Snooker

I've been watching the mixed doubles much of the day and I think it's excellent.

I don't know the background. Maybe there's been untelevised events of this nature before but whatever it's a credit to the organisers and the players.
For me the two sports where mixed genders stand more of a chance of capturing the imagination of the public are snooker and motor sport. There's been some movement in the latter in recent years and now snooker's trying something so that's good.

I remember that years ago Steve Davis, interviewed on the BBC, described that he dominated matches playing against the ladies to such an extent that he'd never want to try it again. He concluded that the fine differences in the different gender's physicality meant that unfortunately the ladies couldn't compete with men at the top level. Maybe that's true.

In the context of this tournament, I didn't notice any gender based ranking. I saw everybody potting hard balls and everybody missing easy ones. From what I could judge they were all thoroughly enjoying themselves.

There did appear to be a different vibe. It wasn't as relaxing to watch. Four people, five including the referee made it more of a crowd. And it was the ITV. If it had been the BBC, late at night with Hazel Irving and John Virgo and Co then maybe I could have compared fairly.
Obviously I knew of all the men but none of the ladies. I thought though that Ng On-yee was very skilled.

I don't know what the future holds but I would like some more.

Neil Robertson and Nutcharut Wongharuthai won the final against Mark Selby and Rebecca Kenna, 4-2.

The Hong Kong Masters has been on for a few days, an invitational event shown partly on Eurosport. Tomorrow's final sees Ronnie O'Sullivan, who beat Neil Robertson 6-4, face who else but Marco Fu, who beat John Higgins in a decider. And not just any old decider, oh no... he knocked in a 147:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/snooker/63183609

Ronnie won, before some kind of record attendance, and sounded quite happy afterwards.

Tubs Murphy apparently undertook a gastric sleeve operation over the summer to help his mental health. If he thinks I give up that easily, he can guess again.

I'm more impressed with Mark Allen for dieting to lose weight in a similar time-frame and also for health reasons.

(02-04-2022 18:20 )circles_o_o_o Wrote:  Liang Wenbo suspended from the tour after pleading guilty to assault


https://www.eurosport.co.uk/snooker/worl...tory.shtml

Apparently in a side-shoot from the Liang suspension, investigation into match-fixing has led to a further 5 suspensions by the WST:

Lu Ning
Li Hang
Zhao Jianbo
Bai Langning
Chang Bingyu



https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/snooker/63920382

Yan Bingtao has now been suspended for alleged match fixing.

In case anyone is interested in listening to a snooker podcast series here is a link to a podcast series called Framed. It's available on BBC Sounds and features conversations with various names in the world of snooker. I have found it interesting and informative. Me thinks a certain person might give episode 2 a miss .

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0dm49...are-mobile

Chen Zifan became another Chinese player suspended c/o the ongoing fuss.

Zhao Xintong was also suspended, which is gonna be awkward. Zhang Jiankang another one too.