18 January 2010 at 1:31 am (Masters 2010, snooker)
Tags: snooker
I’m sure that was very exciting if you weren’t sitting around being grumpy about . . . everything. Ronnie spent YEARS winning when I would rather he didn’t, and now that I need things from him he’s found fallibility. Hmph.
(Selby beat O’Sullivan in a final frame, having come back from like 9-6 down or something. It was all very tense and well played and the final frame had chances all over the place and WHATEVER. I didn’t like it all that much.)
16 January 2010 at 6:30 pm (Masters 2010, snooker)
Tags: mark williams, ronnie o'sullivan, snooker
(I’m just going to say this, before tonight happens, and I hope it proves me wrong, but it is my belief that Maguire might actually be world number two for no reason. Literally all they can say about him is that he isn’t world number two for no reason, because it does seem odd, but nobody actually seems to know the reason and I think we should accept that maybe there isn’t one. I mean, presumably it isn’t just some sort of computer error, but maybe it is just a weird mathematical glitch in the universe or something. And if I’m honest I think the reason he is number 2 might be because he is very reliable at getting into semi finals and NO FURTHER, so I don’t think it should be used as evidence that people in semi finals should worry about him.)
OH SNOOKER IS VERY. The bbc started out just being lovely and showing everyone’s walk on music and being all moody and then they gave walk on music to Hazel, and Hazel should have music whatever she is doing, she’s deserving. And then when Mark was waiting to come on he was just chatting to Steve Davis, and the crowd was huge, and although they clearly loved Ronnie they were totally nice to everyone and it wasn’t unbearable even early on really, and the snooker was beautiful this afternoon, despite the result.
Ronnie O’Sullivan beat Mark J Williams and I LOVE THEM I LOVE SNOOKER I LOVE IT SO MUCH. It was just awesome and it was like the early ohs again and I love that Ronnie likes playing against real snooker players and I am sorry that a whole breed of snooker players turned up who aren’t really real, and Hazel said she hadn’t enjoyed a match for so long in ages, which is a lie because they say it about all the matches that ever happen, but mostly they say it about matches with Ronnie, Williams, Higgins and Hendry in them. Because they’re the only people who know how to play snooker. Sorry. I know that’s all I ever say, but IT IS SO TRUE and I LOVE THEM, I love that I watched snooker when it was great and I know everyone who watches snooker thinks it was best when they started watching it but I’m right, so that’s nice.
16 January 2010 at 1:03 am (Masters 2010, snooker)
Tags: snooker
Maguire beat Day, 6-1, but clearly doesn’t intend to win his semi final. Which is a shame, because he is playing
Selby [who] beat Allen. I couldn’t really pick who I liked least out of these two, and it made a quite close sort of match the most boring thing I had ever seen. I turned the sound down on them, because of the ‘banter’, OH GOD I HATE THE BANTER. I’m sure they were very amusing. Probably. In some way. OH GOD GET ON WITH IT AND STOP SMILING. Anyway, yes. 6-5 to Selby.
So the semis are Maguire vs Selby, and Williams vs Ronnie. Frankly Maguire vs Williams might be too hysterical for me to look at, because they are both more depressed scarecrows than actual snooker players, but it would be my preferred match. I always like it when maguire and o’sullivan play, though I can’t really articulate why, it’s not like Maguire is in any way a good match for O’Sullivan. (They *keep* saying that Maguire isn’t world number 2 for nothing, but ALL THE EVIDENCE is against them.)
All this is by the by, because Selby is going to win his match and ruin my final. I don’t know what I prefer out of Selby/O’Sullivan and Selby/Williams, but I shall be sticking up for Williams because it is impossible not to.
15 January 2010 at 12:37 am (Masters 2010, snooker)
Tags: mark williams, masters, peter ebdon, ronnie o'sullivan, shaun murphy, snooker
O’Sullivan beat Ebdon, good. The commentators pretended that it was surprising to see Ebdon attempt to pot a ball that wasn’t on, but actually you could probably put together a five minute montage of Ebdon attempting to pot balls that aren’t actually on.
Then they interviewed Ronnie, sort of systematically trying to make him explain why he doesn’t enjoy snooker, when the answer is that his brain doesn’t let him, and it’s not something that’s wrong with him, just different. It could have been quite an awful interview, but Ronnie is calmer nowadays, and also Rishi was there instead of Ray Stubbs, so it was quite nice instead, with Ronnie slowly getting lower and lower in his chair as if he was melting from people who don’t understand him, and John Parrott sort of parentally asking if Ronnie had tried PRACTISING his long game if it upset him so much, and Ronnie had to explain that it had upset him for seventeen years and he had tried EVERYTHING actually yes.
14 January 2010 at 3:25 pm (Masters 2010, snooker)
Tags: john higgins, snooker
Oh John Higgins:(
Why does Jan Verhaas hate John Higgins?
Allen beat Higgins, except mostly he didn’t so much win as John lost. Quite hard. I don’t know, John has apparently gone out in the first round of the masters more than half the times he’s turned up there. Possibly he just doesn’t care about it, and doesn’t practise over Christmas and would rather be at home. Perhaps it’s fine.
The commentators have NEVER NOT EVER NEVER ONCE seen John Higgins play so badly. I have. That is very much exactly how I expect John Higgins to play at any given moment any day.
12 January 2010 at 11:16 pm (Masters 2010, snooker)
Tags: ali carter, mark williams, neil robertson, ronnie o'sullivan, snooker
Snooker was way way better today, perhaps the masters is not as awful as I remember it being. It was exciting without taking all your concentration away from other things, and lovely without being heart-tearingly tense. It is less worrying than when ranking points are at stake, and I am a bit cheerier today anyway. And tired.
12 January 2010 at 2:54 pm (Masters 2010, snooker)
Tags: hendry, snooker
I’m sure I wrote a post yesterday, but it’s not here.
Hazel’s voice went a little bit. They’re not allowed to take her away just because she can’t talk properly.
Mark Williams beat Rory McLeod. To be honest it was another boring boring match at the masters and I was beginning to doubt I had *ever* loved snooker, but Mark won it, and that is the important thing.
Murphy beat Hendry, which is a horrible thing, but OH, real snooker! Snooker that is careable about. Snooker with a century break in it. Snooker where the table looks green and open and not brown and dead inside. Obviously Murphy being there is a shame. My favourite bit was the end of the match where Murphy won on a fluke and John Virgo just went ‘oh, well that’s spoiled the whole match for me’. Because yes. It pretty much ruined the week for me. Hendry had great hair and spent quite a lot of time sulking beautifully in his chair. He played brilliantly and I think many exciting things happened that I don’t really remember now.
11 January 2010 at 12:15 am (Masters 2010, snooker)
Tags: darts, jimmy white, martin adams, snooker
The masters started. It’s not like I didn’t notice.
I love Martin Adams. He doesn’t play snooker, he plays darts, but if he played snooker he’d probably be the nicest snooker player in the world.
The masters started by showing us the three most boring matches they could think of. Way to go, Barry Hearn. It was a Sunday and everyone wasn’t at work and snooker was on and it was just the most tedious thing I’ve ever seen, I’m not sure I know ANYONE who managed to watch all of Fu/Ebdon. I will usually watch snooker no matter what, but I didn’t make it past the mid-session interval. Admittedly the bbc filled the midsession interval up with their nice montage of best bits of snooker from the past decade, and generally that made you realise how real snooker is fun and exciting and not Peter Ebdon.
