Masters Draw

so there appears to be no way of knowing which quarter finals will take place when.

not sure I can be bothered about going now to be honest.
what a shambles

SnookerFan wrote:I would consider going to the quarter finals of Bingham/Ding vs Higgins/Liang. But as they can't be bothered to let us know when that is, I may not bother.

It must be worse for players, especially those who play on Sunday. A lot of them who play on Sunday afternoon and don't have to play until Thursday, go home for a few days of practice rather than hang around the venue. It must be a pain in the bottom booking accomodation and any travel necessary not knowing when you might be playing.

Surely you'd just book Saturday night and if you're playing in the evening Sunday with Wednesday, Thursday booked in.

Personally I think for ranking events World Snooker should book eight rooms for the quarter finals nights, four rooms for the semi-finals and two for the final and deduct the cost from players prize money - (before the dates are released to the public to reduce cost), it's not fair to ask players to second guess whether they'll be at these stages and face the nightmare of finding accommodation if they have an unexpected run - similarly it's unfair to ask the players at the lower end of the rankings to book up a room for a whole tournament when it's going to eat away at all/double their prize money on the just in case basis..

With Fu winning two titles in a month and making a maxi showing great form. I reckon the section of Trump v Maguire and Robbo v Fu looks rather tasty now. Discuss ?.

Fu Robertson could be good. Not sure if Marco can maintain the standard he's been at to topple the aussie, assuming Neil plays near his best. Would still like to see Robertson cut out the table walks, I'm not sure he needs to be so analytical when the balls are there.

Still keeping an eye on Higgins. He touched on some sweet spots in the International. That form won't have run off just yet.

Oh, I'm new. Long time lurker. Hi.

The format is only best of 11 not 35. Im sure Fu can maintain his form for the duration of that type of match

Prop wrote:Fu Robertson could be good. Not sure if Marco can maintain the standard he's been at to topple the aussie, assuming Neil plays near his best. Would still like to see Robertson cut out the table walks, I'm not sure he needs to be so analytical when the balls are there.

Still keeping an eye on Higgins. He touched on some sweet spots in the International. That form won't have run off just yet.

Oh, I'm new. Long time lurker. Hi.

Welcome prop!

Thanks mate!

Fair point by Allen.

But since Ronnie is the one who knocks maximums and wins major titles, he doesn't need promotion. The crowd will come.

Holden Chinaski wrote:When Mark Allen starts knocking in maximum breaks and unbelievable clearances and starts winning some major titles he won't need World Snooker to promote his matches. The crowd will come.

Of course World snooker will promote Ronnie. They would be idiots otherwise. If you organise a tournament and you have a Alex Higgins, Jimmy White or ROS playing in it, then that's the one you will promote. Logic. Ronnie puts bums on seats.

So Ronnie hasent got the pulling power without World Snooker promoting him?


Mark Allen is spot on you need to promote a event and every player in that event promoting Ronnie too much sends negative messages to prospective fans and sponsors.

Holden Chinaski wrote:

Wildey wrote:

Holden Chinaski wrote:When Mark Allen starts knocking in maximum breaks and unbelievable clearances and starts winning some major titles he won't need World Snooker to promote his matches. The crowd will come.

Of course World snooker will promote Ronnie. They would be idiots otherwise. If you organise a tournament and you have a Alex Higgins, Jimmy White or ROS playing in it, then that's the one you will promote. Logic. Ronnie puts bums on seats.

So Ronnie hasent got the pulling power without World Snooker promoting him?


Mark Allen is spot on you need to promote a event and every player in that event promoting Ronnie too much sends negative messages to prospective fans and sponsors.

He has the pulling power, no doubt. But without World Snooker promoting him some people might not know Ronnie will play. With Ronnie not entering a lot of tournaments nowadays... I say the other players need to step up to the plate and show us something special. This is what Ronnie's been doing all these years and that's why they promote him.

I'd say Ronnie's off table antics have also hugely contributed to his huge popularity, love him or hate him. If his only "talk" was done on the table, he wouldn't be half as popular in my view.

I agree with Allen on same extent, but Holden is right too, it's up to the other players to produce magic performances if they want to bo promoted for that. Plus a lot of the so called Ronnie fans aren't die hard Snooker fans like me and a few others here, so naturally they don't follow Snooker closely as we do.

And since this is apparently one of the hot topics right now

I'd like to wish you all on Snooker Island a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Mark Allen at his best again.

Fair enough that he's annoyed by Ronnie O'Sullivans popularity and that so much is always focussed on Ronnie.

But that's just life you know. No one is complaining when Messi or Ronaldo get all the attention. Or Federer. And they all fully deserve it.

And it's the same for Ronnie O'Sullivan in Snooker. He's the boxoffice whether you like it or not. If someone like John Higgins was complaining about getting to less attention it'd be understandable.

Allen hasn't even won a triple crown title in his career but you get the feeling that the guy keeps moaning at everyone and everything to get some attention. Just work harder dude. Maybe one day you will be as good as all the guys above even though that'll never happen.

Holden Chinaski wrote:

Andre147 wrote:I'd like to wish you all on Snooker Island a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Same to you, Andre!

Rightbachatcha!

Yes Ronnie is a box-office attraction and there'll be the odd one or two who show a little more interest than they would be if Ronnie wasn't entering but the endless promotion of one player does more to perpetuate the myth and suggestions that without Ronnie there is no snooker.

Also, someone in the facebook comments made a valid point. Isn't highlighting that Ronnie's theoretical quarter-final match is almost sold out rather disrespectful to Mark Williams. Ronnie will start as favourite for the match however it isn't beyond the realms of probability that if Williams plays well he can defeat him over the best of 11 frames.

PLtheRef wrote:Yes Ronnie is a box-office attraction and there'll be the odd one or two who show a little more interest than they would be if Ronnie wasn't entering but the endless promotion of one player does more to perpetuate the myth and suggestions that without Ronnie there is no snooker.

absolutely 110% spot on

Holden Chinaski wrote:He has the pulling power, no doubt. But without World Snooker promoting him some people might not know Ronnie will play. With Ronnie not entering a lot of tournaments nowadays... I say the other players need to step up to the plate and show us something special. This is what Ronnie's been doing all these years and that's why they promote him.

Yes, I agree. Promoting Ronnie here is a special case as it is his first match of the season (other than a couple of qualifiers and the odd non-audience Championship league match). It is justified.

Ronnie is past it. At least if we compare him to Kyren Wilson, Liang Wenbo, Judd Trump or Stuart Bingham.. Those are supreme players these days. Maguire is still incredible break-builder but he always messes up with the easiest of safety-shots. Why does he always leaves a clear access to the object ball when he could easily at least try to hide to cue ball If there´s a clear access it always is an easy shot since there are so many elements which helps you to aim. Even if the distance between the cue ball and object ball would be long.

Ronnie can soon prove me wrong! As now he starts to play some snooker. Let´s hope the man would could still pull of that one more wonder trick! But that´s what people talked and hoped about the late George Best when there clearly were nothing to do anymore..