the rolling towards the pocket snooker championship thread

I <3 him, want him to win this tournament

Ding off to a good start, not really fussed who wins as both decent players.

fu shd be level :(

UK championship 2012 drinking game: every time a commentator mentions that Luca Brecel is 17 years old and/or from Belgium - drink!

Unconsciousness to follow.

Mark Selby is so painfully fucking sloooooooooooooooooooooooow it almost makes me want Graeme Dott to beat him. Almost.

For Ronnnie to make a final after being out for nearly a year really is some achievement. You could argue he hasn't had to beat anyone much however he easily beat Judd Trump.

yeah .. the final aint going to be all that though is it given at ththe other semifinalists are not exactly firing on all cylinders.

For the three frames he had to win last night I don't think he struck much above a 50 break but his positional play was a joy to watch: great brown to red in the first frame to kill that off.

Then a red to pink with his left hand in the last.

There is one weakness in his game in that if he has to pick up the rest he'll likely miss but that is only because he is so good with his left! There is no sportsman or woman anywhere who can say that this ability has actually created a weakness!!

Trump was totally bullied and subdued. In that first frame he should've gone for a cannon into the small pack of reds about two shots earlier but he was so vary of Ronnie and tried to pick as many points as possible that he then ended up going for a harder shot, missed and Ronnie took it anyway.

This could be the most underwhelming final since Hendry-Bond. You give Hawkins absolutely no chance. Only thing is you always suspect Ronnie could already be thinking the trophy is his. Its alright for us to think that, not him.

OTM. I don't think Hawkins has a chance. My estimate is it will be a one-sided affair, but that doesn't have to mean it'll be an underwhelming final. Not if O'Sullivan entertains as he did yesterday.

I didn't at all mind Ronnie not scoring high breaks, his positional play indeed was a joy to watch. Not seem him as focused, making the right decisions for a while. If he brings that to the table today I'll be a happy man.

It is a shame though that the competition seems so much worse. And that is compared to a man who hasn't played for a year.

1st Frame: great shot with a rest for a 70-ish break, scrap what I said before.

Hawkins misses his rest shot and O'Sullivan turns on the style for a 92 break. Top fkn class!

Hawkins now switched on tho'. good to see..

Amazing run of frames so far - v high standard considering both players seem unhappy with the table/cloth.

o'sullivan is some kind of genius huh

my annual campaign for him to be SPOTY rumbles on

it'll be some man united player tho. or alistair cook, when a terrible aussie team get theirs

it's a shame he's such a prick

nah he's a lej, bruv

well, i thought that was a great session ..
hope it stays at this kind of level ..
would love barry to keep ronnie under pressure.

Thank god they wheeled John "WHERE'S THAT CUEBALL GOING" Virgo out back to the old folk's home. Mr. Obvious has nearly ruined watching snooker for me.

I can see Ronnie getting in a bit of a tizzy tonight, he doesn't seem focused any more.

Amazing stuff again from Ronnie, two centuries then some brutal safety play to take a three frame lead overnight.

Truly terrific last frame (might not be a better frame in the final). Ronnie has all the answers so far and brilliant from Hawkins - he's asking the questions. It will probably suit him to come from behind anyway...

Yeah this was good stuff.

ah now that was incredible

Hawkins makes a terrific century, and Ronnie misses a sitter of a red in the next - first sign of nerves.

Break of 66: 15-12

Barry couldn't keep it up and Ronnie punishes, now to within one of a fifth world title: 17 - 12

wins with an 88 break, awesome.

That shot to get up for that last red was great. My love-hate relationship with Ronnie has gone back to love this week.

Awesomely awkward victory speech there

lolled at "whore's drawers", yes.

That was fab! "We're live, aren't we Hazel?"

12 year ban for Stephen Lee for match fixing - BBC reporting that he avoided a life time ban but when you're 38 and already on the slide, 12 years out of the game should just about do it. Great cueist, could've been a contender.

I'd forgotten about the existence of Quentin Hann. Apparently he was banned for 8 years in 2006 for match fixing. I have no recollection of that at all.

just watched final frame of selby - higgins. one of the great frames

knew I had seen this before

http://www.virginmedia.com/images/tabb2.jpg

http://31.media.tumblr.com/a07215930685f05ccd9e666bba9f709f/tumblr_mobthnv7OM1su2hd3o1_1280.jpg

Awful portrait.

yet it is probably the best painted portrait of a female professional snooker referee ever created :(

I think this one is better

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?s=7e8ea29a8e54a31265fd4eace0a598d9&attachmentid=406908&stc=1&d=1210113576

Jan Verhaas doesn't get objectified like this. Or does he...

Haha that's even worse! Why is her head just floating there? It looks less than the real woman than the first one did.

Ronnie in Jesus mode last night...

Amazed Walden didn't join the crowd after O'Sullivan knocked off that century.

to clap although he could just sat in the arena too.

That was one glorious bit of snooker yesterday afternoon, also enjoyed the presenter dude shiting it about how they were going to fill about three hours of remaining airtime.

Just spent an hour watching Ronnie's exhibition match in China with Pan Xiaoting in pool (9-ball I think) from Christmas-time. He's not playing his hardest, but still fun to see.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PgyAbL02ZA

do I wanna read the comments on that

hmm, weirdly civil. there is hope for you yet, youtube

haha, comments for video 2, where they play each other at snooker, much more what I was expecting

When he first displayed this left-handed ability in the 1996 World Championship against Alain Robidoux, the Canadian accused him of disrespect. O'Sullivan responded that he played better with his left hand than Robidoux could with his right.[243] He was summoned to a disciplinary hearing in response to Robidoux's formal complaint, where he had to prove that he could play to a high level with his left hand. He played three frames of snooker against former world championship runner-up Rex Williams, winning all three. The charge of bringing the game into disrepute was subsequently dropped.[244]

Haha that is great. So is this, also from Robidoux's wikipedia page:

Robidoux reached the semi-finals of the 1997 World Snooker Championship, but subsequently slid rapidly down the rankings.[2] He blamed his decline on the destruction of his favourite cue,[2] which he referred to as "the Eel". The incident occurred after Robidoux returned the handmade cue to its maker – an elderly craftsman in Canada – for repairs. But when the cuemaker saw that the cue's butt had been adorned with the logo of Riley, a leading UK cue manufacturer, he took such grave offence he smashed the cue into pieces and sent the remains back to Robidoux.[2] Several years later, Robidoux was asked whether the passage of time may have eased his anger towards the cue maker; "I want to kill him," was his heartfelt response.