With the dust now settling on the 2010 Betfred.com World Championship qualifiers, it is time to take a look back at what for me were the most notable talking points to come out of the event…
- During the course of the season it has been common to hear commentators talk about how the new Star tables are tougher than the Riley models in use a year ago and to me it was definitely evident this week. The middle pockets in particular seemed to be keeping more balls out and overall there were ten less century breaks than a year ago. Assuming that the conditions are similar during the Crucible stage of the event next month, I do not expect to see last year’s figure of 83 centuries matched in 2010…
- On the subject of tables, it was bizarre to see how uneven the one used for the Graeme Dott v Jimmy Michie match was on Tuesday. As you may have read from my report, they spent a long time trying to rectify the problem but it was to no avail and the match had to be completed on another table. The problem must have arisen following the re-clothing of the tables on the Saturday prior to the final round. Not what you expect to see at a World Championship.
- The crowds were definitely improved in comparison to a year ago. Although last year the matches involving Jimmy White and Steve Davis drew reasonably large crowds, the other matches taking place at the same time were almost deserted. For example Ken Doherty vs Gerard Greene had about five people watching while everyone was watching Davis against Spick! This year however, during the final qualifying round, every match had a healthy crowd and on the Sunday tickets were actually sold out well in advance. Why this was I am not so sure but perhaps it is indicative of rising interest in snooker following the arrival of Barry Hearn. Either way, definitely good to see, even if it meant that I spent much of the week standing!
- The value of experience. Former top 16 players Tony Drago and James Wattana were hardly fancied to succeed this season by many snooker fans, but both again used their experience to good effect during the World Championship qualifiers as they each progressed to the third qualifying round of the tournament and confirmed that they would both retain their main tour places for next season. Elsewhere there were also narrow defeats for Daniel Wells, Michael White, Jordan Brown and Thepchaiya un-Nooh against more experienced opponents in the first round, while Sam Baird was handed a 10-0 whitewash by Joe Delaney in the second round. It is not to say that young players can’t enjoy success on the tour and during this tournament, but over a best of 19 frame match I would more often than not side with experience over youth
- Which makes the achievement of young Chinese starlet Anda Zhang all the more impressive. Not knowing a great deal about him I had fancied Craig Steadman to defeat him in the first round but Anda made light work of him before ending the professional career of former world champion John Parrott in the next round. From there he held his composure brilliantly against the always-dangerous Andrew Higginson in the third round before his thrilling 10-8 victory over former Shanghai Masters champion Ricky Walden to qualify for the Crucible. While I expected that he would be able to play the game well, what I (and presumably some of his opponents), had not bargained for was his excellent temperament. Against Higginson he had gone from leading 7-2 to trailing 8-7 and still found a way to win, before recovering from the loss of two very important frames against Walden when his opponent had benefited from a couple of outrageous flukes. Not many people will give him a chance against Stephen Hendry at the Crucible but for me an upset isn’t totally out of the question…
- For Judd Trump however it was not such a good week as he fell 8-1 down against Tom Ford at the end of the first session, eventually losing the match 10-3. While I had predicted a victory for Ford before the start of the tournament, I had certainly not expected the match to be quite so one-sided! From Tom’s point of view it was an excellent performance in which he took full advantage of his opponents errors and looked remarkably composed throughout, certainly a contrast from his performances a year ago. Trump though was particularly disappointing and though still only 20, must be worried by the fact that since making his debut at the Crucible back in 2007, he has not yet been able to make it back there. He has all the talent in the world but I couldn’t help but thinking as I watched Zhang put Walden to the sword, if Judd had his temperament then who knows what he might have won already…
- I cannot wait to see Ford v Allen at the Crucible.
- On the subject of my predictions, it turns out that I eventually got 10 out of 16 correct including three who made had to win more than one match to qualify. Of the losing six, two lost 10-9 in the final qualifying round while Ricky Walden of course lost out 10-8!
- Whoever would have thought a couple of years ago that Mark Davis could ever have got to as high as 12th on the one-year list? While he will inevitably drop a little by the end of the current season, he has already made certain of a top 32 place heading into next season and has completed a remarkable turnaround having at one point looked set to lose his tour status.
- It is great to see Ken Doherty back to somewhere near his best again and looking confident around the table. His long game did look to be a weakness from what I saw this week but his safety game is still brilliant and in amongst the balls he did not look like he was going to miss too often. Back in the top 32 for next season now, hopefully he will be able to keep this form going and get himself back inside the top 16, where for me he still belongs. As far as the Crucible is concerned, Mark Selby will be a very different challenge to both Jimmy White and Joe Swail but from Mark’s point of view, I can’t imagine that Ken would have been someone that he wanted to face at such an early stage…
- World Snooker’s decision to hand wildcards to David Gray, Ian Preece and Andrew Norman really wasn’t the best was it?
- Snooker can be a cruel game, just ask Paul Davies and Rory McLeod.
- Points power. Martin Gould, Steve Davis and Stuart Pettman has all experienced poor season’s up until this point, but by qualifying for the Crucible have managed to save their seasons somewhat and give themselves much better positions on the one-year list than they might otherwise have had. It just reinforces how important a tournament the World Championship is when you look at players such as Xiao Guodong and Craig Steadman who have won more matches this season, but faltered here at the first hurdle and lost their tour places as a result.
- Is Thepchaiya un-Nooh the thinnest player ever? Mike Dunn and Jimmy White were also far slimmer than a year ago, though hardly approaching Thepchaiya!
- Will Matthew Stevens ever get back inside the top 16? Now certain to spend a fourth consecutive season ranked outside of the elite bracket, the former UK Champion is now closer to regaining his top tier status than he was when he first dropped out. Up until recently he had actually enjoyed a reasonably good season leaving him well placed in the rankings, but early exits in both China and now here have left him with around 2,000 fewer points from this season than he earned in 2008/9.
- Next season is going to be a tough one for Dave Harold. Having finished 17th on the one-year list in 2008/9, having won just one match this time around he currently lies 61st and will begin next season fighting to retain his top 48 status, never mind his current top 32 position.
- At least he is still on the tour however, unlike veteran duo John Parrott and David Roe who have now lost their professional status after they both finished outside of the world’s top 64. It is a shame in particular to see John bow out in this manner but looking back at past world champions, there are few, if any who have finished their careers on top. Whether he is offered one of the wildcard places next season remains to be seen, personally I hope not as I would prefer to see those places given to young, up and coming players as opposed to fallen stars but from a commercial point of view, John would perhaps be a safer bet. Given that he would have to win four matches to qualify for a venue though (more than he has won all season), it is hard to see how this could be a real factor.
- Speaking of veterans, will Steve Davis ever see his Crucible love affair come to an end? By all accounts he produced his best performance in a long while to qualify for a record 30th time and having avoided some of the bigger names in the draw, it will be interesting to see how he fares against Mark King. Make no mistake though, King is a capable player who is not inside the top 16 by accident…
- Was the quarter-final run of Peter Lines during the UK Championship the worst thing that could have happened to him? Since then he has lost his next three opening round matches and found himself still outside of the top 48 in the rankings. That said though, the £16,450 earned by that UK run is far in excess of what a string of qualifying rounds since will have generated so I am sure that he will still be pretty happy!
- Don’t you just love this time of year, the tour places being decided, the final stages of the World Championship drawing ever close and the China Open also on the horizon? Hopefully next year though the overly long gap between the Welsh Open and the China Open will be plugged somewhat…
- The renewed interest in the game and the speculation at the moment as to what Barry Hearn is going to do with the sport is just fabulous. Everyone knows that he is going to do something, but nobody seems to know just what…
- Keep an eye on my player profiles that are currently being given an update, starting with those players at the bottom of the rankings who have now seen their season’s come to an end.