World Snooker Championship 2024

(18-04-2024 18:14 )Snooks Wrote:  Right then get your ometers out
Predict the finalists and winner.......

The Snooksometer is considering it's verdict.....

Ronnie or Mark Allen to win. Mark Williams as the dark horse. Can't see anyone else doing it personally, even Trump after a fantastic year, the Crucible is just different, can see him faltering, would like to be proven wrong though.

Ok I'll give it a go but given some of the disastrous weeks I've had predicting football scores I think my Joannisometer is faulty.

It looks like Mark Allen's got a good top half of the draw. There's Selby but he's been very inconsistent.

From the bottom half of the draw there seems to be a few serious contenders; Ronnie, Judd, Ding, Zhang Anda, Gary Wilson. I'll give it to Ronnie because he simply has to do it. It's probably the only chance he'll ever have of getting the Triple Crown all in the same season, he's going for a record 8 World Championships, and he wants the symmetrical Triple Crown, 8 of each.

So my prediction is Mark Allen v Ronnie in the final, and Ronnie to win. Of course in real life anything can happen. Roll on a Maguire vs Jackson Page final

The obvious view is to conclude it's written in the stars for Ronnie to do the season triple crown and have 8 of everything.
However I don't necessarily see it being quite as easy as all that.

The bottom half of the draw is a bit of a minefield. Whoever comes out of that half will have had to graft pretty hard.
Mark Williams may be the one to expend least emotional energy and be best able to go on and win if Ronnie doesn't.
Gary Wilson would be an interesting outside bet were it not for his nasty first round draw and horrible slot in the draw overall.

So my eyes are drawn to the top half of the draw. Brecel has to try and break the infamous Crucible curse. Allen may start to wilt in the really long best of 33/35 frame matches.
Shaun Murphy could be a danger if he gets past round one because it tends to be either that or reaching the final.

So I'm looking for a proven winner.
Someone to last the Crucible course irrespective of season form. Someone who can outlast the opponent. Someone with a B and C game to outfox and blunt the opposition. Someone not intimidated by any opponent.
That leaves only one man.

Mark Selby.

So I predict the following.

Mark Selby v Mark Williams final and Selby to win 18-16.

Now that I have said that of course no doubt Selby and Williams will promptly get knocked out in round one 10-0 .

It's hard not to think it's Ronnie's to lose. When he has the mood (and even sometimes when he doesn't) he's just unmatchable. But equally it's the case that he is beatable, and not necessarily by equal powers. But I think 3/4 of the draw wouldn't have that kind of upset in them.

I'm going for the same as JOANNIS - Allen vs Ronnie

My LOVEBABESOmeter isn't one to trust though lol

fuck sakes shaun murphy on commentary you would think would wait until you are knocked out before commentating

Judd doing what he has to do, punishing Vafaei's mistakes with frame winning breaks. Vafaei did get a 138 break in frame 6 but Judd leads 6-3 at the end of the session. This match concludes tomorrow afternoon.

Jak Jones, the Welsh silent assassin, is giving Zhang Anda a tough initiation to the Crucible, taking a 5-2 first session lead.

Maguire got 2 centuries, but was unable to open up a 2 frame lead at any point and subsequently Carter finished the session 5-4 up.

Luca Brecel seems to be shaking off the Crucible curse, 6-3 up against Gilbert going into tonight's final session.

When was the last time a champion won their opening match? I suspect it was Ronnie. I am pretty sure that he lost in the first round at least once.

Ronnie did win his opening match last year when he returned as champion and got to the quarter final before Luca beat him. But I think the Crucible curse relates to first time champions rather than returning ones. I don't know who was the last first time champion to win his opening match but Ronnie shook the Crucible curse in 2002 after he first won the World Championship in 2001. He got all the way to the semi final in 2002 before losing to Stephen Hendry.