Sportsmanship

Having watched the recent LG Cup from the guildhall in Preston I was greatly encouraged by the quality of sportsmanship displayed by Quinten Hann. In his first round match. His opponent made a total clearance just prior to the interval. Quinten’s reaction to this break was a revelation, he obviously enjoyed the break particularly a difficult pot green and positional shot that would have been a contender for shot of the championship in almost any tournament.

I can’t remember seeing anyone on the receiving end of a good performance from their opponent reacting with such obvious pleasure, congratulations to Quinten for the sportsman of the week award. Interestingly Quinten went on to win the match, the power of positive thinking in action perhaps?

Steve Davis avoids paralysis by analysis.

On the second televised day of the championship Steve Davis played fluently and quickly in despatching his opponent in a very "interesting" match.

Steve once said that "if you could play as if it means nothing when it means everything then you would be hard to beat". I think that he managed to put this philosophy into practise for this match at least. The "interesting" part of this match for me was Steve’s attitude and how it seemingly enhanced his performance, he made the game seem easier than of late and possibly rather than looking like a man struggling appeared like a possible threat to his opponent.

Confidence has two effects in match play Snooker, one, it makes you feel good about the situation and two, it makes your opponent take notice of your performance as well, I feel. It will be interesting to see whether as the tournament progresses and the opposition improves Steve can maintain this attitude and enhanced performance?

Ron and John.

Ronnie O’Sullivan and John Higgins continue to impress, not since the earlier eighties when Steve Davis and Terry Griffiths contested so many finals have we had the added pleasure of being able to watch two players at their peak competing at the highest level.

Centuries galore and a feast of positive safety play, you can only feel for the opposition of these two stars at the moment.

Scheduling.

One perennial problem that I feel undermines Snooker on terrestrial channels is that it is shown so late in the evenings.

I was disappointed to see that Snooker was relegated to the wee small hours after a repeat of Johnny Vaughan’s show 'Orrible was replayed from the previous week. Snooker it seems is less important to the BBC than its experiment of showing programmes more than once in a week to attempt to compete with the style of some satellite channels. I like the show 'Orrible so chose to watch it on its first airing, when the Snooker tournament began on Friday I was hoping that more sensible and accessible scheduling for Snooker fans might be employed, sadly not.

Stephen Lee beats Steve Davis 5-1.

Perhaps an unremarkable match except for the fact that Steve Davis made his first century break for many a month.

Stephen Lee played a very nice match as befits his status as a genuine, top eight player.

Steve Davis can take positive things away from his brief tour of duty in Preston, I hope that he brings his positivity and application to the rest of the season.

Dress code.

It was interesting to note Steve’s comments about the dress code issue that I have previously mentioned I hope that the former rules apply in the world championships but have enjoyed the debate and the fresh look that this tournament has afforded us.

Regarding comfort, I tend to agree with Steve’s suggestion and judging from Ronnie and John Higgins’ performances to this point in the tournament, so do they. I watched these matches, it appears with my eyes closed as Ronnie and John wore traditional Snooker clothing and did so throughout the championship, perhaps this constricted lack of a relaxed neck accounts for their early exits?

Ronnie O’Sullivan versus Drew Henry.

This match will be remembered for Ronnie’s magnificent effort of making his fifth competitive 147 break and the 21^st in competition.

This break was fluent, only taking six and a half minutes to compile. Ronnie’s green and pink pots have been singled out as highlights but I feel the red with awkward bridging was just as impressive as the frame was still in the balance. Well done Ronnie, I hope your celebrations don’t mar your performance in the remainder of the tournament, I am writing this on the morning after the 147, the way John Higgins is playing, could this be the first tournament that has two 147’s in it?

Not only, but also.

I find myself hoping that Steve Davis and John Parrott get knocked out early on in the remaining tournaments of the BBC season, so enjoyable is their presenting input as the championship progresses.

Performance of the week?

One more interesting facet of this week was the resilience of Barry (the new Houdini) Hawkins who seemed to thrive on four all score-lines, achieving three of them throughout the tournament. in the end finally bowing out to Joe Swail 4 frames to 5. His must have been the performance of the week?

Needle.

The semi-finals were something of an anti-climax, as they never truly got going for me, one interesting side issue of course was that there was the needle between Peter Ebdon and Stephen Lee.

As things turned out, Lee and Ebdon did indeed find themselves in the final, leading to a very tense affair, they overcame Hendry and Swail respectively.

It was something of a surprise that both Ronnie O’Sullivan and John Higgins were both eliminated before the business end of the competition, yet John Higgins had the slight satisfaction of going out to the eventual champion.

Congratulations to Stephen Lee on a good, solid match winning performance, in the final. This could be the platform to many more wins? While I’m in congratulatory mood let me congratulate Peter Ebdon for reaching provisional number three on the world ranking list, something of an achievement when you look at who number one and two are,

All in all, this week has been in my opinion a very enjoyable tournament, with shocks, 147’s and added tension in some matches, if the remainder of the season is anything like this. I for one can’t wait.

This is the first of my columns on televised snooker from the comfort of my armchair, I intend to write others. I also plan to attend at least one match in the forthcoming world championship in Sheffield later in the season, and no I won’t bother to bring my cue, so look out for future reports.

David Smith