The Crucible Countdown!!!

mick745 wrote:Does anyone fancy Zhou Yuelong to beat Allen? Anyone at all?

I don't. Allen has played well this season and even though he hasnt looked as strong in recent time as he did in November/December 2018 I think he'll still prove to be too strong.

aimlesswandeer wrote:I’m off work next week too apart from Wednesday when I have a training course. I was looking forward to watching Donaldson but he starts on Wednesday afternoon...

Best thing for him


He finished his match gone 10.30pm last night then he was straight up to Scotland about a 4 hour drive his dad driving apparantly he would get home roughly 3am.


5 days off will do him good lol

Some interesting match-ups that are close to call, but I expect Ronnie, Robbo, Trump and Selby to all win comfortably.

Wildey wrote:

aimlesswandeer wrote:I’m off work next week too apart from Wednesday when I have a training course. I was looking forward to watching Donaldson but he starts on Wednesday afternoon...

Best thing for him


He finished his match gone 10.30pm last night then he was straight up to Scotland about a 4 hour drive his dad driving apparantly he would get home roughly 3am.


5 days off will do him good lol

Kyren Wilson will beat him very easily.

Wildey wrote:

aimlesswandeer wrote:I’m off work next week too apart from Wednesday when I have a training course. I was looking forward to watching Donaldson but he starts on Wednesday afternoon...

Best thing for him


He finished his match gone 10.30pm last night then he was straight up to Scotland about a 4 hour drive his dad driving apparantly he would get home roughly 3am.


5 days off will do him good lol

What a dopey thing to do.

What if he was playing on Saturday morning?

Wildey wrote:

aimlesswandeer wrote:I’m off work next week too apart from Wednesday when I have a training course. I was looking forward to watching Donaldson but he starts on Wednesday afternoon...

Best thing for him

He finished his match gone 10.30pm last night then he was straight up to Scotland about a 4 hour drive his dad driving apparantly he would get home roughly 3am.


5 days off will do him good lol

Yes, I heard that he gone back up north last night. Being the last first round match to start is ideal rest for him. I just wish I wasn’t missing his first session!

Man, I'm so bored right now. Can't they bring the snooker forward by a couple of days?

Koninkaulus wrote:

mantorok wrote:I hate the way everyone on here writes off the qualifiers, they've worked hard to get this far and will be much sharper than the seeds.

Anything can happen in the first round.

Hardly surprising though. 95% of posters here always think the favourite will win every match easily.

Last 5 Crucibles the Seeds have won 21 matches 10-5 or lower and the last 5 crucibles the unseeded player has won 25 matches.


that says theres more unseeded players winning than seeds having it easy in the first round

aimlesswandeer wrote:Some interesting match-ups that are close to call, but I expect Ronnie, Robbo, Trump and Selby to all win comfortably.

Not so sure about Trump. Expecting him to win but have the feeling that Thepchaiya will really push him. He did play well against Higgins last year and with the way he's scoring and winning frames in no time Trump needs to be careful.

10:7 or 10:8 Trump is my prediction.

Who remembers Michael Wasley he qualified in 2014 got Ding in the draw everyone said no chance he beat ding 10-9 and that was his last win in the World Championship the next 2 years he lost first match to Alan McManus 10-5 and packed it in.

Ronnie will set another new record at this year's event. He will either be the first player to ever beat an amateur at the WSC, or the first player to ever lose to one...

Cahill beat Murphy this season IIRC

Wildey wrote:Who remembers Michael Wasley he qualified in 2014 got Ding in the draw everyone said no chance he beat ding 10-9 and that was his last win in the World Championship the next 2 years he lost first match to Alan McManus 10-5 and packed it in.

I remember that. That was a prime example of a journeyman playing the match of his life in the 1st round of the World Championship, knocking out a tournament favourite (Ding won 5 rankers that season) before ending up playing like rubbish in the 2nd round. In Wasleys case he obviously got annihilated by Dominic Dale in the 2nd round.

Always annoying if that kind of thing happens but thats why a seed always needs to be prepared for a possible 1st round-peak journeyman performance.

TheRocket wrote:

aimlesswandeer wrote:Some interesting match-ups that are close to call, but I expect Ronnie, Robbo, Trump and Selby to all win comfortably.

Not so sure about Trump. Expecting him to win but have the feeling that Thepchaiya will really push him. He did play well against Higgins last year and with the way he's scoring and winning frames in no time Trump needs to be careful.

10:7 or 10:8 Trump is my prediction.

That has the potential to be a good match.

Wildey wrote:Who remembers Michael Wasley he qualified in 2014 got Ding in the draw everyone said no chance he beat ding 10-9 and that was his last win in the World Championship the next 2 years he lost first match to Alan McManus 10-5 and packed it in.

Yeah I remember that. All the knowledgeable BBC commentators were saying how he was certain to make it big in the game.

He’s my go-to cautionary tale when people start hyping young players after one tournament.

TheRocket wrote:

Wildey wrote:Who remembers Michael Wasley he qualified in 2014 got Ding in the draw everyone said no chance he beat ding 10-9 and that was his last win in the World Championship the next 2 years he lost first match to Alan McManus 10-5 and packed it in.

I remember that. That was a prime example of a journeyman playing the match of his life in the 1st round of the World Championship, knocking out a tournament favourite (Ding won 5 rankers that season) before ending up playing like rubbish in the 2nd round. In Wasleys case he obviously got annihilated by Dominic Dale in the 2nd round.

Always annoying if that kind of thing happens but thats why a seed always needs to be prepared for a possible 1st round-peak journeyman performance.

Similar to David Gray in 2000 who then lost 13-1 to Dale in round 2

Badsnookerplayer wrote:Cahill beat Murphy this season IIRC

Yep, I was there for that

Badsnookerplayer wrote:Cahill beat Murphy this season IIRC

Who hasn’t this season

murphy also lost to the 120th seed at the UK.

Badsnookerplayer wrote:Cahill beat Murphy this season IIRC

He beat Selby at the UK as well.

He's beaten Ding previously too.

Whether he'll be daunted by The Crucible, that's the thing.

The bottom half is loaded with all the flare players. Also, none of these flare players will be playing at night or at the weekend, only lisowski carter will be at 8, so that sucks catch up it is then unfortunately.

I think this is secretly a great draw for selby, i love zhao but this is the perfect match for mark to play shut up shop against a dangerius player, I think cartee or perry with their experience would have been far tougher. I just would like to see zhao play to his potential and excite the crowd. This could kick mark on similar to higgins vs thep last year.

Trump vs thep is a brilliant match, though unfortunate for thep who could have honestly gone far in the tournament with a better draw, trump struggles against slow defendive players but excels against attacking players, unless it's peak thepchaiya with no easy misses then trump wins this one, unfortunately as thep is one of my favourites. Brilliant match ahead though.

Lisowski carter will be spicy. Also Murphy needs to be careful as honghao is no joke.

SnookerFan wrote:He's beaten Ding previously too.

Whether he'll be daunted by The Crucible, that's the thing.

Or get inspired like Peter Ebdon did in 1992 when he beat Davis 10-4.


it can go either way.

Drew1404 wrote:
Lisowski carter will be spicy.

Rumor has it that Jack has been working the heavy bag for the last while with shoulders and elbows. He's ready for Carter

I just got a question about snooker on The Chase.

SnookerFan wrote:I just got a question about snooker on The Chase.

What was the question?

HappyCamper wrote:

SnookerFan wrote:I just got a question about snooker on The Chase.

What was the question?

"Should the Shootout be a ranking event?"

Satch4 wrote:

Drew1404 wrote:
Lisowski carter will be spicy.

Rumor has it that Jack has been working the heavy bag for the last while with shoulders and elbows. He's ready for Carter

Indeed he has.

HappyCamper wrote:

SnookerFan wrote:I just got a question about snooker on The Chase.

What was the question?

In what decade was the World Champions first held at The Crucible?

It was a toughy.