188BET Champion of Champions Group 1 !!!

SnookerFan wrote:So, is anybody lucky enough to be off work today?

No but I will be watching a bit. Gotta say I adore the ITV coverage, the shot analysis and interviews. I love this tournament. Just look at these beauts:

Snookerbacker is one of my favourite bloggers:

'Yes folks, it’s that time of year again when I am routinely unfollowed on Twitter for making use of the best hashtag snooker has to offer. The Ricoh Arena in Coventry once again plays host to the Champion of Champions event featuring 16 winners of random events chosen in no particular order from the last 12 months.

The qualifying criteria for this is a thing of great mystery, the list doesn’t really appear to make a great deal of sense in terms of a pecking order, with the UK Championship and The Masters higher than the World Championship and the Championship League ahead of other more high profile events such as the International Championship and the Home Nations events.

Indeed the runner up in Sheffield is afforded the mantle of a champion anyway ahead of a few other events and even the winner of the Shootout gets in. It truly is back of a fag packet stuff at its finest.

As there are players who could have qualified for this more than once, the likes of Selby, Higgins, Trump, Ding and Ronnie, they often have the reach right down to bottom end of the tour to make up the field. This time Neil Robertson gets in by the skin of his teeth by virtue of a win in Hong Kong that nobody watched, while 6 Reds Champion Mark Williams misses out.

Robbo didn’t just benefit from Selby winning in China yesterday and keeping Mark Allen out but also from Stuart Bingham’s suspension, so you might say Lady Luck has already smiled on the Aussie, though he does face O’Sullivan in his first round match so that kinda might even things out a bit.

OK, so the lowdown is that The Champion of Champions features 16 players who are split into four groups of four players with each group comprising two semi-finals played over seven frames in the afternoon session, followed by a final in the evening played over 11 frames.

The four group winners proceed to the best of 11 semi-finals, with the Group One winner facing the Group Four winner on Friday, November 10 and the players emerging from Groups Two and Three up against each other on the evening of Saturday, November 11.

The 19-frame final will be played over two sessions on Sunday, November 12.

I quite like this event. Though I do feel there are a couple of players missing who would have made it even better, in particular Allen, who seems to be coming into form. Other notable absentees are of course Williams, Ali Carter and Kyren Wilson, but the field still screams quality and the ITV coverage adds to the whole package. It’s a tournament that I’ll probably get to see a lot of this week, unlike some of the more recent ‘samey’ type events.'

http://www.snookerbacker.com/2017/11/06 ... champions/

Dan-cat wrote:

I wonder if Hendry will reiterate his opinion that BBC events are the only things that count.

I dont expect Hamilton to do well here, might not even win a frame against Ding.

He has pulled out of some events recently due to his back problems, so I'm even surprised he's still willing to compete on this one... probably more because of the money.

I also think having the SHanghai Masters this week would be much better... players would still be in China after the IC, now those competing here had to come from China and then straight to China again, not to mention the NI Open starting right after...

At least have 2 or 3 consecutive events in China, not the way this has been done.

Andre147 wrote:He has pulled out of some events recently due to his back problems, so I'm even surprised he's still willing to compete on this one... probably more because of the money.

That one passed me by.

Has he injured himself?

Andre147 wrote:I also think having the SHanghai Masters this week would be much better... players would still be in China after the IC, now those competing here had to come from China and then straight to China again, not to mention the NI Open starting right after...

At least have 2 or 3 consecutive events in China, not the way this has been done.

Yeah. They do seem to be in nipping about a lot. China, then Coventry, then back to China, then Northern Ireland, then York.

I guess they couldn't have swapped Shanghai and the CoC around, being that up until about 5 minutes ago, they didn't even know if the Shanghai Masters was going to exist or not.

Just out of curiousity, Andre.

How do you watch this event in your part of the world? Is it on Eurosport?

It's on ITV 4 only in the UK.

SnookerFan wrote:

Andre147 wrote:He has pulled out of some events recently due to his back problems, so I'm even surprised he's still willing to compete on this one... probably more because of the money.

That one passed me by.

Has he injured himself?

I know he's had back problems, don't know the exact reason

SnookerFan wrote:Just out of curiousity, Andre.

How do you watch this event in your part of the world? Is it on Eurosport?

It's on ITV 4 only in the UK.

It's not on ES, ITV exclusive.

I have to watch it via a stream. It works fine though.

Andre147 wrote:
It's not on ES, ITV exclusive.

I have to watch it via a stream. It works fine though.

Seems a shame that you have to stream a tournament like this.

Is there no television coverage at all across Continental Europe?

So much for growing the game.

I'd like someone like Luca or Wenbo to win this event, not just the usual suspects.

Won't mind if Ronnie loses. Last year's loss was a bit hard to take purely and only because he lost to Higgins. Against anyone else, even Selby, would be allright.

I hope Ronnie wins the NI Open or of course the UK Champs. We all know in Shanghai he wont do much damage.

Andre147 wrote:I'd like someone like Luca or Wenbo to win this event, not just the usual suspects.

Won't mind if Ronnie loses. Last year's loss was a bit hard to take purely and only because he lost to Higgins. Against anyone else, even Selby, would be allright.

I hope Ronnie wins the NI Open or of course the UK Champs. We all know in Shanghai he wont do much damage.

I said Ronnie would win The English Open, he did.

I'm telling you now, he'll win in Northern Ireland.

So... No play Friday until 7pm. Not play Saturday until 7pm.

Right?

Love this tournament. Wish I'd booked the week off.

IT's TIME FOR CoC!

wow this announcer. It's like WWF.

Clive in the box! YES!

'whatever you do, don't hit the blue.' Hamilton hits the blue.

Commentators on bet365, haven't heard those in quite a while!

What the hell did Ryan Day win?

SnookerFan wrote:What the hell did Ryan Day win?

Riga Masters, first tournament of the season.

Not surprised you dont remember, you hardly remember a tournament the week before...

Hamilton is reporting fully fit, according to Clive. Also didn't realise that he was coached by Frank Callan. Ace. Thank you for the knowledge Clive

Andre147 wrote:

SnookerFan wrote:What the hell did Ryan Day win?

Riga Masters, first tournament of the season.

Not surprised you dont remember, you hardly remember a tournament the week before...

Numpty.

Ding was on a maxi! Broke down on 24 though.

34 - 47 to Hamilton in frame 1, safety battle.

Great shot by Hamilton to bring the last red out from the penultimate one. Looking like 1 nil, Ding needs one snooker

Ding playing on for safeties (c) Snookerfan

Goes in-off and conceeds. 'a tactical slog' as Clive put it.

1 nil Hammo

It's Hammo Time!