Home Nations £1m tournament

Oddly, Quest (FV 37) have been broadcasting/simulcasting, I suppose Eurosport coverage in the afternoons this week of the English Open. The best of 7 format has produced some nail-biting final frame results, whilst the wide open field of 128 has given some less familiar names a chance in the spotlight for once.

I suspect the £1m "bonus" for winning all 4 tournaments is safe, though.

I find the issue with Eurosport is that Mike Hallett and Neal Foulds can come across as unnecessarily perfectionist. Whether a shot is easy or impossible, they see it as easy and lambast the crap out of anyone who should miss it.

Watching Walden v Bingtao this evening, when Bingtao was 2-0 down, Foulds was all "he's only 16, most players are still a bit rough around the edges at 16" as though he ought to push off home until he was older. Only after he won the 3rd frame (after Walden missed a tricky Brown which they excoriated him for) did they mention he beat Mark Allen 4-3 in the previous round. Then they carried on slagging Walden, including taking a minute on a decision with a Pink, amid mutterings about shot clocks. He then potted the next dozen shots like a budding Ronnie O'Sullivan on his way to a century clearance and only then were they grudging about his success.

Clearly neither is as bad as John "I worship the ground Stephen Hendry walks on" Virgo, of course. Yet.

Liang Wenbo is the only non-English guy left in the final 4. Following his big victory over Ronnie last weekend, Judd Trump is presumably favourite to win this too.

(13-10-2016 20:26 )Doddle Wrote:  Clearly neither is as bad as John "I worship the ground Stephen Hendry walks on" Virgo, of course. Yet.

Gawd blimey that's a long middle name .

Liang was a worthy and charmingly jubilant winner, 9-6, over Trump, for his 1st big title win

Ding who?

I get that the Scottish Open starts on Monday, I think If it matches the excitement and drama of the English and Northern Irish efforts, it should be unmissable.

wonder what happened to the Snooker World cup tournament?

I gather Mark Selby has decided to skip this one. Current #2 Stuart Bingham got beat 4-3

The BBC had a news item about the reduction in snooker clubs in Scotland. That was helpful of them. They interviewed Alan MacManus whose name bore the legend "World ranked 28".

John Higgins beat Alan McManus 4-1.

They are odd those identity banners. Eurosport bill Jimmy White as "Won 30 ranking titles" I think, but Neal Foulds just gets "Former World No. 3" which seems pretty crap by comparison.

Still, at least "Buzby" gets some face time, unlike Hallett and Joe Johnson.

Watching this on Quest, and can't believe they are showing ads during the frames. It goes to a split screen, with an ad on one side and a little screen on the other side showing the snooker at the same time.

I've not noticed that. Was it a long frame?

Quest +1 adds a different dimension of silly to things.

It's Ronnie v Jimmy White again tomorrow