SI’s Favourite Moment of 20/21: FINAL
Welcome to the Final of the Favourite Moment of the 2020-2021 season!
What have we learned during this competition?
Above all we’ve learned that what we love most is a damned fine snooker result.
Three of the four semi finalists were snooker matches won by the underdog. Two of those were finals, and all three featured a Class of ‘92 member getting beaten in dramatic circumstances.
The top four seeds were all final results.
As for the other semi finalist? Well, that proves we’re not just snooker nerds but nerds in general. Who doesn’t love a complex mathematical system that’s purely hypothetical?
Commiserations to the losing semi finalists. Both punched above their weight to reach the last four and both can be extremely proud of their performance. Especially Chengdufan who’s slightly more likely to read this than Anthony McGill.
The top two seeds though have blown their competition away, with not a close victory anywhere along the way.
Which of course makes this final that little bit more exciting. So let’s get things underway.
The final features:
Yan Bingtao winning The Masters
This match will simply go down in history. The biggest is whether it will be the first in a long line of major trophies, or a rare climb to the heights of the game for Yan Bingtao.
Higgins had gone through something of a resurgence (though not as much of one as the third seed in this contest) and had destroyed Ronnie O’Sullivan along the way playing great stuff.
Yan meanwhile had outfoxed, outsmarted, outplayed players much older and, you would think, wiser than he. Not so. He found his way to the final having received plaudits for his tactical game rather than his scoring. Who’s the last player who can say that? His opponent perhaps.
The final itself was a nervy affair full of the usual swinging momentum and greta stuff mixed with simple errors. How many times do we think Higgins has screwed the cue ball straight into a pocket?
When Yan came out on top it felt like a seismic moment in snooker. One that could be the dawn of a new era.
Here’s hoping.
vs
Jordan Brown winning the Welsh Open
Jordan Brown is neither as young nor as highly rated as Yan Bingtao. Which if anything makes his achievement all the more remarkable. He was facing a man who surely, surely would win this, his third ranking final of the season.
Unlike Yan, Jordan Brown had few to no people really believing he could win the Welsh Open Final. Ronnie would come good eventually; Brown had no experience in finals; he was in his 30s and had done nothing.
Well, he’s done something now. As the last few frames of the final went one by one by one, it seemed inevitable that this match would be a typical gallant loss by a plucky underdog.
But when Brown got his chance in the final frame he quite simply said, “buck gallant,” and put together a class break to seal what is on paper one of the biggest shocks in a snooker final ever.
I mean, it’s a tough call right? Happy voting!
What have we learned during this competition?
Above all we’ve learned that what we love most is a damned fine snooker result.
Three of the four semi finalists were snooker matches won by the underdog. Two of those were finals, and all three featured a Class of ‘92 member getting beaten in dramatic circumstances.
The top four seeds were all final results.
As for the other semi finalist? Well, that proves we’re not just snooker nerds but nerds in general. Who doesn’t love a complex mathematical system that’s purely hypothetical?
Commiserations to the losing semi finalists. Both punched above their weight to reach the last four and both can be extremely proud of their performance. Especially Chengdufan who’s slightly more likely to read this than Anthony McGill.
The top two seeds though have blown their competition away, with not a close victory anywhere along the way.
Which of course makes this final that little bit more exciting. So let’s get things underway.
The final features:
Yan Bingtao winning The Masters
This match will simply go down in history. The biggest is whether it will be the first in a long line of major trophies, or a rare climb to the heights of the game for Yan Bingtao.
Higgins had gone through something of a resurgence (though not as much of one as the third seed in this contest) and had destroyed Ronnie O’Sullivan along the way playing great stuff.
Yan meanwhile had outfoxed, outsmarted, outplayed players much older and, you would think, wiser than he. Not so. He found his way to the final having received plaudits for his tactical game rather than his scoring. Who’s the last player who can say that? His opponent perhaps.
The final itself was a nervy affair full of the usual swinging momentum and greta stuff mixed with simple errors. How many times do we think Higgins has screwed the cue ball straight into a pocket?
When Yan came out on top it felt like a seismic moment in snooker. One that could be the dawn of a new era.
Here’s hoping.
vs
Jordan Brown winning the Welsh Open
Jordan Brown is neither as young nor as highly rated as Yan Bingtao. Which if anything makes his achievement all the more remarkable. He was facing a man who surely, surely would win this, his third ranking final of the season.
Unlike Yan, Jordan Brown had few to no people really believing he could win the Welsh Open Final. Ronnie would come good eventually; Brown had no experience in finals; he was in his 30s and had done nothing.
Well, he’s done something now. As the last few frames of the final went one by one by one, it seemed inevitable that this match would be a typical gallant loss by a plucky underdog.
But when Brown got his chance in the final frame he quite simply said, “buck gallant,” and put together a class break to seal what is on paper one of the biggest shocks in a snooker final ever.
I mean, it’s a tough call right? Happy voting!
-
Iranu - Posts: 41109
- Joined: 24 January 2010
- Walk-On: Fort Knox - Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds
