Day six at the Crucible as the final two matches of the opening round come to a close, with Neil Robertson and Stuart Bingham looking to seal their places in the last 16…
13:12 – A late start for all in Sheffield today, as the tables have been re-covered out in the arena and both the press and fans alike have time to recharge the batteries ahead of another busy few days in Sheffield.
Setting up in the media room ahead of the afternoon session, it was good to talk to Brandon Parker about the continued growth of snooker in mainland Europe and the European Tour events confirmed for 2013/14. Also talking about the German Masters, which will see seven tables out in the main arena next year, compared to this year’s five, speaking to him, it is hard not to get too excited at the current snooker boom on the continent.
Also this morning, I have very kindly been given a copy of the Chinese ibilliards magazine which aside from containing topless photos of Judd Trump, which he last night revealed on Twitter were actually taken a couple of years ago, looks to be pretty impressive. While I can’t comment on the writing, my mandarin not being all that fluent, it is clear to see just how seriously the Chinese treat snooker, on a par to how we would treat football or rugby stars here in the UK and in truth it was something of an eye opener.
13:39 – Back on the baize, early days in the opening two matches of the day, Murphy currently in the process of taking the opener against Graeme Dott, while Robert Milkins and Neil Robertson are down to the yellow in a close tenth frame…
16:08 – As a few of you may have noticed, World Snooker have this week been running a series of ‘Crucible Catch-Up’ pieces on YouTube, where MC Rob Walker discusses the action from the previous day with a member of the press room.
With the number of available journalists yet to have recorded a piece dwindling somewhat, Rob decided that it would be my turn in the hot seat, to talk stats and offer my general thoughts on yesterday’s matches. Having had ten minutes or so to prepare, I then headed up into the press box to record the feature, which you can view here at YouTube.
Not one for public speaking, I was rather nervous as you could probably tell, but knowing what to expect feel like I would be better in the future and hope to be asked again. Nerves aside, I hope that you all enjoy it!
18:12 – It has turned out to be an afternoon of high drama at the Crucible, as many people’s pre-tournament favourite Neil Robertson has crashed out at the hands of qualifier Robert Milkins.
It was the 2010 champion who scored the heavier throughout the match, but as the second session wore on in particular, began to lose his way and would eventually succumb to a shock 10-8 defeat.
As he came into the press room, Neil was very gracious in defeat, giving high praise in particular to Robert’s safety game, while lamenting his own cueball control and hinting perhaps that he was not happy with his preparation for the tournament following his victory at the China Open earlier this month.
Full quotes will follow in the morning, as they will from winner Robert Milkins, who described his feeling as being ‘chuffed to bits’ following what he described as a career-best victory. Robert spoke of what has been a tough period for him off the table and how happy he is to have turned the corner and got his career back on track now.
What the result does mean is that one of Ricky Walden, Robert Milkins, Michael White or Dechawat Poomjaeng will now be in the semi-finals of the 2013 World Championship, the draw giving all of those players a real opportunity here to break new ground at the tournament.
Over in the other half of the bottom section of the draw, for Ding Junhui and Mark Selby, it will be good news to see Robertson exit the tournament and one of those two will now surely be favourite to make it through to their first final from here.
Elsewhere during the afternoon session, Shaun Murphy continued to produce terrific snooker, back to back centuries of 128 and 112 being the highlights as he powered to a 6-2 lead after his opening session against 2006 champion Graeme Dott. A player who has come into the tournament somewhat under the radar, Shaun has for me clearly been the most impressive player of the tournament so far and it will be interesting to see whether he can maintain this standard as the fortnight progresses.
00:35 – With 45 minutes free prior to the start of the evening session, I headed out for the customary McDonalds, before returning to the arena for what promised to be an entertaining walk-on for Thailand’s ‘Mr Poomtastic’ Dechawat Poomjaeng, with Rob Walker having engineered the purchase of giant Thai and Welsh flags to give to those in the crowd.
Unsurprisingly, Dechawat duly delivered, shaking his fists, hugging Rob and blowing a kiss to those in the crowd holding the flag in the most exuberant introduction that a player will ever receive at this venue.
The walk-on however would prove to be just the beginning of the madness during the session, as Dechawat continued to cause bewilderment with his various antics, culminating in a bizarre concession of the fourth frame under the ‘three misses’ rule, as he failed to hit an available red on three successive occasions.
As he gestured to the crowd heading into the dressing rooms, the various shenanigans continued after the interval to the extent that referee Michaela Tabb appeared to warn ‘Jack’ to calm down at one point as he sat grinning in his chair.
It was then to the credit of opponent Michael White that he was able to maintain his composure, winning seven of the eight frames played to put one foot into the quarter-finals for the first time. I did feel sorry for Michael, who having himself produced a terrific performance to oust two-time champion Mark Williams from the tournament, has had the limelight snatched from him to some extent in this match. Make no mistake though, he will not care one bit so long as he comes through as the winner and he now stands an excellent chance of doing so.
Over on table one meanwhile, Stuart Bingham was able to win the two frames that he needed to in order to overcome young debutant Sam Baird, soon closing out a 10-2 victory to set up a last 16 tie with Mark Davis. As I said yesterday, I felt that the scoreline was a little harsh on Baird, but all in all Stuart was a thoroughly deserving winner and utilised his experience well in order to get on top of his opponent early.
So that is the last 16 line-up complete. Tomorrow I will post my thoughts on the story so far, whilst trying to offer some insight as to how the draw could now unfold as the sessions progress…