Snooker player Shaun Murphy says Amateurs shouldnt be allowed to play with pros....

JAM

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Trump out as well. Ronnie has to be the favorite now.
Yes, I agree. I hope he holds up.

Matthew Selt knocked Judd Trump out in the third round. The 2019 Indian Open champion made 128 in the last frame and faces Barry Hawkins next.
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The Ace in the Pack is the tenth former UK Champion to lose before the last 16.
 

Bob Jewett

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And David Gilbert has beaten Mark Allen in the third round of the Cazoo UK Championship.
Goodness! The top players are dropping like flies. Gilbert came from a long way back. I gave up on his match to have breakfast.

Related to which, I made a comment above about a potato farmer as another category that obviously does not belong in the tournament. Dave "Angry Farmer" Gilbert is a potato farmer.

Edit: Here is a summary of Gilbert's comeback, already up on YouTube:
 
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pt109

WO double hemlock
Silver Member
Yes, I agree. I hope he holds up.

Matthew Selt knocked Judd Trump out in the third round. The 2019 Indian Open champion made 128 in the last frame and faces Barry Hawkins next. View attachment 618171The Ace in the Pack is the tenth former UK Champion to lose before the last 16.
Murph is still getting the steam he deserves....Matt Selt said in his interview, with Murph attending, “It’s nice to see the higher ranked player not talk nonsense after a loss.”
 

skogstokig

AzB Silver Member
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noppon s-k is no walk in the park for ronnie. been rock solid so far.

there are many upsets this tournament but it's also because the field is sharpened up, and they're not far behind these days. it's cutthroat competition. hicks, lines and woollaston are the biggest surprises to me.
 
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SnookerHub

New member
That's not the way snooker works. So far as I know, there is essentially no entry fee.

The field size is limited. In this case I think it is 128. The players who are "on the tour" have priority. After that the spots are filled by some kind of ranking criteria. The kid had played in "Q School" (qualification competition) and did OK but not well enough to get a tour spot. The amateurs -- players not "on the tour" -- can win prize money but do not get ranking points. The kid is going to get at least $8500 with a first round win.
Close, but not quite right.
Yes, these events are for 128 players. As there is currently only 122 pros they always look to top up the events to 128 from the Q School Order of Merit, after the addition of any wildcards - like they have in the Home Nations events.
Si Jiahui has been on the tour before but dropped off and didn't quite make it back via Q School.
Any prize money is available for winners, pro or amateur and they also get the same ranking points.
There is a way to get on the tour via the one year list, and players have done that recently - James Cahill for example.
The strange thing about all this is that the pros don't seem to know how the system works!
Neil Robertson's comments in support of Murphy are a good example of that.
 

JAM

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
noppon s-k is no walk in the park for ronnie. been rock solid so far.

there are many upsets this tournament but it's also because the field is sharpened up, and they're not far behind these days. it's cutthroat competition. hicks, lines and woollaston are the biggest surprises to me.
Ronnie squeaked through that one. Whew!

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JAM

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
What a match that was between Jack Lisowski and Hossein Vafaei. Jack is the Lou Butera of snooker. I've never seen a snooker player play that fast. Hossein was more deliberate in his shooting style, and when he came with a miss, he just smiled, very cool, calm, and collected. This was a tense-filled frame at the end. It had the crowd going "ooh" for the good hots and then loud groans when the missed. Jack wins and moves to the quarterfinals. After the match, instead of scrambling out of the arena, both Jack and Hossein stuck around for the fans and signed autographs and took selfies with them. I like that!

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garczar

AzB Silver Member
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First of all his comparison with golf and tennis falls flat since there happens to be a variety of ways, other than Q-School that a so called "amateur" player can play in Tour events. They still have Monday qualifiers for many PGA tour events and separate qualifying prelims for ATP tennis tourneys. Even the Masters allows several amateur players to compete every year!
In golf an amateur can NOT accept prize $$. The rules are pretty strict and clear. https://www.usga.org/rules/rules-of-amateur-status.html#!rule-03 Also, i'm pretty sure to play in a Monday qualif. you have to declare yourself to be a pro. You also have to pre-qualify(up to 150 players) just to play a Monday qualif(usually 25-50 players). Ways an am CAN play:https://www.amateurgolf.com/golf-to...ay-a-PGA-Tour-event-as-an-amateur--Here-s-how
 
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Shuddy

Diamond Dave’s babysitter
Silver Member
Murphy isn’t a sore loser. He’s always been a gentleman in defeat and victory. His comment was very poorly timed, and he knows that. His statement about Si not facing the same pressure as professionals was purely about that first round match, not about the pressures of life as an amateur in a foreign land, etc. Si is doing his thing and suddenly gets a call up to play in the UK Open. His spot on the tour isn’t at risk, he’s not playing for ranking points, success in the event won’t change his amateur status, even if he wins the event. He quite literally has absolutely nothing to lose. A number of other pros/former pros agree with him primarily because there is a very well established and grueling process for gaining the right to play in professional events, and topping up events sidesteps that process.

Sean also wasn’t targeting Si. He congratulated him after the match, he apologized to him for his comments detracting from his win. He was being critical of the process.
 

Cameron Smith

is kind of hungry...
Silver Member
Murphy isn’t a sore loser. He’s always been a gentleman in defeat and victory. His comment was very poorly timed, and he knows that. His statement about Si not facing the same pressure as professionals was purely about that first round match, not about the pressures of life as an amateur in a foreign land, etc. Si is doing his thing and suddenly gets a call up to play in the UK Open. His spot on the tour isn’t at risk, he’s not playing for ranking points, success in the event won’t change his amateur status, even if he wins the event. He quite literally has absolutely nothing to lose. A number of other pros/former pros agree with him primarily because there is a very well established and grueling process for gaining the right to play in professional events, and topping up events sidesteps that process.

Sean also wasn’t targeting Si. He congratulated him after the match, he apologized to him for his comments detracting from his win. He was being critical of the process.
I don’t think that Si or any amateur there isn’t facing pressure. He may not be playing to keep his tour card, but he is hoping to do well enough to gain his card. I think he’d rather avoid going to qschool again. He’s also probably not making much money while off the tour, so the win probably meant way more to Si than it did to Shaun who likely drove back to the hotel in his Bentley.

If we translate this to pool, it’s not like 750 players trying to make a living at pool are under no pressure at all even though results don’t influence their playing chances much. Instead they scrape for every win. And that’s what these amateur snooker players are doing. These guys probably translate to an equivalent of 750-770 in Fargoratings. So it’s not like a 650 player with a full time career knocking out a top pro.
 

skogstokig

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
What a match that was between Jack Lisowski and Hossein Vafaei. Jack is the Lou Butera of snooker. I've never seen a snooker player play that fast. Hossein was more deliberate in his shooting style, and when he came with a miss, he just smiled, very cool, calm, and collected. This was a tense-filled frame at the end. It had the crowd going "ooh" for the good hots and then loud groans when the missed. Jack wins and moves to the quarterfinals. After the match, instead of scrambling out of the arena, both Jack and Hossein stuck around for the fans and signed autographs and took selfies with them. I like that!

View attachment 618466View attachment 618467View attachment 618468View attachment 618469View attachment 618470

i didn't want either of them to lose. great entertainment that match. i think the stats doesn't reflect lisowskis long potting ability
 
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JAM

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i didn't want either of them to lose. great entertainment that match. i think the stats doesn't reflect lisowskis long potting ability
I couldn't get over how fast Jack shot. Wow! I've never seen a snooker player play at that pace, not even Ronnie. That last frame, though! What a nail-biter! 😋
 

alstl

AzB Silver Member
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I know there was a thread that already discussed this topic, but I found this interesting....

There was a time in MLB when the veterans would shun younger players who were called up from the minor leagues. That was the era of one year contracts and the veterans were worried the youngsters would take their job.
 

buckshotshoey

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
There was a time in MLB when the veterans would shun younger players who were called up from the minor leagues. That was the era of one year contracts and the veterans were worried the youngsters would take their job.
As it should be. They SHOULD be worried about their paychecks. Keeps them on their toes. You step up to the plate (pun intended) and improve and earn that big paycheck, or move aside and let someone else do it.
 

skogstokig

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I couldn't get over how fast Jack shot. Wow! I've never seen a snooker player play at that pace, not even Ronnie. That last frame, though! What a nail-biter! 😋

faster players would be tony drago in his prime, ronnie on a good day and thepchaya uh-nooh. the latter is currently the fastest player on the pro tour. lisowski can be deliberate but when the machine is working he is fast. kind of like dennis orcullo in that regard.
 

Shuddy

Diamond Dave’s babysitter
Silver Member
Hed
I don’t think that Si or any amateur there isn’t facing pressure. He may not be playing to keep his tour card, but he is hoping to do well enough to gain his card. I think he’d rather avoid going to qschool again. He’s also probably not making much money while off the tour, so the win probably meant way more to Si than it did to Shaun who likely drove back to the hotel in his Bentley.

If we translate this to pool, it’s not like 750 players trying to make a living at pool are under no pressure at all even though results don’t influence their playing chances much. Instead they scrape for every win. And that’s what these amateur snooker players are doing. These guys probably translate to an equivalent of 750-770 in Fargoratings. So it’s not like a 650 player with a full time career knocking out a top pro.
He’d be going back to qschool even if he won this tournament. This invitation was quite literally a free-roll.

I’m not saying they should or shouldn’t top up with amateurs. Just saying that I think a lot of people misunderstood Murphy due to the unfortunate timing of his comments.
 
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