Snooker World Championship 2008

Snooker is back at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre, who do you think will be crowned world champion come May 5th?

Here are all the first round fixtures:

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Ken Doherty (Ire) v Liang Wenbo (Chn)

John Higgins (Sco) v Matthew Stevens (Wal)

Ali Carter (Eng) v Barry Hawkins (Eng)

Ding Junhui (Chn) v Marco Fu (HK)

Mark Selby (Eng) v Mark King (Eng)

Peter Ebdon (Eng) v Jamie Cope (Eng)

Neil Robertson (Aus) v Nigel Bond (Eng)

Steve Davis (Eng) v Stuart Bingham (Eng)

Ryan Day (Wal) v Michael Judge (Ire)

Ronnie O'Sullivan (Eng) v Liu Chuang (Chn)

Mark Williams (Wal) v Mark Davis (Eng)

Graeme Dott (Sco) v Joe Perry (Eng)

Shaun Murphy (Eng) v Dave Harold (Eng)

Stephen Lee (Eng) v Joe Swail (NI)

Stephen Hendry (Sco) v Mark Allen (NI)

Stephen Maguire (Sco) v Anthony Hamilton (Eng)

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I'm gonna go for the 'Jester from Leicester', Mark Selby. Think he's one of the best young players and he's a lot of fun to watch.

Gotta love the Beeb's coverage though, I'll be watching BBCi for the next few weeks. :)

think ding may be in with a shot.

maybe stephen hendry will find his form of the olden days.

Higgins is looking good to retain his championship. I thought he'd have a really tough opening match against Stevens but it wasn't to be, Higgins made it look easy.

There have been so many matches that have gone to 9-9, leaving it all to play for in the 19th frame.

Stephen Hendry, Peter Ebdon and Ali Carter have all scraped through 10-9.

cant believe mark allen got beat!!!!!!!!!

i loved watching him play, better than seeing stephen hendry's almost depressed looking face around the crucible.

Can't believe Steve Davies got beat last night! So close, and he had the chances to win it! Still, he has got to be around 50 years old now so it wasn't a bad effort. :)

I saw it too, couldn't believe he come back from 8-3 down and then gave Bingham the frame at 8-8 with the simplest black over the pocket !.

He had changes at 9-8 down to take it to a decider.

TiG

I'm a fan of Mark Selby as well (being from Leicester myself) and was also annoyed to see Mark Allen go out :(

I'd also fancy John Higgins to take it after his superb play against Matthew Stevens or there is always Ronnie of course!

Bah! Selby lost in the first round to King! There goes my prediction... :O_o1:

I don't know what has gotten into Hendry these days, but he's showing some of his best form!

Then there's the Chinese prodigy, Liang Wenbo, the kid who goes for shots you wouldn't even think of - he has surely never heard of the word 'safe'. So much fun to watch though, his match against Swail last night was a classic.

Some great matches so far. :)

You see O'sullivan's 147?, oh my what a 147. The pot on the 13th black to setup the penultimate red. wow!.

TiG

I really enjoying watching this years snooker, Swail the come back King in that last frame I had no idea who was going to ~Win...

liang ftw against ronnie!!

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Originally Posted by TiG

You see O'sullivan's 147?, oh my what a 147. The pot on the 13th black to setup the penultimate red. wow!.

TiG

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Watched it on iplayer last night.. absolutely stunning cueing.

I saw Ronnie's 147 too, it was awesome! There have been a lot of great moments so far and it's remarkable how many matches have gone right down to the wire.

The highlight of the tournament so far for me has to be Liang's unknown pot yesterday against Swail. He fluked a red into the pocket, didn't notice and sat back down next to Swail...who was just sat there giggling away. It was well funny, never seen that before.

ohhhhhhhh.... Peter Ebdon robbed of a 147... last black just wobbled in the jaws. SO close.. poor chap, must be gutted

must hurt now that ali carter got it instead

Nah, Ebdon's a real good sport, he was practically kissing Carter after that 147 hehehe.

It could be a Hendry vs Sullivan semi-final, that's bound to be full of fireworks, particularly considering their history.

I'm hoping Liang can keep up his good form against Sullivan today, would love to see that one go down to the wire.

Two 147s in the same tournament, absolutely loving this World Championship!

Also just found out that iPlayer isn't blocked at work wahoo!

i reckon if ronnie loses his cool, or is just feeling a bit off, than liang could WELL beat him.
I like it when ronnie gets angry, like yesterday when he hit his cue on the table and then went about punching it! Weird thing was i got my cue in the same shop as ronnie and ronnie was present when i got my cue!
hopefully it will bring me the skill that ronnie has:P

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Originally Posted by r_j_k_p

i reckon if ronnie loses his cool, or is just feeling a bit off, than liang could WELL beat him.
I like it when ronnie gets angry, like yesterday when he hit his cue on the table and then went about punching it! Weird thing was i got my cue in the same shop as ronnie and ronnie was present when i got my cue!
hopefully it will bring me the skill that ronnie has:P

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Pie in the sky matey :P

Hendry v O'Sullivan in the semi's... should be an absolute corker!

totally agree with you that ronnie vs hendry is gna be a great match, but i would have rather seen liang there as i LOVE the way he plays.
Its like he can secretly hear what john virgo is saying and doing the absolute opposite. He brings pure entertainment to the game.

Well, I didn't envision Ronnie giving Hendy that type of whooping! :surprised:

Hard to see Ronnie losing in the final now though.

ronnie is unstopable, i love him. and teh comments he made in china were well funny :D

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Originally Posted by Parm

It could be a Hendry vs Sullivan semi-final, that's bound to be full of fireworks, particularly considering their history.

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Looks like the hatchet has been buried (and not into any heads) judging by the commentary. To be honest, I was really hoping Liang might have thwarted Sullivan's progression to the semi-finals (not that I have anything against him as he's a phenominal talent when on form and great to watch - but realistically, Liang is just too inexperienced as it showed with him taking far too many risks) as I'd really like to see Hendry achieve one more WC victory and it looked like he could have done it this time. I was so disappointed to see the draw as the top half was saturated with the top players. Still, it's been compelling viewing so far. (Why did GTA IV have to come out this week!)

Now that Sullivan is through to the final round I think it's a foregone conclusion as to who is going to win. With his day off today and his experience and form he should walk it. Besides, now he's got to share that 147/top break earnings, he'll need the extra cash from the win to buy his Bentley GT convertible :)

It's a shame Carter couldn't put up more of a fight in the final, he looked tired and didn't play half as well as he can. Still, that can't take anything away from Ronnie, he wasn't his best in the final but there's no doubting the fact that he deserved the title.

Here's hoping a real challenger manages to qualify next year...come on Jimmy! :mrgreen:

i saw ronnie at a chinese restaurant hehe

I've not really paid attention to snooker in the past, but I just sat down and watch a few games the other day. I got a little curious and decided to look up some of the players on the Wiki. I came across this passage on O'Sullivan:

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Originally Posted by Wikipedia

When he first displayed this left-handed ability in the 1996 World Championship against Alain Robidoux, the Canadian accused him of disrespect. O'Sullivan responded that he played better with his left hand than Robidoux could with his right.[6] O'Sullivan was summoned to a disciplinary hearing in response to Robidoux's formal complaint, where he had to prove that he could play to a high level with his left hand. He played three frames of snooker against former world championship runner-up Rex Williams, winning all three. The charge of bringing the game into disrepute was subsequently dropped.

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Aside from reminding me of the 'Prince of Tennis', I am puzzled as to why he had to prove that he could play to a high level with his left hand. Footballers don't have to, as far as I know, prove to a panel of jury that they can hit a ball with their left foot (assuming they are right footed). And even if Alain thought that Ronnie's actions was condescending, surely the risk was on Ronnie if his left-handed play was not up to standard.