2015 Players Championship - Major win for Joe Perry

18:18:00 Ramona Dragomir 0 Comments

Joe Perry beat Mark Williams 4-3 to win this year's Players Championship Grand Final edition and cash a not-too-shabby £100,000 cheque along with the fame and glory of capturing his first major ranking title. 

Perry had to overcome a deficit of being led 3-0 down, his opponent almost tasting the sweet aroma of silverware, for Williams hasn't won a major ranking title since the 2011 German Masters.

"The Gentleman" of snooker won the Xuzhou Open earlier this year and the Yixing Open back in 2013, both of them being part of the ex-PTC events series, now PC events (the Asian branch), but winning the Grand Finale is his first ever major ranking victory, a victory that he's been craving for about 23 years, since he became a pro.

As for the final battle, it started with a 64 break carefully built by the Welshman, to which he soon added a 57 and a beautiful 103 clearance to practically fly at 3-0 up. 

He needed just one more frame, but Perry had other plans in mind so he kept the match alive after winning a very scrappy 4th frame in which his top contribution was a break of 14 points.

Despite that it was all that the Englishman needed to regain his confidence and continue for a full comeback.

Breaks of 50 and 56 followed, the last one actually forcing the decider which the same Perry took with runs of 54 and 24 for a final victory of 4-3.

After the match, Mark Williams said that although he had a strong start in the first part of the match he didn't have too many chances in the second one, as Perry was cruising towards victory.
As always, he admitted he's not "too bothered" to be losing this one, especially since his opponent "will be buying the drinks" after the match.

For those not in the know, thanks to performing in such a great way at the Players Championhip in Bangkok, Mark Williams actually sealed his position in the Top 16, which means a guaranteed place at the Crucible this year.

Perry, obviously declared he's "so happy" to have won this event, especially since is his first major ranking win and described his much-deserved and awaited victory as "a dream come true". 

Sadly enough though there wasn't any trophy, which was #careless to say the least, so this article will have to do with this crap photo with the champion holding a horribly-designed fake cheque.

Now hurry up and pack your bags for we are going to Beijing, China for the China Open! It starts on Monday, yes, it is insane!

P.S. For those who haven't found out yet, Ronnie O'Sullivan pulled out of the 2015 China Open, due to health problems.

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2015 World Grand Prix - Trump triumphs over O'Sullivan

00:23:00 Ramona Dragomir 0 Comments

Judd Trump recorded a tremendous 10-7 victory over Ronnie O'Sullivan in order to lift this year's World Grand Prix trophy and a cheque of £100,000 to which, the Bristol-man is adding an extra £5,000 for scoring the highest break of the tournament (142).

After a first session that saw a powerful Ronnie O'Sullivan taking a 5-4 lead, the lads returned in the arena from Cymru Venue in Llandudno, to resume their match.

It wasn't really a surprise to see the Rocket break the "evening-ice" with a great 96 break, but something was telling us that he just wasn't in the right frame of mind.

Just as the match started he got very disturbed by two photographers who presumably were interring with his snooker. The plot thickens for one of them was the lovely Monique Limbos.

Bottom line though, the two photographers were asked to leave the arena and Monique soon tweeted:

"For those who asked, I don't know what it is with Ronnie right now. We were two sitting there in a corner, not in his line.

I wasn't even taking pictures, when he was playing. But just seeing us there was bothering him it seems. So we left, and we can't even have pictures of Judd."

After the match it seems that Ronnie apologised for his outburst.

The match continued with the same Rocket in amongst the balls, a break of 59 taking him 7-4 up. Was this the time of the Trump-esque comeback?

Indeed it was, as Judd took advantage of a missed black from Ronnie, down on frame 12, to record a 57 break, to which he quickly added runs of 47, 23 and a great 142 clearance to level the match at 7-7.

From here on it was an almost one-way street for Trump, Ronnie's contributions being too weak to compete with his opponent's fury.

The 2011 UK champion won a scrappy 15th frame, continued with one won on the black and a top break of 36 in the last one, to seal a 10-7 victory.

Over the moon, Trump received a well-deserved trophy to celebrate one of the biggest victories of his career.

He admitted his performance wasn't top-notch and added that he would like to face Ronnie in a match in which both of them played well enough.

At the same time, snooker fans will be pleased to hear that O’Sullivan confirmed the fact that he’s “looking forward to Sheffield”, so despite what we’ve all read in the papers, he’s still up for the job, it seems.

With that in mind we say our goodbyes to a lovely tournament, venue and city and fly off to Thailand for the Players Championship.

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2015 World Grand Prix (the final) - Rocket leads after first session

18:47:00 Ramona Dragomir 0 Comments

The big final of this year's World Grand Prix is underway and after the first session of cues-crossing Ronnie O'Sullivan has a slight advantage of leading Judd Trump 5-4.

The battle for the trophy (which looks very much like Aladdin's lamp on a bigger scale) started with Trump and his runs of 26 and 34 that were winning him the opener. What followed next though, was a typical case of  "Rocket taking off".

Ronnie used a 90 break to level the match and made the most of a 42-minute 4th frame that saw some really tactical play performed. At one point most of the reds, next to the pink were all crowded near the left pocket making it almost impossible to develop something useful out of them.

Still, in the end Ronnie managed to put his nose in front and add breaks of 56 and 105 to go 4-1 up. Believe it or not that 105 is Ronnie's first century break this week!

An out-of-sorts Trump still found the strength to battle back and with just a break of 50 was winning his second frame of the match to trail by 4-2.

A bit more confident he scored with runs of 46 and 36 to pull back yet another frame and another 50 break to level the match. The master of comebacks was back into this match! Mark Selby would be so proud of ya son!

Despite losing no less than three frames in a row "Rusty" Ronnie found the cure and "de-rusty-nated" himself with a brilliant 89 clearance to go up in front once more, 5-4 as the session was coming to an end.

In all fairness both players are far from their best, but they are still producing some really entertaining snooker and a pretty awesome show so they'll be back for the final session tonight from 7pm (UK time).

Don’t you dare to miss on the boys playing!


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2015 World Grand Prix (the semis) - Snooker from A to W-hitewash

23:36:00 Ramona Dragomir 0 Comments

It's been one hell of the day here at Cymru Venue from Llandudno where the semi-finals of the 2015 888.com World Grand Prix were disputed. A day of pure snooker that had it all: comebacks, whitewashes, drama, misses, century breaks you name it!

The day started with the clash between Judd Trump and Martin Gould, a match that proved to be an epic one as Trump managed to comeback from a 5-1 deficit and win the cue-battle.

Gouldy was the first to test the waters, breaks of 50 and 87 offering him a perfect 2-0 lead before Judd could have a genuine chance to disturb the balls and make a perfect 121 break in order to win his first frame of the day.

But when he inexplicably missed a yellow down on 33, during frame four, Gould was there to capitalise with a 35 break which added to a previous 33 were winning him one more frame to go 3-1 up.

The "Pinner Potter" didn't stop here and continued his beautiful cruise with breaks of 47, 53 and a 111 clearance which practically threw him just one away from victory, at 5-1.

And then it happened. The comeback from hell! Trump stormed in with a rain of breaks (55, 40 and 61) to go shoulder-to-shoulder with his opponent and force the decider.

Martin, spending most of his time in his seat and losing his momentum, made an early mistake by trying to pot a long red and missing it, thus granting Judd the chance to come at the table. 

Breaks of 37 and 59 were enough to guarantee Trump a place in Sunday's final, while a devastated Gould congratulated him and left the arena in a hurry. 

Now, I don’t know about you but for me all this made him have a deja-vu feeling of the 2010 World Champion match between Gould and Neil Robertson.

So, after a dramatic first semi-final we were bound to have another one, right? Wroooong!

Ronnie O'Sullivan and Stuart Bingham match was anything but dramatic! Well, maybe it did involve the word drama but only for poor Stu who was whitewashed by 6-0!

Interestingly enough the semi-final was refereed by Marcel Eckardt (Ronnie's special friend who stood between him and "at least three century breaks” during his Last 16 match) but this time there weren't any complaints. At least not there right in the open.

O'Sullivan opened with a break of 45 to which he added an 88 clearance and breaks of 72 and 89 to fly 4-0 up as the interval was kicking off. Now, it wasn't vintage stuff but it did the trick, more since Bingham was not really in the arena. 

After the mini-break Ronnie continued demolishing with runs of 33 and 77 to end businesses at 6-0 and set an interesting meeting with the player that it is thought that will continue the list of big names (S. Davis, S. Hendry. R. OSullivan), Judd Trump.

In the interview after the match Ronnie seemed more positive and more relaxed than the last time we saw him, admitting that he feels a lot better around the table and saying "it's good to show a bit of frustration, for it shows you care".

So, here we are: it's down to just two players and only one trophy! The ultimate battle starts this Sunday from 1pm (first session) and will see its conclusion from 7pm (UK time). 

Are you ready? On your marks, get set, cue the action!

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Happy birthday Mark Williams!

13:30:00 Ramona Dragomir 0 Comments

Finally this day has come! We've been hearing about 21th of March since ... I don't know, ages. 

Today is the day that we celebrate the 40th birthday of our beloved "Welsh Potting Machine" Mark Williams!

With a snooker CV that awakes every player's envy and with an attitude towards winning or losing that many would die to posses, Williams is the player that we all enjoy to watch and hear (maybe because he's so honest and straight-forward).

So, SML would like to wish him a warm "Happy birthday" and many happy returns plus some new silverware on his shelf (and I'm not talking about cutlery).

 

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2015 World Grand Prix - The quarter-finals

02:00:00 Ramona Dragomir 0 Comments

The quarter-finals of this year's World Grand Prix have just come to an end and we are in possession of the names of the four lucky semi-finalists that will cross their cues this Saturday: Stuart Bingham, Martin Gould, Ronnie O'Sullivan and Judd Trump.

After a free day (for I don't know if you noticed but we didn't have any snooker on Thursday), the lads re-entered into the arena for some very important matches and, it’s needless to say, that tension was floating into the air.

First stop: Stuart Bingham and Mark Davis (or for us friends, Dark Mavis). A match that so many of us would have seen as being more balanced. However, Stuart had other plans in mind and won by an excruciating 4-0 scoreline.

Right from the beginning this match proved to have drama written all over it as Stuart won a scrappy opener on the black, only to show a bit more fluency (under the form of breaks like 56 and 42) and get one more frame under his belt.

Still, the scrappiness returned in frame three that Bingham won with just a top break of 29 to which he added a decisive 71 in the following frame in order to book his place in the semis.

His opponent will be none other than the Rocket, Ronnie O'Sullivan, the five-time world champion defeating Graeme Dott by 4-1.

Although far from his best and describing his performance as "diabolical" O'Sullivan was the first to test the waters and win the opening frame, but lost the following one after inexplicably missing a red.

A break of 58 was assuring him of a 2-1 lead, while a dramatic 4th frame was starting.

The real turning-point of the match was when the lads were on a draw, 51-51 with only the green, brown, blue, pink and black on the table.

Ronnie potted the green, but couldn't continue his break, Graeme potted the brown, but missed the blue. In the end Ronnie potted blue and pink for a 3-1 lead to which he added a 51 break in frame five for a guaranteed place into the next round.

Martin Gould faced "The Vegan Power" Peter Ebdon in a match that ended in the favour of the “Pinner Potter”, 4-2.

Although Ebdon was the first one in and took the opening frame with a great 80 break (I had plenty of time to make a salad and eat it + clean the plate during this frame), Martin was sure to take his chances and won no less than three frames in a row with runs of 78, 62 and 59.

Peter 's 52 break was keeping the match alive, but Gouldy was aiming for a spot in the semis so with runs of 35 and 23 he beat the "Ebbominator" by 4-2.

Late in the night the likes of Mark Williams and Judd Trump delighted us with a match that saw all its frames being played. And because a late decider is not enough, the match was also won on the last black .... by Trump.

Williams' break of 63 was the one that opened the scoreline, but Trump answered with a 73 to draw level and missed a huge chance to take control of the match when missing a pink during frame three.

However, he did make amends pretty quickly and with a bit of help from breaks of 40 and 52 he drew level at 2-2, but also got in the lead after a top break of 48.

As always, Williams forced the decider after a cracking 6th frame, decider that had all the right ingredients for a new manicure in my case!

After some pretty unimpressive breaks, but some safety shots that were to die for, it all came down to the colours: blue, pink and black.

Snookers, safety shots and an attempt to double the blue! Unfortunately for Williams the double failed its purpose and left the blue pottable, Trump coming to the table and clearing for victory. Punch in the air and all that!

So there’s no surprise that after quite a mad day of snooker we are ready for some more madness!
Without any further ado here's Saturday's order of play:

1pm
Martin Gould v. Judd Trump

7pm
Stuart Bingham v. Ronnie O'Sullivan

*all hours are UK time

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Michaela Tabb leaves World Snooker circuit

18:40:00 Ramona Dragomir 0 Comments


World Snooker has just released a statement announcing the fact that Scottish referee Michaela Tabb has decided to leave the World Snooker circuit.

The statement comes short after Barry Hearn, the Chairman of World Snooker Ltd. answered a question on his Twitter account regarding the recent absence of Michaela from World Snooker tournaments.

The one day we don't have snooker and bad news breaks our snooker loopies hearts! Michaela Tabb, one of the most popular faces on snooker refereeing and one of the best of her troop, decided to put an end to her collaboration with World Snooker.

At this particular moment we don't have any information regarding her departure, only World Snooker's statement that reads:

"Michaela Tabb, one of snooker's most experienced referees who took charge of two World Championship finals, has left the World Snooker circuit.

“Michaela's involvement in snooker began in 2001 when she was fast tracked by World Snooker having worked as a pool referee. She refereed her first snooker match at the Crucible Theatre in 2003, and in 2009 became the first woman ever to referee the World Championship Final.

“World Snooker would like to take the opportunity to thank Michaela for her contribution to World Snooker over the last 14 years and wish her all the best with her future refereeing endeavours."

What more can we add to this, rather than it's a sad day for snooker, fans and ... an end of an era. 

Here at SML blog, we would like to wish Michaela all the best and say a sincere thank you (not for the music), but for her passion and determination. 

She represents a genuine inspiration for every snooker ref out there and most importantly for the women who want to make it as a professional snooker referee.

In November last year another great ref, Eirian Williams decided to put his gloves away. You can read more about that here.

P.S. If you are on Twitter support Michaela and add #teamtabby to your tweets regarding her.  

UPDATE:  Michaela Tabb brings World Snooker to court

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2015 World Grand Prix (Day 3) - The wacky races to QFs

13:14:00 Ramona Dragomir 0 Comments

The wacky races (wacky as in crazy to be clear on that) from Cymru venue in Llandudno continued yesterday with more intensive snooker played almost on a non-stop mode. 

And for Clive Everton, our beloved commentator it surely seemed so, for the lads took their time into cruising towards the quarter-finals that start this Friday (Thursday we take a break).

After the early exit of Murphy and Higgins from the other day, the snooker Gods considered it was time to do the same with Neil Robertson and Mark Selby.

Neil Robertson faced His Majesty Mavis the Dark (also known as Mark Davis) in a very looooong cue-battle with a very looooong deciding frame (82-minutes of pure snooker).

Mark was the first one in and took the first frame, but Robbo was sure to equalise and fly at 3-1 up with runs of 44, 83 and 77.

Still, this wasn't too much of a bother for Dark Mavis who performed a very well-played comeback consisting in breaks of 81 and 53 to force the decider.

As I said before the last frame lasted around 82 minutes and its fate was decided by the last black. Because we needed more drama!

Robbo was the one with s slight advantage leading his opponent by 55-50, but when the black ball went in, it didn't matter for Davis was the one through. A though battle of nerves, but a genuine lesson of snooker under pressure, nonetheless.

Mark Selby, world number one and current world champion, also left the World Grand Prix after losing 4-2 to Martin "Gouldie" Gould.

Although the Leicester-man started with an 88 break to conquer the opening frame, it was Martin the one who flew at 3-1 up (a break of 49 and a beautiful 113 clearance helped the lad achieve his goal).

Selby kept the suspense after winning the 5th frame with a solid 84 break, but Gouldie ended his hopes with a well-cued 67 break for a place in the quarter-finals.

On Friday he will face "The Vegan Force" Peter Ebdon, as the 2002 world champion beat Stephen Maguire by an impressive 4-1 scoreline in a late match.

Ronnie O'Sullivan is also amongst those who will be putting his snooker cue into action, as the 5-time world champion recorded a crystal clear 4-0 victory over Robert Milkins, victory made reality through breaks of 72, 64 and 68.

At the end of the match things got a bit ugly as Ronnie had a go at the referee Marcel Eckardt for getting in his way around the table. Not the best picture one would like to see a snooker match finish with.

In the press conference, O'Sullivan said: "He probably cost me two or three centuries.
I think he needs to up his game or someone should show him where he should or shouldn't be.

"It was lucky the frame was over but it's still not the point - I'm out to entertain, to do a job and the crowd wants to see century breaks but if the referee keeps getting in my way and treading on my feet it doesn't help."

Despite all that (if it’s indeed true), I believe it was a bit unnecessary to play the "aggressive chimp card" (this is actually a reference to Dr Steve Peter's book, don't you start throw rocks at me!) on Marcel when everyone was looking. In my country we have a saying: "You don't wash your dirty laundry in public".

But on a brighter note, the story represents pure gold for the press (yellow or not) so probably that's all we'll hear/read the next couple of days.

On the opposite corner, a devastated Robert Milkins said on his Twitter account: “Certain matches I come off, and think wats (sic) the point, that was one of them; in fact every time against Ron! #useless # totalembarrassment!”

Young Master Judd Trump took on Joe Perry (the man whose 139 highest break he overcame with a perfect 140 one, a day before) in a genuine clash of style.

The lads went hand in hand up until 2-2, when Trump decided it was time to call it a day and book his place in the next round, helped by breaks of 57 and 69.

Mark Williams, "The World Seniors Champion" as he's now known to the public (still outrageous) recorded a very nice victory of 4-3 over Ricky Walden.

It was a close cue-crossing and the playes weren't separate by more than just a frame, in the end a break of 78 making all the difference and getting Mark Williams across the finish-line and into the quarter-finals.

Stuart Bingham is also sitting comfortably in the next round after beating Matthew Selt 4-2, as well as Graeme Dott who had to overcome the Chinese test of Liang Wenbo.

This one was quite a high quality match, for both players can be attacking and real fighters when they're in "the zone".  The final scoreline, 4-3 says it all.

So, Friday we return with the snooker madness for the quarter-finals of this year's World Grand Prix. The order of play is the following one:

1pm
Mark Davis v. Stuart Bingham

2pm
Martin Gould v. Peter Ebdon

7pm
Ronnie O'Sullivan v. Graeme Dott

8pm
Judd Trump v. Mark Williams

*all hours are UK time

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2015 World Grand Prix (Day 2) - The crash of titans

02:21:00 Ramona Dragomir 0 Comments

The second day of the current 888.com World Grand Prix revealed its first surprises to the hungry snooker audience from North Wales alongside with all the snooker loopies watching on the telly.

Shaun Murphy and John Higgins crashed out in the first round (please imagine a dramatic sound as you finish this sentence, something you would hear in a thriller film).

Reigning Masters champion, Shaun Murphy took on Peter Ebdon in a pretty weird match that could best be described as this: bits and pieces.

Although it had a very promising start as Murphy won the opening frame with a top break of 69 on the last black, the fluency of the match soon started to deteriorate.

Ebdon used runs of 51, 48 and 39 to move 2-1 up before Murphy responded by taking a very scrappy forth frame with a clearance of just 40 points.

A 57 break was putting the vegan-player in the leading position once again, but Shaun managed to clinch a very, very scrappy affair and force the decider.

A decider that Peter won in just one visit with a brilliant 136 clearance. That new lifestyle of his and those Reiki lessons are paying off, I tell ya!

The second snooker titan to leave the competition is John Higgins who was defeated by fellow country-man Graeme Dott, also known as the "fearless terrier".

John was the first to break the ice and had a very strong start, a break of 80 points being a living proof of that, but Graeme was sure not to delay his response, which came under the form of a 51 break.

Higgins put his nose back in front after winning a scrapper, only that this time the Scottish terrier's reply was stronger. Breaks of 63 and 78 were putting him in the lead for the first time since the beginning of the match, at 3-2.

His opponent forced the decider with a bit of help from a 69 break, but Dotty's mind was made up: he wanted victory and that's what he got with just a top break of 39 for a 4-3 scoreline.

Joe Perry beat Ben Woollaston by a outstanding 4-0 scoreline and hit a great 139 break in the process (this was at that particular time the highest of the competition), only to see his dream vanished (there's a prize money of £5,000 for the highest break of the competition) when during the evening session, Judd Trump whitewashed Dominic Dale and hit a marvellous 140 break.

Judd's performance was actually quite spectacular and his long potting game has clearly improved besides the 140 clearance, the Bristol-man hitting breaks of 53, 58, 44 and 38 to secure himself a place in the Last 16 where he'll meet none other than ... Joe Perry. The irony! The irony!

A very dramatic Welsh-clash took place between Mark Williams (now introduced to the audience like the "World's Seniors champion" outrageous!) and Ryan Day.

Day had a very solid start despite letting his opponent to take the opener, for he fought back and was the first to take a real glance at a place in the Last 16.

Breaks of 58 and 52 were putting Ryan at 3-1 up, when Williams commenced his comeback and forced the decider.

The drama started when the lads were left on a draw, 60-60, with only the pink and the black waiting to be potted.

The safety battle lasted for a few minutes when all of the sudden Williams got lucky and fluked the pink and then potted the black to win the match, 4-3.

After the match Mark stated: "I got lucky. The pink was ridiculous in the end, it was a ridiculous fluke. I knew it was in just as it passed the blue; I was in the line with it. I'm sick for Ryan for losing like that; it's not nice as I'm good friends with him."

The newly crown Indian Open champion, Michael White lost to Robert Milkins by 4-2 (victory supported by breaks like 62, 48 and 62), while Marco Fu and Ding Junhui lost to Mark Davis and Ricky Walden respectively, by 4-1.

The cue action continues according to the below schedule:

1pm
Neil Robertson v. Mark Davis
Matthew Selt v. Stuart Bingham

2pm
Ricky Walden v. Mark Williams
Joe Perry v. Judd Trump

7pm
Liang Wenbo v. Graeme Dott
Robert Milkins v. Ronnie O'Sullivan

8pm
Mark Selby v. Martin Gould
Stephen Maguire v. Peter Ebdon

*all hours are UK time
 

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