tournament that he would be able to play sooo good. But I'm glad to be proven wrong. Hopefully he can keep this level up.

[gavpowell]

Sorry, my vocabulary is a little lacking in English, so I can't think of a better way to put it. :smile:

I'm with you on dumbed-down simply because the reasons are stupid. Also "Butchered" and "*******ised" though that may be considered inapppropriate language on here. I have no objection to shorter matches as part of a varied calendar, but the way they've tried to pass it off as fan service is insulting: if everyone is so desperate to see a result in one session, why does the World Championship sell out every year?

Still, Champion of Champions starts tomorrow, and it's a tournament I've always enjoyed

[the lone wolf]

Just watched the final on catch up...
Higgins played great and will be an inspiration to so many other players on the tour.
Great tournament and probably the best presented tournament I've ever seen.
Good times are ahead of us! :snooker: