The Premier League caravan reaches Penrith

Tonight we stay in Penrith

With only three more stops to go and the seventh being tonight, the Premier League is making history all around the country. This time it will make a one night stop to the medieval "flavored" town of Penrith, Cumbria. So the big crowd gathered for this event as well as all the viewers from all around the globe will have a chance to see another four great names playing wonderful snooker: Marco Fu will take on Ding Junhui and Ronnie O`Sullivan will take on Mark Williams.


But before I start to review every player’s run in this competition let’s take a look at the chart, as I like to call it. We know that every player receives points for playing in the Premier League and in the end the top 4 will have a secure place in the semis. For a victory you get 2 points, for a draw 1 point and for losing a match....you get nothing ;-)) So, until this moment, the rankings look something like this: the first place (meaning the one who has more points) is being occupied by the Welsh Mark Williams with 5 points, closely followed by Ding Junhui, Marco Fu and Mark Selby with 4 points each. At the bottom we find Shaun Murphy, Ronnie O`Sullivan and Neil Robertson with 3 points each; sure these guys still have matches to play so they have time to get back on track, but that won’t be an easy task.
So, these being said, I hope you realise that we have a big night in front of us, with great snooker and...quite a battle for points, I dare to say! :-P


The evening will start with the match between "Cue-Man-Fu" and "The Chinese Sensation". Both players have the same number of points, but both of them want more, so this will get interesting!

Marco Fu will take on Ding Junhui

Ding started this competition with a dreadful defeat suffered in the match played against Shaun Murphy 5-1, but he tried to recover by hitting two draws; first with Ronnie O`Sullivan and second with Mark Williams. The victory against Mark Selby, 4-2 seemed to write his comeback in the real competition, but two weeks later he was whitewashed 6-0, by the current world champion Neil Robertson. It was a hard lesson and it really messed up with his confidence. So much, that the little guy lost 4-0 in his first EPTC 3 event match, played against his fellow-country, Liang Wenbo. So, he needs to pick himself up the ground and prove he is what we all know he is - a terrific snooker player. This will be his last match in the Premier League, so he needs a victory in order to keep his hopes up in reaching the semifinals.


Marco Fu, didn’t start the competition by being a big favorite, but he proved to play quite good against all the great names from the snooker business. He made a draw with Ronnie O`Sullivan, won 4-2 the match against Shaun Murphy, but lost 5-1 the next one, in front of Mark Selby, only to score yet another draw with Mark Williams. A pretty twisted run for the Hong Kong cue man, but one which have brought him 4 precious points. Still, he also needs a victory tonight so it will be definitely interesting to watch what will happen with the two Chinese guys. ;-)


The second match of the evening is the big clash of "The Rocket" and "The Welsh Potting Machine". A match that you are not allowed to miss! Mark my words! :-))
Ronnie might be easily named "The King of draws" for he played in three matches and all of them ended on a draw. This is good, for it means that he didn’t lose, but on the other hand he didn’t win either, so those 3 points he gained are not enough to secure him a place in the semis. Of course he has two more matches to play, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves here; the man is in a desperate need of a victory!

O`Sullivan v. Williams - The titans` clash

The problem with Ronnie is that you don’t know what to expect from him. If he gets upset for not succeeding in winning a match, he either gets suddenly motivated and rocks around that snooker table like no one , either he closes up and refuses to play at his best. Let’s hope that he will put aside any bad moods he might have and he will play great snooker, for he really deserves to reach the final stages of this tournament. He won it for five years on a row, until last year, so he might just do it again, for this is his type or competition - the fast and the furious type! :-))


Mark Williams had a very good start in this year’s Premier League, for he won 4-2 the match against Mark Selby, but after that he continued with three draws (Ding Junhui, Neil Robertson and Marco Fu). Still, that means he never lost a match and that’s good, that’s what put him in the top. But he also needs to gain some more points in order to book himself a place in the semis. He has only one match left to play, beside this so it would be great for him to earn some more points tonight.
So, another match in which both players need a victory, and when those two are ones of the greatest snooker players, then we definitely have to watch them, right? :-))


Be sure to tune in tonight at 7:30 pm on SkySports 2, for your share of great and LIVE snooker! Premier League, baby! :-)))
And for those of you who don’t have this programme, here are the links you can use to watch the snooker:
1st link
2nd link (here you`ll have to chose Premier League Snooker from the list)


May you have a very pleasant night my little snooker "termites" and see you tomorrow for some Premier League gossips! :-))