2019 World Snooker Championship

[Ronnie's tip]

crazy how if things had worked out differently, Higgins could be on 7 WC's now. I imagine this one is far less of a kick in the nuts as the previous two though.

Trump is the man to beat now. Him, Ronnie and Robertson it feels like. It's up to Selby/Ding to get back and Higgins to become consistent again. I have faith Selby will but less the other teo.

[DeanH]

I need to get down the club and practice. If anyone wants to pay 12 hours table time a day and food/accom for about twenty years I'll repay you when I win.

I'll think about it....

I've thought about it, ... pass

[snookerball]

I'll think about it....

I've thought about it, ... pass

In all seriousness I think most people underestimate how much practice even the naturally talent players have to put in. I remember reading something about Ronnie saying he hated being called gifted because it ignored how much work he had to put in to his snooker on top of his obvious natural ability.

[DeanH]

2019 World Snooker Championship

most on here don't underestimate how much these guys put in to their practise.
travelling around to practise with others, etc.

like when Ronnie took off that season and came back to win the WSC - most forget or don't know that he travelled around and played with the likes of Ebdon in preparation for the WSC.


I remember from Stuart Pettman's book and the hours he put in would make most people's work hours to shame

[vjmehra]

In all seriousness I think most people underestimate how much practice even the naturally talent players have to put in. I remember reading something about Ronnie saying he hated being called gifted because it ignored how much work he had to put in to his snooker on top of his obvious natural ability.

To be fair though, he perpetuates that view more than anyone (well not so much recently, but in the past he's banged on about how little he practices etc.)

Of course in reality they all work super hard and whilst luck is of course a factor to some degree, for the most part, those that have the combination of a good worth ethic and the requisite ability come out on top (I think).

[narl]

Might have been a different game had Higgins basically not gave his all in the semi to reach the final. Think he blew all his steam out in that match and it showed in this match, he basically lost this match on Sunday night.

[cueman]

Fantastic performance by Judd Trump in the final - funny to think how close he went to going out in the first round.Certainly not the greatest final ever though - not even in the top ten.

Really, I mean what do you want from a final exactly? If you can honestly think of 10 better finals you must have been watching a different game to me all these years. The standard was the best I've seen. Record centuries, outstanding potting, safety etc. It might not have created tension for the crowd but in terms of pure quality, both players played to their best. Its just Trump was literally unplayable at times because in snooker if one player is dominant the other can do nothing about it.

[Mark187187]

Really, I mean what do you want from a final exactly? If you can honestly think of 10 better finals you must have been watching a different game to me all these years. The standard was the best I've seen. Record centuries, outstanding potting, safety etc. It might not have created tension for the crowd but in terms of pure quality, both players played to their best. Its just Trump was literally unplayable at times because in snooker if one player is dominant the other can do nothing about it.

I can't even remember 10 finals. I remember they happened of course, which ones I enjoyed, certain shots and which ones were dramatic, but I couldn't comment on the quality of any of them over 4 sessions. In 10 years time, I will certainly remember that the quality of play in virtually every 27 frames of this final was right up there with any snooker match I've ever watched.

[Odrl]

Congratulations to Judd Trump, a fantastic performance in the final and surely the best he has ever played in any match of decent length. He was just incredibly concentrated and disciplined throughout the match, playing strong safety and taking most of his chances in a single visit, and he never did anything stupid all match. Higgins was scoring well himself, but he simply had no way of keeping Trump away from the table on this occasion, mainly because Trump was potting so well and wasn't making many safety mistakes. Okay, that "taking the game to a new level" business is a bit of an overstatement and we've got used to hearing it from the pundits now after any great performance, but it really was impressive stuff from Trump, as good as anyone has ever played in a match of this distance. Must be a good feeling for him to be able to play his best-ever snooker in the biggest match of his life. :smile: A few more frames were missing to make it a really great final, but I still enjoyed every minute of it, as I did in 2004 and 2009, which were the only other two finals I watched where one player played so well as to completely dominate the match and win quite comfortably.

It's always amazing to look back to the start of the tournament and think about how different things could have gone... Thepchaiya Un-Nooh led Trump 6-3 after the first session and actually had a scoring chance in the decider, so he could have taken him out in the 1st round. Ding as well, leading ahead of the final session despite playing relatively poorly himself, so he too could have changed history if he only found a little bit of form. Higgins could have gone out as well of course, most notably in the SF when Gilbert was in for frame and match in the decider. Anyway, good to see Higgins in another final after a relatively disappointing season for him. He would have needed his very best game to match Trump here, and that just wasn't realistic at this point in time. Even so, in spite of Trump's heroics Higgins actually matched him in two sessions where he won 4 of the 8 frames, so it was really only the second session where all the difference was made.

All in all, there was definitely a lot of positives about this year's World Championship. Even if the table was on the generous side, as most people seem to agree, to get to 100 centuries in a single tournament takes some doing, so the standard of breakbuilding was quite exceptional this year. It was also nice to see a couple of underdogs playing really well, most notably Gilbert and Gary Wilson who had the tournament of their lives, and both were very worthy of their SF place. It was also nice to see James Cahill and Zhou Yuelong playing really well and knocking out two of the favourites. Perhaps there is some hope for the younger generation after all. :smile:

I also have to give credit to Eurosport for a better showing this year. Viewers on the continent actually got to see the studio analysis this time, and there was none of that cutting to commercials in the middle of the commentator's sentence that used to annoy me in previous years. :smile: Apart from not showing the ending of Higgins-Gilbert, I don't really have much to complain about. Okay, some of the commentators may not be my cup of tea, such as Yates who insists on talking entirely in platitudes, or Studd who keeps trying to convince me last year's final was the best match ever, or that snooker is a "truly global sport now" and similar nonsense, but I've got used to them by now. :smile:

I guess the biggest disappointment this year was that so many of the big favourites were completely out of sorts, particularly O'Sullivan and Allen who had been playing really well this season, and also Selby and Ding of course. As much as people love the underdogs, they can't quite fill the gap when so many top players go out early, especially if all the surprises happen in the same half of the draw, as was the case here. Trump was left as the one and only big favourite in the bottom half fairly early in the event, so most of the excitement was limited to the top half, at least for me. It's also a little annoying that table conditions keep being such a huge talking point every year. For some reason the WC and the UK Championship seem to be the worst offenders in that respect, and it's just difficult for me to accept that it somehow can't be sorted... Anyway, at least they got it right for the final. :smile:

Finally, apart from a few negative people who take great pleasure in letting everyone know how much they hate everything and everyone (Higgins and Kyren Wilson were particularly popular targets this year), it's always nice to see the increased activity on the forum at this time of year. It's been a pleasure discussing snooker with you, as always. :smile:

I might not be around much for the next few months, so I hope everyone has a great summer. :smile:

[snookerball]

most on here don't underestimate how much these guys put in to their practise.
travelling around to practise with others, etc.

like when Ronnie took off that season and came back to win the WSC - most forget or don't know that he travelled around and played with the likes of Ebdon in preparation for the WSC.


I remember from Stuart Pettman's book and the hours he put in would make most people's work hours to shame

I didn't so much mean on here, I meant in the general population.

'm looking to buy a few snooker players books, would you recommend his?

To be fair though, he perpetuates that view more than anyone (well not so much recently, but in the past he's banged on about how little he practices etc.)

Of course in reality they all work super hard and whilst luck is of course a factor to some degree, for the most part, those that have the combination of a good worth ethic and the requisite ability come out on top (I think).

But he's openly admitted that his current successful run is because he's actually practicing a lot harder now. He admits he has won tournaments without practicing for them but also accepts that he's playing a lot more consistently well now he's actually practising and reckons he won the Masters because he practiced the entire Christmas period rather than taking the traditional week to two weeks off that most players take.

And look at John Higgins, he's gone from being ready to give up the sport, to setting up a practice stable and it's already seeming to pay dividends for him, but we'll need to see how he does in other events next season to back that one up. It's the same human nature thing that's lead to a lot of self-employed people are taking up residency in these communal working spaces, we need to separate home and work life and we need interaction with other people.

One of the commentators mentioned he'd known Gary Wilson and Elliot Slessor practise in excess of 12 hours some days as if it was somehow unique. As someone who works 12 hours 4/5 days a week a lot in a comparatively low paid job? That's what they should be doing if they want to be anywhere near the top of the game surely. I wish I had the ability to play snooker 12 hours a day. I suppose the difference is they aren't guaranteed any financial compensation for doing so, I suppose that's the first step on the journey finding the place within you that accepts the risks like that as opposed to other more rational options.

Gary Wilson said in his interview he always knew he was good enough to make a living out of snooker. How many hundreds, thousands more men his age are out their who had the same thoughts for years now left with no savings from an early career that never took off. How many people have dropped off the tour like Dave Gilbert but never returned? For every Ronnie or Judd whose shone like a beacon since childhood and always known they've got a good career in the sport there's a hundred more good players who just aren't good enough. That must be hard to swallow.

[gavpowell]

'm looking to buy a few snooker players books, would you recommend his?
.

Are you interested in tips they may offer or just good reading? I think I still have a copy of Running by Ronnie - never read it as I was told it had nothing new to say. If I have you're welcome to that. If you haven't already, read Behind the White Ball, Jimmy White's first autobiography - it's absolutely riveting!

[gavpowell]

I've thoroughly enjoyed the tournament but a couple of things have slightly spoiled it:

There were too many runaway sessions that meant it wasn't worth the risk of going to the remaining frames - I barely saw anything of Murphy because his first match was over before it began and his second was on the other side of the match I was watching, so I watched him sit in his seat for most of it.


Also, and I can't remember this happening previously, Rob Walker's insistence on giving away the day's results when warming up the crowd for the evening's session - I can't sit and watch a recording if I know the result in advance, so I barely watched any highlights this year.

[Mark187187]

Are you interested in tips they may offer or just good reading? I think I still have a copy of Running by Ronnie - never read it as I was told it had nothing new to say. If I have you're welcome to that. If you haven't already, read Behind the White Ball, Jimmy White's first autobiography - it's absolutely riveting!

Second for the Jimmy Autobbiography. He also did a coaching book called Snooker Masterclass. Stephen Hendry also released a Snooker Masterclass which I prefered, it contains some interesting stories as well as the coaching stuff. Steve Davis- Successful Snooker has some decent tips and practice routines. I have Stephen Hendry's recent autobiography on audiobook which I'll post a review of one day. It's read by Hendry and he does a decent job. Probably more interesting having him read it than reading it yourself. Excellent for sending you off to sleep at night.

[herbie]

Congratulations to Judd Trump, I am glad that he won the WC. What he showed on Sunday evening has never been seen in the Crucible before, hasn't it.
It was fantastic 17 days, I am glad I can watch BBC in my little Hungarian village. Now I must slowly find back to normal life - what a change!

Odrl, you wrote a good summary of this season`s climax, thats mostly how I saw it too.

[snookerball]

Are you interested in tips they may offer or just good reading? I think I still have a copy of Running by Ronnie - never read it as I was told it had nothing new to say. If I have you're welcome to that. If you haven't already, read Behind the White Ball, Jimmy White's first autobiography - it's absolutely riveting!

Just good reading to be honest. But at some point I'll look for tips ones I guess so suggest those as well. I'll definitely give Jimmy's a read.

I think I poured through one of Ronnie's in a Waterstones once and put it back, maybe one day.