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Ssb - close quarters
So we're down to the last eight of the williamhill.com UK Championship at the Barbican Centre in York and the race for the title is still wide open.
Judd Trump, still standing despite a couple of scares, faces Stephen Maguire, who has at times looked superb.
Neil Robertson and Ding Junhui, the game's two outstanding non-British players, clash cues in what could be a terrific battle.
Ricky Walden is through to only his third major quarter-final since he won the 2008 Shanghai Masters and tackles Shaun Murphy, much relieved to beat Martin Gould 6-4 from 5-0 yesterday.
Mark Allen played very well to see off Ali Carter and Marco Fu finished strongly against Mark Selby, who must have been disappointed by his performance.
Carter didn't take the defeat well. He announced his retirement on twitter, effective from the end of the season.
I've heard too many players say they will retire over the years to take this deadly seriously as the vast majority never do.
Most probably want to but what else will they do? In Carter's case, of course, he could fly planes but I suspect when the disappointment subsides he will have a rethink.
The huge numbers of people who have been watching at the Barbican are interested in the snooker but nothing gets a sport wider media coverage like a good old fashioned ruck.
The Allen-Barry Hearn rumpus is rumbling on in frankly hilarious fashion. Hearn calling the Northern Irishman a 'silly little boy' and Allen responding by wearing a gag at his post match press conference last night.
This is all essentially flim-flam but you'll have noticed the newspapers are full of this every day.
Speaking of which, Mark Williams was tweeting between frames yesterday, a practice which will no doubt be banned on the basis that it runs the risk of people enjoying themselves.
Mark's tweets were pretty ripe but they made me laugh because I could imagine him saying them out loud.
We should accept the players for the people they are, rather than trying to mould them into a series of dull clones.
Yes, the corporate image of snooker is important but if we cry out for 'personalities' we shouldn't deride the players for showing some.
More...
Judd Trump, still standing despite a couple of scares, faces Stephen Maguire, who has at times looked superb.
Neil Robertson and Ding Junhui, the game's two outstanding non-British players, clash cues in what could be a terrific battle.
Ricky Walden is through to only his third major quarter-final since he won the 2008 Shanghai Masters and tackles Shaun Murphy, much relieved to beat Martin Gould 6-4 from 5-0 yesterday.
Mark Allen played very well to see off Ali Carter and Marco Fu finished strongly against Mark Selby, who must have been disappointed by his performance.
Carter didn't take the defeat well. He announced his retirement on twitter, effective from the end of the season.
I've heard too many players say they will retire over the years to take this deadly seriously as the vast majority never do.
Most probably want to but what else will they do? In Carter's case, of course, he could fly planes but I suspect when the disappointment subsides he will have a rethink.
The huge numbers of people who have been watching at the Barbican are interested in the snooker but nothing gets a sport wider media coverage like a good old fashioned ruck.
The Allen-Barry Hearn rumpus is rumbling on in frankly hilarious fashion. Hearn calling the Northern Irishman a 'silly little boy' and Allen responding by wearing a gag at his post match press conference last night.
This is all essentially flim-flam but you'll have noticed the newspapers are full of this every day.
Speaking of which, Mark Williams was tweeting between frames yesterday, a practice which will no doubt be banned on the basis that it runs the risk of people enjoying themselves.
Mark's tweets were pretty ripe but they made me laugh because I could imagine him saying them out loud.
We should accept the players for the people they are, rather than trying to mould them into a series of dull clones.
Yes, the corporate image of snooker is important but if we cry out for 'personalities' we shouldn't deride the players for showing some.
More...