World Snooker Proffesional Championships 2012

I posted this in the main section
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=271736

To quote, just so I don't contradict myself

Scaramouche said:

Back in November
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=252843
my possible picks were:

1. Trump
2. Ding
3. Higgins
4. Williams

Now I pick:

1. Judd Trump
2. Ding Junhui
3. Stephen Lee
4. Mark Allen

Allen & Ding are in the same section, so they both can't survive

Trump and Lee are in the same section

The more ancient crew - Higgins, O'Sullivan, Williams - haven't been playing well lately.

Robertson has not delivered - new baby , new house - too many distractions

Many players have had medical and other issues this season.
Dominic Dale, for example, in the Championship League, was wearing pants so tight he was scraping the skin from the back of his hand from reaching into his pocket with the chalk. :grin: Started using a pouch

Maguire has been playing well recently, but has problems keeping his head straight. He is in a section that should give him a good chance to get into the later stages of the tournament. Plays the new kid, Luca Brecel, in the first round. If Brecel beats Maguire that section could get interesting.

O'Sullivan plays Ebdon in the first round.
Ebdon plays sssssllllllllllllloooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwww.
In his last match, 13 frames took 7 1/2 hrs.
Have to see how Ronnie handles it. :grin:

So the final must be Trump vs Ding, with Trump winning.
When they played a best of 35 exhibition in China earlier, Ding won.

Click to expand...

church66 said:

http://www.sportinglife.com/snooker.../12/04/19/SNOOKER_World_Brecel.html&BID=25067

Unfortunately,I never got the chance to take in as much qualifier action that I wished for.So going on your better judgements who impressed you in the qualifiers.From what I seen in the final frame of Luca V Mark King,young Luca was very impressive.

Click to expand...

Brecel has a beautiful stroke, plays good safety.

The qualifiers had no audience, The Crucible is a zoo.
I am curious to see how he reacts to the mob.

In the qualifiers he played a few wild shots when he became unhappy with the way things were going. Unlike Maguire, he gets over it.

He got off to a good start - I think in the first two rounds of the qualifiers he won 20 frames. his opponents won 5. I suspect Maguire will have the pressure on him from the start, and I don't expect Brecel to win. It is the first round match I most want to see.

Anyway a bloke here in the states can watch on the internet or do we have to wait for youtube and such to air it?

As requested
I posted on the main forum - just doing missionary work to enlighten Americans about the better game

World Snooker Championship
http://www.worldsnooker.com/page/BetfredcomWorldChampionship

April 21 to Monday May 7

Start Times UK – 10 a.m.; 2:30 p.m. 7 p.m.
Eastern - deduct 5 hours - starts tomorrow at 5 a.m. - just in time for an early breakfast


Winner: £250,000 - that’s $400,000 American
Runner-up: £125,000
Semi-finals: £52,000
Quarter-finals: £24,050
Last 16: £16,000
Last 32: £12,000
Last 48: £8,200
Last 64: £4,600
Highest TV break: £10,000
Highest non-TV break: £1,000
Total: £1,111,000

Format - 2 tables
Round 1 – best of 19 frames
Round 2 – best of 25 frames
Quarter finals – best of 25 frames
Semi finals – best of 33 frames
Final – best of 35 frames

First Round Draw
John Higgins v Liang Wenbo
Stuart Bingham v Stephen Hendry
Graeme Dott v Joe Perry
Stephen Maguire v Luca Brecel
Shaun Murphy v Jamie Jones
Stephen Lee v Andrew Higginson
Ali Carter v Mark Davis
Judd Trump v Dominic Dale
Mark Williams v Liu Chuang
Ronnie O'Sullivan v Peter Ebdon
Martin Gould v David Gilbert
Neil Robertson v Ken Doherty
Ding Junhui v Ryan Day
Mark Allen v Cao Yupeng
Matthew Stevens v Marco Fu
Mark Selby v Barry Hawkins

Viewing
The most interesting coverage is BBC because of the commentating team.
This link has BBC 1 & 2
http://mypremium.tv/
Dumb link to program schedule - you have to advance the calendar manually
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/genres/sport/snooker/schedules/2012/04/21

The betting shops/Eurosport feed is usually available here:
http://www.sportlemon.tv/c-11.html
http://www.hahasport.com/

Vettle will probably have a channel - you have go scrolling through the pages looking for it - icon is the Union Jack - good quality feed
NB The icon appears only when the feed is active.
http://veetle.com/index.php/listing#sports/popular/1

Best quality picture and most reliable feed is the pay site of World Snooker - a single month costs about $6 - but it will chew up lots of download capacity (650 kbps) unless your ISP is restricting download speed (300 KBPS). So it could get expensive if you watch, say 13 hours a day .
You have been warned.
http://www.worldsnooker.livesport.tv/

The New Kid
Luca Brecel is the youngest player in the history of the Crucible and the first Belgian.
http://snookerscene.blogspot.ca/search?q=Brecel

Enjoy

I see this year's championship as being as open as any I can remember. It doesn't appear that ANY are in form.

Hoping for Brecel for novelty, or Ding, to really ignite the chinese. Fearing Selby & Robertson, to send the game into another cold war.

I'll go with Allen, but have a feeling Carter could be the dark horse.

Eurosport
http://tv.eurosport.co.uk/
http://tv.eurosport.co.uk/search.shtml?query=snooker

church66 said:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/snooker/17786195

Mark Williams in hot water :

http://www.sportinglife.com/snooker...2/04/20/SNOOKER_World_Williams.html&BID=25067

Click to expand...

He shall now be known as 'Remark'.
...get out the cheque book, Mark.

FIRST ROUND

Best of 19 frames (all times BST)
Saturday 21 April

1000:

Martin Gould (Eng) v David Gilbert (Eng)

John Higgins (Sco) v Liang Wenbo (Chn)

1430:

Stuart Bingham (Eng) v Stephen Hendry (Sco)

Neil Robertson (Aus) v Ken Doherty (Ire)

1900:

John Higgins (Sco) v Liang Wenbo (Chn)

Mark Allen (NI) v Cao Yupeng (Chn)
Sunday 22 April

1000:

Martin Gould (Eng) v David Gilbert (Eng)

Stephen Maguire (Sco) v Luca Brecel (Bel)

1430:

Mark Allen (NI) v Cao Yupeng (Chn)

Shaun Murphy (Eng) v Jamie Jones (Wal)

1900:

Stuart Bingham (Eng) v Stephen Hendry (Sco)

Neil Robertson (Aus) v Ken Doherty (Ire)
Monday 23 April

1000:

Stephen Maguire (Sco) v Luca Brecel (Bel)

Matthew Stevens (Wal) v Marco Fu (HK)

1430:

Shaun Murphy (Eng) v Jamie Jones (Wal)

Ronnie O'Sullivan (Eng) v Peter Ebdon (Eng)

1900:

Stephen Lee (Eng) v Andrew Higginson (Eng)

Matthew Stevens (Wal) v Marco Fu (HK)
Tuesday 24 April

1000:

Judd Trump (Eng) v Dominic Dale (Wal)

Ding Junhui (Chn) v Ryan Day (Wal)

1430:

Ronnie O'Sullivan (Eng) v Peter Ebdon (Eng)

Graeme Dott (Sco) v Joe Perry (Eng)

1900:

Stephen Lee (Eng) v Andrew Higginson (Eng)

Mark Selby (Eng) v Barry Hawkins (Eng)
Wednesday 25 April

1000:

Graeme Dott (Sco) v Joe Perry (Eng)

Ding Junhui (Chn) v Ryan Day (Wal)

1430:

Judd Trump (Eng) v Dominic Dale (Wal)

Mark Williams (Wal) v Liu Chuang (Chn)

1900:

Mark Selby (Eng) v Barry Hawkins (Eng)

Ali Carter (Eng) v Mark Davis (Eng)
Thursday 26 April

1300:

Ali Carter (Eng) v Mark Davis (Eng)

1900:

Mark Williams (Wal) v Liu Chuang (Chn)

In addition to the tournament prize for a 147 there is an accumulating prize, now up to 40,000 pounds, so the total up for grabs is 50,000 pounds

Bye bye 50,000 pounds

Stephen Hendry just made a 147.

It was fabulous. Good to see Stuart cheer for Hendry afterwards.
I watched it with Russian commentary. Can't find a link to the bbc stream. I'm sure they'll put the frame online shortly.