A year since the Hurricane past

Written by Rachael Rodgers
 
Alex 'Sandy' Gordon Higgins died a year ago today, the man who emcompassed everything a legend should be. He was a loveable rogue and a serious character in the snooker world. He played massive ranking events three sheets to the wind but still managed to win them. Along with his drink he smoked heavily, he was known for hating the structure of World Snooker and head butting referees. Though today that may make for a great news paper spread, would without doubt make a heavy cut between fans and disprovers.
  But no one could deny that Alex was temprementle as he was, was loved equally by fans, friends, family and players.  It was at the World Championships when Alex made the word see his sensitive side, after winning the title, he sobbed and asked for his daughter to be brought to him, she was and he hugged her crying as he did, an image etched in everyone's memories of the great Alex Higgins.

Alex Higgins was a legend for his snooker playing and his bad boy antics, his addictions to drink and drugs made him edey and he lost his career due to it, he became disillisuioned by the game that he loved and he didn't know how to respond to it. As he aged he developed cancer his teeth rotted and he couldn't eat anything but baby food. The bad boy came back to snooker looking frail and nothing like his younger self, but as ill as he was he still perfomed well in an event World Snooker set you for the hero's of Snooker's past The Legends tour.  The People's champion was back and still as much loved as he ever was.  His illness was beyond treament and the snooker world lost a great, a player everyone knew of no matter how they were.

Rest in peace Alex Higgins Gone but never forgotten.

First major ranking event of the season and the match of the season!

Written by Rachael Rodgers
 
It was the match everyone wanted to see, especially in Australia with it involving Melbourne's golden boy Neil Robertson against the Welshman who had already but the end to one Aussie's hopes Dominic Dale.

The match has been described as epic and to be fair it wasn't far off, Dominic had the game from the start making his presence felt from the off.  Leading 3-1 to the interval when they came back Neil pulled it in a little to 3-2 but in the sixth frame Dominic stepped ever closer by make it 4-2, it was frame 7 and 8 that increased the nail biting and conversations on twitter about the size of players conkers. (Don't ask!)

 It was into a deciding frame that to be fair could have gone either way, both players played exceptionally and when it came to snookers Dominic was the winner. His final snooker on Neil left him with the 4 points he desperately needed and control over the pink and black.
 Of which he stayed cool, calm and collected for and potted them with confidence and ease to win the favoured Australian by 1 point.  After the match  Neil Robertson said:

"It was definitely the match of the tournament so far," said a dejected Robertson. "It's just one of those disappointing things. He made a great snooker with the pink and black left on the table.

"I thought I played good in the match but had a bad patch - it's just one of those things and in sport sometimes you get bad breaks. You have to hand it to Dominic and he played very well. When I was getting in the balls I was scoring well. The crowd were absolutely terrific and they gave me a great ovation. I'm really disappointed for them."

Dominic commented that the atmosphere was magical and the occasion was possibly one on the best of his 19 year career. And was even gracious enough to praise his opponent for his quarter final match.

"It's up there as one of the best matches I've ever played in for drama and excitement," said Dale, who now meets countryman Mark Williams in the quarter-finals. "You just live for matches like that and I loved the excitement. This is a big win for me and to hold myself together was quite tough. I've had a few great matches with Neil and this was definitely one of them. I will go to bed thinking I'm lucky to still be in it. I played some very good safety but also some shockers and maybe I was a bit too cautious.

"Mark is an unbelievable player and the world number one. He dropped down in the 40s and just decided to dedicate himself practising eight or ten hours a day and it's one of the finest sports feats ever across any sport."

Dominic Dale Progresses in Australia

Dominic Dale progresses to the next round in Australia, beating Steve Difsud 5-2 after a challenging match, more of a challenge than the scores would have you believe. Dale is still suffering jet lag and is failing to get more than 3 hours sleep a night.  He now goes on the play Neil Robertson on Thursday, who today was also suffering from Jet lag after flying from Bangkok to Australia in the early hours of yesterday morning.  Not wishing to be biased but as a player I feel Dominic offers more as a player of excitement. He has worked hard to pull himself back up the rankings and even though I like Neil Robertson, I will be hoping Dominic gets through!

China wins the world Cup

Written by Rachael Rodgers
 
Liang Wenbo and Ding Junhui were the happy winner of the World Cup which took place in Bangkok, the win over Northern Ireland after some controversy was caused in the quarter finals.  When Republic of Ireland complained that China should lose a frame when Liang Wenbo took part in his frame without correct outfit.  Unfortunately the Referee did not realise until half way through the frame that Liang Wenbo was not wearing a bow tie. 
  World Snooker will look into the case issue a warning and fine, World Snooker said that docking Liang a frame would be too drastic for forgetting his bow tie.  Fans have said that the comments made by the Republic of Ireland was pure sour grapes over their loss.
   In the End the China team lifted the trophy, which is a good prospect for Liang Wenbo who hasn't had much form in recent years failing to qualify for many events let alone win them. So winning this event will be a great boost to his confidence and promises good things from him.

Ronnie O'Sullivan pulls out of the Goldfields Open

Written by Rachael Rodgers
 
He made it half way to Australia, but it seems the second player struggling with back and neck problems while on a flight to the Australia has pulled out. Ronnie got to Bangkok before deciding the pain was too bad to continue and decided to return home for treatment.
  O'Sullivan was supposed to play Dominic Dale on Monday, now Dominic will play Wild Card Steve Misfud and Matthew Selt will see his walk through to the last 32 to play John Higgins.

Graeme Dott pulls out of Austrailian open

Written by Rachael Rodgers
 
Graeme Dott has pulled out the Australian open as he has suffered with neck pain, throughout his time at the Wuxi Classic in China. He would have flown to Australia soon after the Wuxi finished but has decided instead to return to Scotland for treatment on his neck injury. His opponent either David Gilbert or James Misfud in Australia will get a Bye to the last 16.

Mark Selby Wuxi winner

Written by Rachael Rodgers

Mark Selby was last night crown the Wuxi Classic winner, after his tremendous match against Ali Carter, which when the match drawn all level at 4-4 at the end of the first round, but when play commenced in the second session, Mark took control and won 9-7.   The win is a welcome come for Selby who last year made it to two amazing finals both in ther German masters and the China Open, losing to Judd Trump and Mark Williams. The win will supply extra confidence to Selby who plays as a team with Ali Carter in the World Cup in Bangkok.


"If Ali and I play as well next week then we have a great chance to win the World Cup. It's strange to think that today I was willing him to miss balls and next week I'll be willing him to pot everything. He's a great player and we'll be a strong team."

Selby flies to Bangkok with a cheque worth £20,000 and the hope he an Carter can beat the best Snooker players from across the country and do something the English football team fail to do and lift the world cup trophy. Good luck guys!

Rory Refusal causes outrage

 Written by Rachael Rodgers


As Rory McLeod qualified for the Australian Open, he left fellow players, Referees and supports shocked when he refused to shake the hand of Ivy Zhu, because she is female and it is against his Muslim belief to shake the hand of a woman.  He didn't want to disrespect his religion but showed disrespect to his sport.

Many on twitter called for McLeod to be fined for being rude and questioned whether or not if he had ever played a match with Michaela Tabb refereeing it. I have looked but cannot find anything stating she has.  Though I understand that religion is a big part of many people's lives but when it means you are disrespectful to the job you do, then there has to be some give and take.  More women are going into men's sports and on a personal level it feels almost sexist that he would happy shake the hand of a male ref but not a female.

Ivy is a new ref and she must have felt awful when he refused to shake her hand, it effects more people than Rory and it also doesn't help with his fan base either which suffers for his lengthy and widely quoted boring game play.

Mr Snookerbacker has today throught of a way over the hand shake, and that you could change it for an air kiss instead and if it isn't done correctly you get called a foul. I feel this wouldn't go down so well either but its still a light ending to s serious subject.

5/7/11- proof has been found in video footage that Rory has shaken hands with Michaela Tabb

(Footage from youtube)

Seen here at about 5 mins 20 secs, so the question still remains why did he not shake Ivy's hand?

GoldFields Open Qualifers

 Written by Rachael Rodgers

Well its been a very busy couple of days at the English Institute of Sport with players trying their hardest to make it to Australia, we can't blame them. But it is sad to say that none of the players listed 52-64 managed to break through the final rounds of qualifying.

I have to say I openly tipped Michael Holt, Jack Lisowski and Dominic Dale, one out of three I will pretend to be good odds, but I would have preferred it to have been two. Michael came up against a tough competitor in Stuart Bingham, who has had a slightly stronger past season after making it to the Crucible.
 Jack Lisowski, the one I always tip every time, maybe I am his bad luck sorry Jack! I do however think we should expect big things for Jack, he just has to gain more experience and keep it together when deciders happen. Tom Ford just has a few years more experience on Jack .

The one i tipped to get through to Australia was Dominic Dale and he got through! Dominic is a great player and showed that experience truly does win as he beat Liam Highfield 5-3. The Spaceman made his come back last season, playing well through out the PTC tournaments and met Ronnie O'Sullivan in the opening rounds of the World Championships, it had been the first time since 2004 that Dale had qualified for the World Championships.  Unfortunately for Dominic Ronnie found his love for the game again and won 10-2.

I comment on the Championships because Dominic's first round match in Australia will see him again facing Ronnie O'Sullivan, could be a grudge match although O'Sullivan is playing as well as he did in the 90's.