World Snooker Championship 2024

Defending champion Luca Brecel has fallen at the first hurdle with a 10-9 defeat to the not so Angry Farmer David Gilbert. In many ways a self inflicted loss for the Belgian Bullet. Too many basic errors and Gilbert held his nerve to take advantage to win the last four frames from 6-9 down.

Excellent resilience to find a path to victory.

The Crucible curse remains intact i.e no first time winner ever having successfully defended the title at the venue.

On Table 2 Ricky Walden won a vital final frame of the session with a superb total clearance of 142 to give himself hope but Tom Ford still leads 6-3 overnight.

Crucible curse in your face!

I am reliably informed that the last player who won the World Championship for the first time then went on to win his opening match the following year was Judd Trump who was champion in 2019 and beat Tom Ford in his opening match in 2020.

Luca Brecel joins the likes of Steve Davis, Dennis Taylor and Neil Robertson as one of the players who failed to win their opening match the following year after winning the World Championship for the first time.

The last player to retain the World Championship after winning it for the first time was John Pullman in 1964, but the tournament wasn't held at the Crucible in those days it was held mostly in Burroughes Hall, Norwich.

David Gilbert has a beautiful cue action.
In full flow he is a lovely player to watch.
His problem is between the ears. He second guesses himself too much, doubts himself too much and makes the classic mistake of seeing problem over opportunity.
Snooker is a psychological game anyway but he has had a tendency to make life difficult for himself.
Needs to believe in himself more and be kinder to himself at times. Yeah yeah I know, Snooks talking like a true hypocrite .

Hypocrisy is all .

(20-04-2024 22:10 )Joannis Wrote:  Crucible curse in your face!

I am reliably informed that the last player who won the World Championship for the first time then went on to win his opening match the following year was Judd Trump who was champion in 2019 and beat Tom Ford in his opening match in 2020.

Luca Brecel joins the likes of Steve Davis, Dennis Taylor and Neil Robertson as one of the players who failed to win their opening match the following year after winning the World Championship for the first time.

The last player to retain the World Championship after winning it for the first time was John Pullman in 1964, but the tournament wasn't held at the Crucible in those days it was held mostly in Burroughes Hall, Norwich.

Wasn't Terry Griffiths a victim of the curse? I think Brecel also said he had been ill as well.

I get the feeling that it does open up the draw a little with Brrecel's exit.

The term Crucible Curse is applied broadly to include every player who has failed to retain the World Championship at the Crucible since 1979 after winning it for the first time. Every player who has won it at the Crucible for the first time has been a victim of the curse.

Within the limit of which players fell victim to the curse from the opening match, Griffiths was one of those. There are 7 in total, Dott and Bingham being the other 2 players not already mentioned. On the other end of the spectrum, there were 2 players who managed to shake the curse until the final, Joe Johnson and Ken Doherty. But even they eventually fell victim to the curse.

The silent assassin Jak Jones is slowly taking out Zhang Anda, leading him 8-3 at the interval. They've come back from the interval in the ahem all Leicester derby, and O'Connor has just made a 122 break to take a 3-2 lead over Selby.

(20-04-2024 22:40 )Snooks Wrote:  David Gilbert has a beautiful cue action.
In full flow he is a lovely player to watch.
His problem is between the ears. He second guesses himself too much, doubts himself too much and makes the classic mistake of seeing problem over opportunity.
Snooker is a psychological game anyway but he has had a tendency to make life difficult for himself.

Should have fun if Big Bob Milkins does get through then. Final frame played around 5am

Credit to Gilbert, who must have been bemused to get somewhat positive commentary for a change. Poor Brecel, 9-6 leading and still out is not good. Sounds like he'll be happier to be an ex-World Champion.

Snooks expertly putting his own curse on Mark Selby .
He trails Joe O'Connor 7-2 .
My predictions ability clearly gone to pot .

Result:
Jak Jones bt Zhang Anda (11) 10-4.

My new prediction is that rain will stop play

Judd finished off Vafaei 10-5 without too much difficulty. Too many lapses of concentration and unforced errors from Vafaei made it easy for Judd

Result:

Tom Ford (14) bt Ricky Walden 10-6.

Meanwhile he who shall not be named leads Lyu Haotian 6-3 overnight and they resume tomorrow morning at 10am.

I wish John Virgo would give up commentating.
I've never witnessed so many wrong comments .
He should certainly visit spec savers!!