Following the early conclusion to play yesterday evening, as both Neil Robertson and Ronnie O’Sullivan required only two frames each to progress to the last eight at this year’s World Championship, former world champions Stephen Hendry and Ken Doherty were tasked with entertaining the crowd for an hour or so with a best of three frames exhibition match.
This year Mark Selby will become the first player since Neil Robertson in 2011 to try and dispel the so-called ‘Crucible Curse’ that no first time champion will successfully defend the World Championship title at the Crucible Theatre.
Click below for my look back through time at how previous first-time world champions have seen their defences ended…
A year ago ahead of my tenth year visiting the Crucible Theatre for the World Championship, I took a look back at my first three years between 2005-7, recalling the various experiences that had helped draw me to the sport and ultimately end up writing this blog.
Unfortunately at the time I never got round to part two, so with no further delay, now I look back at my next three years as John Higgins, Ronnie O’Sullivan and Neil Robertson took Crucible glory between 2008-10…
It has been on the cards for some time, but today was the day that Ronnie O’Sullivan surpassed Stephen Hendry’s career total of 775 century breaks, as the Rocket hit number 776 during his quarter-final victory against Marco Fu at the Dafabet Masters.
Following on from part one earlier in the week, click below for the second part of my recent chat with world number one Neil Robertson, as we discuss the development of his game, look back on his 2010 world title triumph and also some of the things that Neil likes to do off the table.
All comments and feedback on both this and the first part of the interview are welcome at the bottom of the article…
With Ronnie O’Sullivan defeating Barry Hawkins with a session to spare yesterday, in place of the afternoon session on semi-final Saturday at the Crucible today was an exhibition between former world champions Stephen Hendry and Ken Doherty.
With Dennis Taylor also chipping in, with his usual, but still entertaining repertoire of jokes and stories, it made for an entertaining substitute to the planned action and you can view photos from the event by clicking below…
For what it is worth, Doherty won the match 3-2.
Six times world professional champion Steve Davis has tonight defeated Nigel Bond 2-1 in Portsmouth, to become world seniors champion for the first time in 2013 and take home the top prize of £18,000.
Click below for more…
Today saw the draw announced for the 2013 World Seniors Championship, as Nigel Bond will look to defend the title that he won 12 months ago at the Mountbatten Centre in Portsmouth.
Also in the draw are the likes of Steve Davis and Jimmy White, as well as seven-times world champion Stephen Hendry, who will make his debut in the competition this year.
With the event set to be held between 19-20 October 2013, the draw in full is:
Tony Knowles v Darren Morgan
Dene O’Kane v Nigel Bond
Tony Drago v Qualifier 1
Steve Davis v Dennis Taylor
Joe Johnson v Stephen Hendry
Alain Robidoux v Tony Chappel
Qualifier 2 v Cliff Thorburn
Doug Mountjoy v Jimmy White