See if you can hit the yellow
At the moment I am watching Ding be a bit better at snooker than he apparently was earlier this morning. In the part of this day that was this morning.
That's not true anymore. I got distracted by Mcleod and Higgins coming back from their cups of tea. Tea they probably even had to make themselves. Must've taken a long time to boil in the morning session, or someone needs to insert some strategic dynamite somewhere if they can take a lot longer to manage seven frames than Bingham and Ding took to do all theirs.
Sheffield sunny but colder than I was expecting. No hail stones though, so an improvement on that reported for yesterday. I'd forgotten that it was Easter Sunday rather than just regular Sunday, and so that everything would be shut unless I wanted to buy McDonalds or place a bet. Disdaining either of these fine choices, I chose instead to leave an uncomfortable concrete imprint of an oversized flowerpot on my trousers while I watched the big screen. Much bigger than my TV, but with less sound and more random peeps walking between me and it.
Neither player really shining in the frames I saw, though Higgins took the run of the frames. No big breaks really. Though Mcleod would have the seventh (and last) of the frames after he went 50+ in front until Higgins dragged it back little by excruiciating little to end the morning 5-2. No chance to play at the street snooker setup. (Probably wouldn't have beaten the 13- high break.
Okay, I get aerosols are a fire hazard -ish, but glass bottles? Do they think I'm going to throw bottles and smash them at the players when they don't perform to my amusement? Would it work?
Rob Walker mocking visiting Europeans for having a crush on Hazel, offering free stuff for questions (Ronnie O'Sullivan beat John Higgins in the world final with which scoreline, etc) and then going to talk to Steve Davis in the commentary box about snooker. Or trying to talk about snooker while Davis was trying to talk about the game of magnetic chess he was playing against himself. (It's just like regular chess except the pieces don't fall off the board) Hazel and Ken waving at people before doing their pre-recording.
The refs don't get any music of their own? Jan Verhaas for the O'Sullivan/Murphy match and Terry Camilleri for the Selby/Hendry game. Hendry crying off on handshaking the announcer with a wave of his extensions/cue-filled hands. Selby perhaps appreciating Walker's comments on his 'svelte figure' a little better as he came out under the flashing lights. I guess he's not quite married just yet. O'Sullivan and Murphy both waving/acknowledging the crowd too.
Selby taking the first frame with a century break. Speaking of breaks I really like the ticker-tape setup they've got on the bottom of the scoreboard, with your generic shots marked as P, or with the number of ball you just potted (1,2,3,4,5,6,7) or F with a number for the points that were just fouled (F 4) and RB which I think is for having potted a red when you should be potting a colour. It looked a couple of times like Hendry's shots got marked as P before he failed to pot the ball he was aiming at.
Sadly that wasn't a problem often. Hendry did get the next frame with a century break of his own, but Selby just reeled off the next two easily and it was off for a break before O'Sullivan/Murphy had comparatively barely got started.
O'Sullivan (benefits of sitting facing the short side of the table - a second match at the tilt of the head) looked to be doing okay, seemed fairly even matched with Murphy for the first couple, if they were taking a bit of a time of it compared with the Hendry-Selby table. O'Sullivan did seem to leg it out of the arena a bit sharpish after the third. Mins you, he'd do that after pretty much every frame in the afternoon. Perhaps he has bladder problems?
Then with Selby's 3-1 in the first half of the session, looking a bit dubious for Hendry. And dubious in the Selby not having to come back tomorrow and Hendry not having to come back at all this year kind of dubious. Hendry didn't look any much more settled in the next frame, but he did take it and in one go. I was a bit concerned that Hendry was going to end up scoring almost all the points for Selby after he landed up in that snooker, but at least that didn't happen. I wonder if anyone's won a whole snooker match just on the fouls your opponent's made, not the three not-strikes and you're out rule.
Hendry's taking the fourteenth made sure that they both have to show up for work tomorrow, but was about all the comeback he could manage before Selby took the penultimate frame of the session. Hendry's lead in the final frame of the session looked a good one, despite the fact his power cable was sticking out the back of his shirt. And the devolving into banter getting the response where Selby thought he'd mime his snooker cue into a baseball bat. Up until then the two of them having done a sterling job of pretending they were all by themselves (save for the obligatory acknowledgements of luck and good play).
Then Selby decided that pbbt to needing four snookers he was gonna keep playing. And get one snooker. And wave his arms about in a well-now-what-am-I-supposed-to-do when Hendry nearly snookered him properly. And another one. And getting a bit handsy and patting Hendry in apology for a particularly fluky positional shot that nearly went very wrong if he hadn't kissed when white and colour rebounded off the top cushion. And then Selby put himself right back in the position he was several minutes before by handing back a 6-point foul to Hendry. And then getting another snooker, and another and well, there's no surprise as to how this one ends. I guess he just very very very much wanted that frame for his very own.
And in all the time it took them to do that (not a lot really except the last frame) Murphy had clawed back his deficit to 9-7.
Note to self, when the train says if you change connections here instead of where you were planning to, you can get to where you were going almost a whole hour early. Not so helpful when that translates into 'and so you will be sitting for 70 minutes at the station waiting for your connection instead of the 10 you were expecting because the trains are running every two hours just because' and don't do it.
Higgins and Mcleod playing again still this evening and Ding and Bingham likewise. Ding's performance better this evening, but still with the gap from this morning to go into tomorrows session. No particular high breaks, just a couple of nineties.
Mcleod grabbing back the next two frames of the evening session (Is it a best of niner tonight to make up? No.) to reduce the gap. Higgins not so much forgetting how to play so much as just struggling a bit generally. When they do shots of the players standing up he looks a bit like a disembodied head sometimes, less so when he's wearing white of course, but it was particular so this morning where his shirt/waistcoat combo just seemed to fade away.
I don't know if the pink is being a problem ball, but yeah, this isn't the pick of the second round matches performance wise. Yes, we can see the stats down in the eighties. 5-5 all becomes 5-6 becomes 5-7 and he's not looking easy and is still taking two or three goes to win a frame, but Higgins is starting to draw out a bit of a lead.
Fastest frame being 13 minutes and Mcleod putting a lot of power behind that shot and making the commentators duck. Higgins takes a 5-all scoreline and drags it into a 10-5 lead. He probably wants to go home and sleep now though, keeps rubbing at his face and eyes, although that could be because it took about the fifth? chance of winning for that last frame to be put in the bag. And yes. I'm not sure if that counts as a flattering scoreline or not. Certainly, if he get through he'll have to play better if he wants to continue to progress.
That's not true anymore. I got distracted by Mcleod and Higgins coming back from their cups of tea. Tea they probably even had to make themselves. Must've taken a long time to boil in the morning session, or someone needs to insert some strategic dynamite somewhere if they can take a lot longer to manage seven frames than Bingham and Ding took to do all theirs.
Sheffield sunny but colder than I was expecting. No hail stones though, so an improvement on that reported for yesterday. I'd forgotten that it was Easter Sunday rather than just regular Sunday, and so that everything would be shut unless I wanted to buy McDonalds or place a bet. Disdaining either of these fine choices, I chose instead to leave an uncomfortable concrete imprint of an oversized flowerpot on my trousers while I watched the big screen. Much bigger than my TV, but with less sound and more random peeps walking between me and it.
Neither player really shining in the frames I saw, though Higgins took the run of the frames. No big breaks really. Though Mcleod would have the seventh (and last) of the frames after he went 50+ in front until Higgins dragged it back little by excruiciating little to end the morning 5-2. No chance to play at the street snooker setup. (Probably wouldn't have beaten the 13- high break.
Okay, I get aerosols are a fire hazard -ish, but glass bottles? Do they think I'm going to throw bottles and smash them at the players when they don't perform to my amusement? Would it work?
Rob Walker mocking visiting Europeans for having a crush on Hazel, offering free stuff for questions (Ronnie O'Sullivan beat John Higgins in the world final with which scoreline, etc) and then going to talk to Steve Davis in the commentary box about snooker. Or trying to talk about snooker while Davis was trying to talk about the game of magnetic chess he was playing against himself. (It's just like regular chess except the pieces don't fall off the board) Hazel and Ken waving at people before doing their pre-recording.
The refs don't get any music of their own? Jan Verhaas for the O'Sullivan/Murphy match and Terry Camilleri for the Selby/Hendry game. Hendry crying off on handshaking the announcer with a wave of his extensions/cue-filled hands. Selby perhaps appreciating Walker's comments on his 'svelte figure' a little better as he came out under the flashing lights. I guess he's not quite married just yet. O'Sullivan and Murphy both waving/acknowledging the crowd too.
Selby taking the first frame with a century break. Speaking of breaks I really like the ticker-tape setup they've got on the bottom of the scoreboard, with your generic shots marked as P, or with the number of ball you just potted (1,2,3,4,5,6,7) or F with a number for the points that were just fouled (F 4) and RB which I think is for having potted a red when you should be potting a colour. It looked a couple of times like Hendry's shots got marked as P before he failed to pot the ball he was aiming at.
Sadly that wasn't a problem often. Hendry did get the next frame with a century break of his own, but Selby just reeled off the next two easily and it was off for a break before O'Sullivan/Murphy had comparatively barely got started.
O'Sullivan (benefits of sitting facing the short side of the table - a second match at the tilt of the head) looked to be doing okay, seemed fairly even matched with Murphy for the first couple, if they were taking a bit of a time of it compared with the Hendry-Selby table. O'Sullivan did seem to leg it out of the arena a bit sharpish after the third. Mins you, he'd do that after pretty much every frame in the afternoon. Perhaps he has bladder problems?
Then with Selby's 3-1 in the first half of the session, looking a bit dubious for Hendry. And dubious in the Selby not having to come back tomorrow and Hendry not having to come back at all this year kind of dubious. Hendry didn't look any much more settled in the next frame, but he did take it and in one go. I was a bit concerned that Hendry was going to end up scoring almost all the points for Selby after he landed up in that snooker, but at least that didn't happen. I wonder if anyone's won a whole snooker match just on the fouls your opponent's made, not the three not-strikes and you're out rule.
Hendry's taking the fourteenth made sure that they both have to show up for work tomorrow, but was about all the comeback he could manage before Selby took the penultimate frame of the session. Hendry's lead in the final frame of the session looked a good one, despite the fact his power cable was sticking out the back of his shirt. And the devolving into banter getting the response where Selby thought he'd mime his snooker cue into a baseball bat. Up until then the two of them having done a sterling job of pretending they were all by themselves (save for the obligatory acknowledgements of luck and good play).
Then Selby decided that pbbt to needing four snookers he was gonna keep playing. And get one snooker. And wave his arms about in a well-now-what-am-I-supposed-to-do when Hendry nearly snookered him properly. And another one. And getting a bit handsy and patting Hendry in apology for a particularly fluky positional shot that nearly went very wrong if he hadn't kissed when white and colour rebounded off the top cushion. And then Selby put himself right back in the position he was several minutes before by handing back a 6-point foul to Hendry. And then getting another snooker, and another and well, there's no surprise as to how this one ends. I guess he just very very very much wanted that frame for his very own.
And in all the time it took them to do that (not a lot really except the last frame) Murphy had clawed back his deficit to 9-7.
Note to self, when the train says if you change connections here instead of where you were planning to, you can get to where you were going almost a whole hour early. Not so helpful when that translates into 'and so you will be sitting for 70 minutes at the station waiting for your connection instead of the 10 you were expecting because the trains are running every two hours just because' and don't do it.
Higgins and Mcleod playing again still this evening and Ding and Bingham likewise. Ding's performance better this evening, but still with the gap from this morning to go into tomorrows session. No particular high breaks, just a couple of nineties.
Mcleod grabbing back the next two frames of the evening session (Is it a best of niner tonight to make up? No.) to reduce the gap. Higgins not so much forgetting how to play so much as just struggling a bit generally. When they do shots of the players standing up he looks a bit like a disembodied head sometimes, less so when he's wearing white of course, but it was particular so this morning where his shirt/waistcoat combo just seemed to fade away.
I don't know if the pink is being a problem ball, but yeah, this isn't the pick of the second round matches performance wise. Yes, we can see the stats down in the eighties. 5-5 all becomes 5-6 becomes 5-7 and he's not looking easy and is still taking two or three goes to win a frame, but Higgins is starting to draw out a bit of a lead.
Fastest frame being 13 minutes and Mcleod putting a lot of power behind that shot and making the commentators duck. Higgins takes a 5-all scoreline and drags it into a 10-5 lead. He probably wants to go home and sleep now though, keeps rubbing at his face and eyes, although that could be because it took about the fifth? chance of winning for that last frame to be put in the bag. And yes. I'm not sure if that counts as a flattering scoreline or not. Certainly, if he get through he'll have to play better if he wants to continue to progress.