2018 UK Championship

[Odrl]

Good to see Lu Ning in the last16. He had a couple of good performances as a wildcard in the Chinese events when he was still a teenager, but then fell off the radar somewhat. Nice to see him finally having some success. :smile:

Martin O'Donnell continues to impress as well, yet another good run in a major event.

[Billy]

Things that irritate me but shouldn't:

The way Kyren Wilson crooks his middle finger on his bridge hand.

[Cue crafty]

That must mean it's OK for me to be irritated by the crap cue laying on the studio table then, phew. ; )

Watching the way he robotically plays is making me think he should change his name to Kryten Wilson....

[JimMalone]

Watched a little bit of the ROS v ZHOU match earlier, Ronnie was flowing well today. One huge element I have noticed time and time again in his game, is his ability to focus on a telling safety shot when falling out of position on a break.

I think it was the 3rd frame, and he had to go all around the table after cutting in a Black but caught the middle pocket knuckle. He was visibly very disappointed, but blocked this out and played a great safety, snookering Zhou behind the yellow, and went on to win the frame shortly after.

You see many players just quickly play the run away to baulk shot without getting the white tight to the cushion, or really trying hard to put their opponent in a tough position, still feeling the disappointed so not giving the shot their full focus.

Its a great trait for a player to have and has won him many frames.

Indeed. It's a strength that often gets overlooked. But actually while break-building is one of the main differences between the elite players and the good players, it's mostly the tactical and the safety game that makes the fine difference between the elite players himself. Selby, Higgins, O'Sullivan, Ding also have a strong safety game. Murphy or Trump not so much.

[vilkrang]

Watched a little bit of the ROS v ZHOU match earlier, Ronnie was flowing well today. One huge element I have noticed time and time again in his game, is his ability to focus on a telling safety shot when falling out of position on a break.

I think it was the 3rd frame, and he had to go all around the table after cutting in a Black but caught the middle pocket knuckle. He was visibly very disappointed, but blocked this out and played a great safety, snookering Zhou behind the yellow, and went on to win the frame shortly after.

You see many players just quickly play the run away to baulk shot without getting the white tight to the cushion, or really trying hard to put their opponent in a tough position, still feeling the disappointed so not giving the shot their full focus.

Its a great trait for a player to have and has won him many frames.

Scary to think how much he would have won if he had this trait in the early days.

[shmeeko69]

Scary to think how much he would have won if he had this trait in the early days.

He would have been ahead of Hendry for sure and 40+ ranking titles.

[tomwalker147]

That's how crap the balls are, a little moisture in the air and all the gold bling chalk in the world can't stop those blasted kicks.

Bring back the SC's!

it's bizarre and i'm sure it's the conditions in the arena's they play in. I played 7 frames on Selby's star table last night using triangle chalk and 1G Aramith champion balls, I had 1 kick although I think this was due to m technique when decelerating on a dead weight blue to the middle. I often play on the star tables in our club and genuinely very rarely get kicks, maybe 1 kick every 10 frames or so on average.

[vilkrang]

He would have been ahead of Hendry for sure and 40+ ranking titles.

Indeed. It's also crazy that someone who has nearly 1000 century breaks, 15 147s, 5 world championships, 33 ranking titles and 18 triple crown titles is seen as an under achiever, yet he definitely is!

[vilkrang]

Shame Lisowski match isn't on TV.

[blahblah01]

That must mean it's OK for me to be irritated by the crap cue laying on the studio table then, phew. ; )

Watching the way he robotically plays is making me think he should change his name to Kryten Wilson....

He has started to remind me of Blakey from On the Buses.

[blahblah01]

Shame Lisowski match isn't on TV.

Disgrace more like, and it got more time pre-match coverage on Eurosport!!!

[vilkrang]

What is wrong with the crowd? Never seen such a quiet crowd, they aren’t applauding any decent shots. Weird.

[blahblah01]

Judd is going to have a monk-cut if his short back and sides gets a bit shorter and higher.

[blahblah01]

What is wrong with the crowd? Never seen such a quiet crowd, they aren’t applauding any decent shots. Weird.

They are probably watching the Jack\Fu match

[JimMalone]

Would have really liked to see Fu vs. Lisowski.

But maybe King can give Trump a close match as well.