The Paul Hunter Classic (EPTC 1) Discussion !!!!

Yeah, for me best of 5's is too long, but again, it's about as long as you can afford in a tournament like this.

Too short you mean?

Yes I know the grand prix was not great and probably had poor tv audiences. Just a shame they couldnt have replaced the grand prix with a similar formatted tournament and something else new and had the world open as an extra tournament. Its time to put this to rest now as I agree with you and its a shame the grand prix had to be replaced by the world open but they had to to keep a tournament on BBC, anything to keep snooker on BBC has to be good.

Just found this by chance and thought it was funny.

''Snooker ace Ronnie O’Sullivan is rumoured to be entering the Celebrity Big Brother house next month and is already favourite to win the show with bookies Paddy Power. The four-time Masters winner is ahead of other rumoured celeb housemates Pamela Anderson and MC Hammer.

If Ronnie does enter the house it will mean he won’t be able to compete in this year’s Masters competition at Wembley, which starts on January 10th. Last month snooker pal Jimmy White missed the UK Championship qualifiers to enter the jungle for I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.

Paddy Power are also offering ‘Rocket’ specials on O’Sullivan, with odds of 10/1 he’ll snog Pamela Anderson in the house and odds of 12/1 that he’ll get into a physical fight with another housemate.

Channel4 have yet to confirm the list of celebrities who will enter the house on Sunday, January 3rd.''

Also had this reply from worldsnooker regarding live scoring.

'Dear Jake
Sorry but we are currently building an improved live scoring system, which will be launched shortly.

regards
Ivan
World Snooker'

Oh yeah, too short, my mistake.

I touted the idea of an FA Cup style tournament, 64 players, open draw, best-of-9's for the first three rounds, best-of-11 quarter-finals, best-of-17 semi-finals, best of 19 final. But in hindsight, it's not all that different to what we had, is it? With the World Open, we'll have non-stop action, and I think that's all good I think it could be a great tournament for drawing in new fans.

'I think it could be a great tournament for drawing in new fans.'

Totally agree with that, but like I have said before only if they PROMOTE it, which is why snooker does not bring new fans cause nowhere..NOWHERE..will they promote any tournament! It gets me very angry to be honest cause they are trying to get new viewers/younger viewers which is great and bringing new tournaments like world open and power snooker to do this..but this will not work without any promotion/advertising. Hearn needs to realise this. The only place it will be promoted is snooker websites and snookerscene magazine which is only looked at by already snooker fans! Anyone agree?

Interesting. I'm not living in the UK, so I can't say much in that line, but in terms of internet promotion, I'm really not sure. What I'll say is that Hearn is a very clever man, and will make these ideas work. He's in touch. He made a good move by promising not to alter the crown jewels (the big three), but to be fair I think the UK does need a slight makover. Extended, but that's just me banging on about the same old ideas of mine lol.

Randam according to your profile your 16 yes.

so in theory you are a new fan a younger fan what attracted you to the sport ?

Luckyily! having an older brother who occassionally watched some world championship matches and made me watch a ronnie match when i was ill one day and it just grew from there by watching the end of the 2006 WC and following the season after and started playing as my brother wanted me to see how hard it was and took me down to a club back in reading. So if it wasnt for him im sure I would have not known about snooker as I had never even heard of it before that.

There you go Wild, Ronnie drawing in new fans

haha no, an older brother! and the match I watched fully was the final..remember that? if anyone watched it. Ebbers vs dotty. zzzzzZZZZ but I enjoyed it giving it a chance. But still it was not any sort of promotion that got me into it, so my point stands. If anyone can prove me wrong and find me some sort of advert not on a snooker website or a pathetic little poster 2 minutes away from the venue or a leaflet at a snooker club. And an advert that will attract new viewers, then I will bow down to them.

randam05 wrote:Luckyily! having an older brother who occassionally watched some world championship matches and made me watch a ronnie match when i was ill one day and it just grew from there by watching the end of the 2006 WC and following the season after and started playing as my brother wanted me to see how hard it was and took me down to a club back in reading. So if it wasnt for him im sure I would have not known about snooker as I had never even heard of it before that.

let me tell you something you coming across very well and a all rounder some younger people who support Ronnie are one dimensional speed merchants i don't get that vibe with you and its great that Ronnie got you hooked.

Alex Higgins did it for me 30 years ago and im as addicted now as i was then despite the fact Alex gone as a player best part of 20 years and RIP now.

Well it may have been different if I didnt watch ronnie, but still like I say I think it was the final that got me hooked, followed by the neil robertson jamie cope final of the grand prix later that year. I am definantley not one dimensional, I enjoy watching a ronnie match just as much as an ebdon match. But the lack of promotion in snooker is one of the things that needs dealing with most cause I cannot see how hearn will get any new viewers by relying on older brothers! and kids becoming ill and watching tv all day but nothing else is on other than snooker which they are then forced to watch.

totally agree

i do think the right man is in the job now on the promotional side its just been a hard time getting Players Playing in PTC then this John Higgins thing and winning the commercial rights of the sport.

hes been involved in snooker about 9 months now and only 3 months in complete charge.

Yes well lets hope he takes promotion seriously. Havent seen anything to promote world open yet? Looking forward to someone proving me wrong and finding an advert. Oh forgive me sometimes you see a pathetic little 10 second advert 1 hour before the tournament starts on BBC2.

wildJONESEYE wrote:

randam05 wrote:Luckyily! having an older brother who occassionally watched some world championship matches and made me watch a ronnie match when i was ill one day and it just grew from there by watching the end of the 2006 WC and following the season after and started playing as my brother wanted me to see how hard it was and took me down to a club back in reading. So if it wasnt for him im sure I would have not known about snooker as I had never even heard of it before that.

let me tell you something you coming across very well and a all rounder some younger people who support Ronnie are one dimensional speed merchants i don't get that vibe with you and its great that Ronnie got you hooked.

Alex Higgins did it for me 30 years ago and im as addicted now as i was then despite the fact Alex gone as a player best part of 20 years and RIP now.

I can second that your posts have generally been on the money so far, or at least well meant. You're young too, you might just be the new Tubberlad Wild was the first to praise me too, I think it went something like


'As a Mod on Breakoff, i Think You add somethin with very sensebile posts. lol.'


I started watching in 1999, Higgins was playing, against who I can't remember, it was my two older brothers who had it on I think.

There we go..brothers! we cannot rely on brothers to bring younger brothers into the sport!

randam05 wrote:There we go..brothers! we cannot rely on brothers to bring younger brothers into the sport!

i haven't got a brother

but your right promotion i believe has been the biggest let down in snooker for years.

ha, well you were lucky to get into snooker during its prime as you are older than me and tubberland!

randam05 wrote:ha, well you were lucky to get into snooker during its prime as you are older than me and tubberland!

Sorry, going to have to correct you here mate... it's tubberLAD haha. To be fair, many people seem to make the mistake.

oops sorry wonder why they get it wrong!? must be too busy looking at the picture

randam05 wrote:oops sorry wonder why they get it wrong!? must be too busy looking at the picture

true that

By the way, I think you may be on the money with your comments on promotion... any ranking events in Ireland are generally poorly promoted, but they pull in very good crowds as there are a lot of passionate snooker fans who will travel as they only have one ranker a year (sometimes not even that).

And of course, the promotion in Bahrain can't have been great

Thanks, im glad someone agrees about 'promotion problems' as most people byepass the problem. You are right tournaments arent promoted for audiences, but also not promoted for tv coverage either.

Oh bahrain had top marks for promoting from me! not..that was truely awful. But then again how is the WC promoted better than that?..its not..it just the WC has been around for years so has gained its audience.

Trump

Sure now to be in the final stages and is giving himself and outside chance of making the top 16 Anybody got an updated ranking list?

The Ronnie situation is interesting, why did he get a bye into the second round? Yes his opponent withdrew but so obviously did Ronnie considering he wasn't even in the country. Surly to get the bye he would have to have been in a position to play the match? No points should be awarded and he should still be made to play 3 further EPTC events.

case_master wrote:Trump

Sure now to be in the final stages and is giving himself and outside chance of making the top 16 Anybody got an updated ranking list?

The Ronnie situation is interesting, why did he get a bye into the second round? Yes his opponent withdrew but so obviously did Ronnie considering he wasn't even in the country. Surly to get the bye he would have to have been in a position to play the match? No points should be awarded and he should still be made to play 3 further EPTC events.

http://prosnookerblog.com/rankings/2010 ... -rankings/

Trump is now 23rd with 3 tournaments to go so its not out of question he reaches the top 16 this cut off point.

Regarding Ronnie i think he will get Ranking points because a precedent has been set with Steve Davis in Barhain however PTC is different and he he wont get 1 EPTC to his name he still has to play 3 and considering Powerball clashes with 1 he has only 3 out of 4 to chose from to play in.

Why should Ronnie get thee points and not his first round opponent? They bothe failed to show up? It might only be 360 points but it makes a difference because Ronnie and Murphy are fighting it out for 4the sport which has a big impact on thee draws for tournaments.

case_master wrote:Why should Ronnie get thee points and not his first round opponent? They bothe failed to show up? It might only be 360 points but it makes a difference because Ronnie and Murphy are fighting it out for 4the sport which has a big impact on thee draws for tournaments.

i agree

but Steve Davis got 1,900 points for a Last 16 of the 2008 Bahrain championship and he wasn't on the plane.

he had a last 32 against Ronnie But Ronnie withdrew so steve went in to the last 16 before he also withdrew GIVING HIM 1,900 and Ronnie 700 for Bahrain.

so the precedent is set but regarding PTC he has to play another 3.

thetubberlad wrote:

randam05 wrote:"I beat Shaun Murphy in the semis who had won this event for the last two years. That felt like the big match to me, but then I had to pick myself up again for the final and it wasn't easy. When I won the fifth frame to get to 3-2 I started believing again, though in the end I got lucky because I fluked two balls in the last frame."

So Trump got lucky to win it eh!? poor Hamilton, it always happens to the player I want to win, usually Bond, Swail and Hamilton. Ah well!

Flukes strike again this is really becoming a cancer destroying the soul and integrity of our sport.

Tubs

Steve Davis situation was even more questionable because he had a commitment for an exhibition, arranged beforehand, that was incompatible with him playing in Bahrain in round 2 as well as PL to play that week. So it was plain he never intended to go there; he just was lucky that Ronnie withdrew well before the start of the tournament . Ronnie it seems did intent to go there and play: why otherwise ask for his last 64 match, intitially scheduled at 12, to be played at 9 instead if his opponent agreed? Wouldn't make sense. That's what he did (according to Rolf Kalb) when learning that Yu Delu had withdrawn.

I think we should start calling Ronnie ‘medicine man’. He pulls out of EPTC1 because of back problems but was able to play against Jimmy White in an exhibition last night.

Ronnie has been suffering from a bad back recurrently over the last three years, in fact since that injury that made him withdraw from Shanghai in 2007 and about which he got much stick but that was absolutely genuine.
May I remind you that last year he got to Shanghai with a very sore back after the long haul flight? He was diagnosed with a displaced vertebrae and was treated by the Chinese doctors. After 2-3 days of acupuncture, massage and rest he was able to play and even went to win the tournament.
These EPTC tournaments are quite intense: basically if you go the distance you play 7 matches, possibly 49 frames in 2 days. Not taking the flights into account. It's clear to me that Ronnie wouldn't risk to compromise his PL campaign or Shanghai, where he is defending champ, over this, especially as there are plenty more of events to play in. The exhibition on his home soil was by no way that demanding and, it being organised to help a woman who is his mother's and sister's friend and suffering with breast cancer, something he wouldn't cancel unless he really couldn't help it.
BTW, did you notice that, with the exception of Murphy who was defending champion, no top 16 player went past last 32? Actually most failed at last 64 or earlier. It's very clear to me they weren't ready to break any sweat over this event, so close to the first fully fledged ranker of the season. Robbo for instance was supposed to play in the evening in the "speed snooker" competition but was nowhere to be found: he was on the plane home after surprisingly being whipped to zip by Ballrun, no disrespect to him.
It's all about priorities, for all of them.