2008 Pontin’s Autumn Festival Notes

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With the Belgian Open coming up this weekend which will soon be followed by the Shanghai Masters, the week has been a relatively quiet one as far as snooker news goes which is the reason for the absence of posting yesterday. When not posting I will try to make some progress with the player profile pages though so hopefully the site can continue to grow over the coming weeks.

During this quiet period however, there has been an event taking place at Prestatyn, the 2008 Pontin’s Autumn Festival which runs until this Friday. Full information and results can be found here at GCS.

The meeting is made up of five events, the Open, the under 20’s, the 20-40’s, the Masters and the Pontin’s Plate, though little information appears to be present about this last event.

Pontin’s Open

A number of current and former main tour players are taking part across a number of events, notably the current world number 35 Ricky Walden who is the favourite to succeed Jamie Cope as the winner of the main Open competition. The other professionals still involved in the main event are the recent tour debutants David Grace and Stephen Craigie, the latter having come through 3-2 against Aaron McIntyre in his most recent match.

Other names that you may recognise include the young Michael White and Leo Fernandez, both of whom were on the main tour last season. White is looking particularly dangerous having beaten the experienced Mike Hallett 3-0 at the last 32 stage and with him and Fernandez joining Craigie in the bottom half of the draw, there could well be some excellent matches as the week draws to a close.

Under 20’s

Of those remaining in the draw, the biggest name is once again 18 year old Stephen Craigie who so far has eased into the last 16 having won his first three matches at the expense of just two frames. Anthony McGill however, the man Craigie beat in the final of the European under-19 Championship this year lost early on to Accrington’s Farakh Ajaib who has since joined Craigie in the last 16.

t is not just Stephen Craigie in action here though as he is joined by his younger brother Sam in this event. Sam is in the opposite half of the draw and is yet to drop a frame so it isn’t impossible that we could be seeing a final contested by brothers! Does anyone know if that has happened since the days of Joe and Fred Davis? With other talented players such as Michael White remaining in the draw this is by no means a formality though.

20-40’s

Like in the main Open event, Ricky Walden will be a heavy favourite to win here given his experience and current world ranking. That said, he is poised to come up against the talented 22 year old Robbie Williams in the quarter-finals in a match that could go either way given the short format.

Elsewhere in the draw, David Grace continues to make good progress, as does Leo Fernandez who recorded an excellent 3-0 win over current world number 57 Paul Davies.

Where next for Ding Junhui?

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Image supplied by Janie Watkins

With the Shanghai Masters coming up soon, now appears to be the perfect opportunity to consider the career of China’s best ever player Ding Junhui and to consider possible reasons for his recent struggles in ranking events.

Rise to stardom

Having started playing snooker at the age of nine, by the time he was fifteen he was already skilled enough to win the Asian Under 21 championship, Asian Championship and IBSF World under 21 Championship in 2002.

His rapid progress continued on the main tour where having turned professional in 2003, he recorded an impressive win over Joe Perry on his debut at the Wembley Masters in 2004. A year later he remarkably managed to capture his first ranking event title on home soil in China, a victory that significantly raised his profile, and that of snooker full stop in his homeland.

Soon after he managed to show that this was no fluke by winning the UK Championship and Northern Ireland Trophy – all before he reached the age of 20 which was a remarkable achievement, matched only by Ronnie O’Sullivan and John Higgins.

At this point in time I was beginning to think that he could really be in a position to push on and possibly be one of the favourites for the Word Championship that season, maybe even challenging for a place at the very top of the rankings. He appeared to be nerveless, have all the shots required and although he did not always perform in the qualifying matches at Prestatyn, he appeared to have the temperament to handle himself on the big occasions.

Masters 2007

Returning to London for the Wembley Masters, Ding started the tournament in fine form, making his first career 147 in his opening match against Anthony Hamilton before going on to reach the final where he would face local favourite Ronnie O’Sullivan. Despite making a strong start to the match, Ding soon found himself overwhelmed by a combination of O’Sullivan’s incredible play and the boisterous, hostile home crowd. This continued to a point where Ding appeared to have all but given up and in fact tried to concede the match with O’Sullivan still one frame from victory. He continued after the mid-session interval however and his concession was attributed to him thinking that the final was a best of 17 match.

Image supplied by Janie Watkins

This was not the first time that Ding had appeared vulnerable to a partisan crowd however as just three months before during a Premier League match with Jimmy White, he appeared to again struggle to cope with the atmosphere, losing the match 5-1.

Since these defeats Ding just hasn’t looked like quite the same player to me, something borne out by the fact that he has not reached the semi-finals of a ranking event in the last 18 months. Although he remains a member of the top 16, Ding’s temperament has also increasingly looked questionable at times and his opponents have been able to take advantage of this.

What are the possible reasons for this? At 21 he is of course still very young and it cannot be easy to come up against a partisan crowd at Wembley like he did, particularly being in a foreign country halfway across the world from his homeland.

A season and a half has passed since that defeat however and it makes me wonder whether there is a deeper problem at the moment. Could it be that Ding is struggling with the pressure of leading China’s hopes at the very top of the game? The growth and interest in the sport over there is huge at the moment and particularly given his earlier successes, perhaps the levels of expectation placed upon him are causing him problems. Only Ding can answer this but if there is some truth to that theory then hopefully the emergence of Liang Wenbo this year will help to take some of the attention away from him.

The future

At just 21 years old he should still have the best years of his career ahead of him and you don’t simply lose the talent that fired him to those three titles a couple of years ago. Something needs to change however as having made a slow start to this season by losing his opening matches on the ranking circuit and the Premier League, Ding’s confidence will not be high at the moment. A good run in front of his home crowd in the upcoming Shanghai Masters might just give him the lift that he needs, though he will have to play well from the start to defeat the in-form Dave Harold. We shall see.

Roewe Shanghai Masters Wildcards

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It would appear that there will be seven wildcards appearing in the main draw for the Roewe Shanghai Masters this month. Their matches will be played on Monday 29th September and according to this document, and the official tournament format, this will mean that the schedule is:

Monday 29 September
3pm

Ricky Walden v Zhang Alda

Judd Trump v A Bu La Jiang

Jimmy White v Xiao Guodong

Anthony Hamilton v Li Yan

7.45pm

Andy Hicks v Li Yuan

Tom Ford v Yu Delu

Stuart Pettman v Cao Xinlong

Also taking place on the Monday evening will the qualifying match held over from Prestatyn between Liang Wenbo and Atthasit Mahitthi. The winner will play Mark Allen for a place in the last 32 on Tuesday morning.

Davis goes back to basics

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Steve Davis may have six world titles and countless other tournament victories on his CV but he still hasn’t given up trying to improve his game according to the Eurosport website.

He is quoted as saying:

“I noticed I wasn’t striking the ball in the centre,” Davis said. “I was favouring cueing on one side and it was affecting my alignment.

“It’s all weird. All the shots seem different. I didn’t expect results overnight. I expected to struggle and miss the balls by miles but actually I didn’t pot too badly.

“I was trying to play quite basically so any win is a good win. I’m not going to criticise myself. I got through.”

For a man starting what I believe to be his 30th season as a professional to come out and indicate that he is working on his game in such a fundamental way is remarkable really, particularly given what he has achieved in the game. Having slipped out of the top 16 again at the age of 51 and with a full-time career as an analyst with the BBC waiting for him, some might have expected Davis to slip quietly into the background and concentrate on other activities now.

That would be to underestimate Steve’s love of the competition, or perhaps more to the point the game of snooker full stop however. Anyone who has remained at the top of the game for as long as he has won’t want to go down without a fight and it is good to see that he is still seeking to improve his level even now.

Make no mistake, he may have tried to downplay his win against Gerard Greene in the Shanghai Masters qualifiers but Greene is a very dangerous player to face at that stage and any kind of win for Steve was always going to be a good one. His reward in Shanghai will be a tie with Dominic Dale in the last 32 in what could be a close match. Dale, who is entering the event as defending champion, is in good form having pushed Mark Allen all the way in Northern Ireland and will fancy his of chances of making it to the last 16 again. One thing that is certain however is that Davis will do his utmost to stop that from happening.

PartyPoker.com Premier League Snooker: Night One Review

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Match One: Sublime Selby earns comeback win

And to think I doubted him, Mark Selby put in arguably the most impressive debut performance that the league has seen whilst in this format to beat Ding Junhui 4-2 and go top of the Premier League.

He didn’t get off to the best of starts however, in what was a scrappy opening for both players. Selby eventually took control of the frame before breaking down on the last red. Following a brief safety exchange, Ding capitalised on a poor safety to take the frame with a break of 30 and lead 1-0.

Selby again got in first at the start of frame two but landed on nothing when he attempted to split the reds. A few shots later and what at the time looked like a key moment took place. Ding managed to put Selby in a very tough snooker behind the green and it appeared to be an ideal time for Selby to use his first ‘time-out’ of the match. He chose not to however and his attempted escape fell way short of the intended red, allowing Ding to come in and take full advantage with a break of 100.

At this point I was wondering whether Selby was indeed struggling to adapt to the shot clock and whether Ding would move on to win comfortably, after all he looked to be cueing well. What followed from Selby however was an absolutely stunning response which erased any doubts about his ability to cope with the 25 second limit.

He quickly drew level with breaks of 86 and 80 before a run of 73 following a missed red from Ding and then a well deserved century in the final frame of the match secured him the points. In truth he could have made a century in each of those four frames but for some poor positional play once the frame was won, though I doubt he will be too worried about that with £5,000 and two points earned tonight.

Selby said:

“I had a few chances to make a century but I’m not complaining – I’m chuffed to bits winning 4-2 on my debut,” said Selby.

“I only played one bad safety in first frame, then he took the second and then I performed. I always try and enjoy it and put on a good performance.

“With the shot clock, I played a little bit quicker than last season so I’ll need to get a bit of exercise in.

“I’ve got to take it one game at a time and Stephen’s record speaks for itself but I’m certainly looking forward to it.”

Ding will be disappointed to have come away from the night with no points but it is early days and he will be hoping to get his campaign back on track when he meets John Higgins next week in Basingstoke. Selby meanwhile now has a week off before he plays seven times world champion Stephen Hendry in Derby.

Match Two: Points shared as Higgins denies the Rocket

In what was a high quality match from the start, the spoils were shared as defending champion Ronnie O’Sullivan and Scotland’s John Higgins drew 3-3.

In what was a highly enjoyable start to the match, O’Sullivan thought that he had taken the frame when following a break of 62 he left Higgins needing a snooker. Higgins however had other ideas as he got that snooker and cleared up to force a respot. Eventually it was O’Sullivan who blinked first and left an unmissable shot for Higgins to knock in and take the frame.

Following a break of 83 in the next to put Higgins 2-0 up, it was O’Sullivan’s turn to hit back with breaks of 72 and 85 to level the match. He then went into the lead when Higgins’ break ended at 38 when he missed a tricky long blue that he was forced into taking following a kick on his previous shot.

Lesser players might have given in at this point but Higgins is far too classy for that. He potted a superb long red at the start of the sixth frame and although faced with a number of tricky shots early on in the break, held firm and sealed a point with a run of 74.

Both seemed fairly happy with the result in their post match interview:

“That was a point gained for me as I was 3 -2 behind,” said Higgins. “You’ve got to raise your game against Ronnie as he never misses. You only get in off a bad safety and whenever you leave him a chance it’s game over.

“I’ve not played in the Premier League for a few years, and last year I realized I missed it. It’s a great tournament and everyone’s a great player so you just do your best,” he added.

O’Sullivan said: “It’s a point and at the end of the day I’m not disappointed so we both got out of jail.

As previously mentioned, Higgins now faces Ding Junhui in the next event while O’Sullivan will be up against league debutant Joe Perry.

September 11 – Grimsby Auditorium

£5,000 Mark Selby 4-2 Ding Junhui £3,000
51(43)-64(30), 15-105(100), 86(86)-0, 80(80)-0, 73(73)-0, 104(104)-0
£3,000 Ronnie O’Sullivan 3-3 John Higgins £3,000
63(62)-70(respot black), 1-91(83), 98(72)-0, 85(85)-0, 67(46)-46(38), 0-74(74)

For a list of centuries, money earned and the league table, please click here.

Selby on League debut

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Mark Selby has been speaking to the Leicester Mercury about his debut in the Premier League competition tonight.

He said:

“There are only six matches and I need to win four to reach the semi-finals,” said Selby.

“Ding has been struggling lately, but you play only six frames against each player so it can be a bit of a lottery.

“Hopefully, I’ll have a good run, because I want to stay in it for next season.”

On the shot clock:

“The 25-second shot rule will be interesting,”

“I’ve quickened up my action and I feel confident with it.

“But it doesn’t happen overnight and will still take some time before I’m used to it completely.”

On his Northern Ireland Trophy defeat to Ian McCulloch:

“I didn’t play drastically. It was the first tournament of the season and I got some ranking points on board. There is still time to improve.”

PartyPoker.com Premier League Snooker 2008: Night One Preview

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Premier League Snooker – Night One from Grimsby, SkySports1, 7:30pm

Mark Selby v Ding Junhui
Ronnie O’Sullivan v John Higgins

So here we are, night one of the new Premier League season and what a tournament it promises to be. Please click here for my tournament preview posted yesterday.

Match One: Mark Selby v Ding Junhui

So to start with we have world number 3 Mark Selby against Chinese star Ding Junhui in what should be a close match. Selby, last season’s Masters and Welsh Open champion is making his debut in the competition tonight and it will be interesting to see how he handles the 25 second shot clock. He has said that he has shortened his cue action to become a quicker player which should help here, but it is still early on in the season and it remains to be seen whether he is entirely comfortable with it at this stage. I wouldn’t be too surprised to see him take a week or two to settle into the conditions posed by the League, we shall see.

As for Ding he should have no trouble settling in. Having topped the league phase last season, making an incredible 12 centuries on the way, he will be keen to keep that form going this time around. He did lose his opening match of the season in the Northern Ireland Trophy to Mark Davis but I wouldn’t expect that to count for much tonight. Ding seems to enjoy the glitzy atmosphere provided by the league and produce his best snooker on a consistent basis in the competition.

The match could go either way but my gut feeling is that Ding will win this, possibly 4-2.

Match Two: Ronnie O’Sullivan v John Higgins

New season, same old story? Judging by O’Sullivan’s success in Northern Ireland it seems that way, and coming to a tournament that he has made his own for the last four years he will be confident of getting off to a good start tonight. Interestingly however, only last week O’Sullivan described Higgins as the only man who can stop him when on full form. Given some of their matches in recent years (THAT performance in the Grand Prix and the 2006 Masters from Higgins), this is perhaps unsurprising, and O’Sullivan clearly won’t be taking anything for granted.

In what is a repeat of last season’s final, Higgins will be hoping for a better result tonight. Having reached the semi-finals in Northern Ireland he has started the season well and will look to give his confidence a further boost with a win tonight. Twice a world champion, we all know that Higgins is capable of beating O’Sullivan, but it has to be said that these conditions and the shot clock in particular favour Ronnie tonight.

O’Sullivan beat Higgins 5-1 on the opening night last season but Higgins will be more used to the shot clock this season and I expect it to be a closer contest. A draw would not surprise me but I will stick my neck out and say 4-2 O’Sullivan.

2008 Royal London Watches Grand Prix: Qualifying Draw

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The qualifying draw for the 2008 Grand Prix has today been made available and be viewed here. As usual the matches will be held at Pontin’s, Prestatyn from the September 22-25 and the winners will then be drawn at random against the top 16 players for round 1 of the TV stages.

Jimmy’s Path

Unbeaten at Pontin’s so far this season, Jimmy White has been paired with reigning IBSF World U-21 champion and snooker ‘hotshot’ Michael Georgiou in round 1. Having lost his first two matches of the season Georgiou will be hoping for better against White, though given the Whirlwind’s current form it won’t be easy. Indeed there is nothing easy about this section of the draw with the winner facing David Gray in the next round, with Michael Holt and finally Michael Judge awaiting further down the line should they win that match. If Jimmy wants to reach the TV stages of a third straight event therefore then he will have to play at his very best once again.

Tie of the Round

At the very bottom of the draw in what is on paper the most intriguing match of the first round are the experienced Matthew Couch and promising Geordie youngster Stephen Craigie. Having both made the third round in the Shanghai qualifiers last week, both will be confident and it should be a close tussle between players with 16 years between them. If Craigie can prevail against someone with so much experience however, it will provide further evidence that he is the real deal as well as the reward of a match with the in-form Mark Davis in round 2.