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Re: 888.com World Grand Prix Last 16 Discussion !!!

Postby Clara8633

TheRocket wrote:Gould is known for choking sometimes when he's leading. I still expect Selby to win this.


Me too, but he's going to have to win three frames in a row now and his safety is letting him down a bit.

Re: 888.com World Grand Prix Last 16 Discussion !!!

Postby Wildey

Wednesday 18th of March

7pm

Robert Milkins 0-4 Ronnie O'Sullivan
Liang Wenbo 3-4 Graeme Dott

NB 8pm

Mark Selby 1-3 Martin Gould
Stephen Maguire 0-1 Peter Ebdon

Re: 888.com World Grand Prix Last 16 Discussion !!!

Postby TheRocket

Clara8633 wrote:
TheRocket wrote:Gould is known for choking sometimes when he's leading. I still expect Selby to win this.


Me too, but he's going to have to win three frames in a row now and his safety is letting him down a bit.


Even if he loses. If I was a Selbyfan I wouldnt bother too much about this tournament to be honest. It seems to me that scoring wise Selby is playing as good as ever or at least as good as he was in 2011. He's playing very good stuff atm and will be going with a lot confidence into the WC to defend this title. And it's all about the WC atm.

Winning any tournament is nice of course but I think, that the very topplayers see this more as a kind of match practice to peak for the World Championship. It's like in tennis where the very topplayers peak for the Grand Slams.

Re: 888.com World Grand Prix Last 16 Discussion !!!

Postby Cloud Strife

Wildey wrote:
masterdoctorgenius wrote:he was scaring the life out of him. poor ref

you think?

i thought the ref was laughing in his face

Ronnie was bang out of Order.


Yeah, Ronnie was being a idiot there. Hate people who take out their bad mood on someone else. Unacceptable.

Re: 888.com World Grand Prix Last 16 Discussion !!!

Postby Clara8633

TheRocket wrote:
Clara8633 wrote:
TheRocket wrote:Gould is known for choking sometimes when he's leading. I still expect Selby to win this.


Me too, but he's going to have to win three frames in a row now and his safety is letting him down a bit.


Even if he loses. If I was a Selbyfan I wouldnt bother too much about this tournament to be honest. It seems to me that scoring wise Selby is playing as good as ever or at least as good as he was in 2011. He's playing very good stuff atm and will be going with a lot confidence into the WC to defend this title. And it's all about the WC atm.

Winning any tournament is nice of course but I think, that the very topplayers see this more as a kind of match practice to peak for the World Championship. It's like in tennis where the very topplayers peak for the Grand Slams.


I'm not bothered either; if this was a ranking event, I probably would be - and even more so if it's the WC of course.

Re: 888.com World Grand Prix Last 16 Discussion !!!

Postby TheRocket

Cloud Strife wrote:Gould held up surprisingly well under pressure there.


Yep. Didn't expect that. He's always been a good player but playing under pressure/closing out a match was his main problem. If he improve in that department, he could win tournaments.

Re: 888.com World Grand Prix Last 16 Discussion !!!

Postby Andre147

TheRocket wrote:
Cloud Strife wrote:Gould held up surprisingly well under pressure there.


Yep. Didn't expect that. He's always been a good player but playing under pressure/closing out a match was his main problem. If he improve in that department, he could win tournaments.


Gouldy, along with Day and Cope, are for me propably the best 3 players never to have won a ranker yet.

This is not a ranker, but him winning it would give him such a boost in confidence.

Re: 888.com World Grand Prix Last 16 Discussion !!!

Postby Andre147

Cloud Strife wrote:
Wildey wrote:
masterdoctorgenius wrote:he was scaring the life out of him. poor ref

you think?

i thought the ref was laughing in his face

Ronnie was bang out of Order.


Yeah, Ronnie was being a idiot there. Hate people who take out their bad mood on someone else. Unacceptable.


That's what I said earlier, fully agree.

If I were the ref :mood: Marcel Eckart is a great ref, I dont think he was too bothered by Ronnie's stupid antics. pmsl

Re: 888.com World Grand Prix Last 16 Discussion !!!

Postby Andre147

TheRocket wrote:
Clara8633 wrote:
TheRocket wrote:Gould is known for choking sometimes when he's leading. I still expect Selby to win this.


Me too, but he's going to have to win three frames in a row now and his safety is letting him down a bit.


Even if he loses. If I was a Selbyfan I wouldnt bother too much about this tournament to be honest. It seems to me that scoring wise Selby is playing as good as ever or at least as good as he was in 2011. He's playing very good stuff atm and will be going with a lot confidence into the WC to defend this title. And it's all about the WC atm.

Winning any tournament is nice of course but I think, that the very topplayers see this more as a kind of match practice to peak for the World Championship. It's like in tennis where the very topplayers peak for the Grand Slams.


Yeah agree, Selby will be in great shape come the Worlds.

I dont think he'll break the Crucible Curse, but he can definately reach far in the event, say Semis or even the Final. Hopefully someone will have the game to beat him there.

Re: 888.com World Grand Prix Last 16 Discussion !!!

Postby Wildey

Andre147 wrote:
TheRocket wrote:
Clara8633 wrote:
TheRocket wrote:Gould is known for choking sometimes when he's leading. I still expect Selby to win this.


Me too, but he's going to have to win three frames in a row now and his safety is letting him down a bit.


Even if he loses. If I was a Selbyfan I wouldnt bother too much about this tournament to be honest. It seems to me that scoring wise Selby is playing as good as ever or at least as good as he was in 2011. He's playing very good stuff atm and will be going with a lot confidence into the WC to defend this title. And it's all about the WC atm.

Winning any tournament is nice of course but I think, that the very topplayers see this more as a kind of match practice to peak for the World Championship. It's like in tennis where the very topplayers peak for the Grand Slams.


Yeah agree, Selby will be in great shape come the Worlds.

I dont think he'll break the Crucible Curse, but he can definately reach far in the event, say Semis or even the Final. Hopefully someone will have the game to beat him there.

doesn't work like that.


you got to keep form going best you can you cant turn up hoping to play well in majors thats when best layed plans goes tits up.

Ronnie managed it in 2013 because he played with no pressure because he hadent suffered battle scars during the season.

Re: 888.com World Grand Prix Last 16 Discussion !!!

Postby Goldenballs147

http://www.dailypost.co.uk/sport/other- ... ld-8871721

Okay Ronnie played better tonight than he played on Monday (which wouldn't be difficult) but two/three centuries? Come on. I know we only see what the camera shows us but I only saw one occasion where they got in each other's way and it was because the referee needed to get the ball out of the pocket so that the frame could continue.

I love ROS but his attitude is really grating on me at the minute. I get that he doesn't like the events with 128 players and he doesn't feel he makes enough money anymore, but at the end of the day he's a professional snooker player and if he gets his act together he could be finishing the week with a 100K cheque in his hand. Not bad for a weeks work surely. There's no point in taking his attitude out on the referee in public. A quiet word backstage would have sufficed.

At least he praised the event and the venue. I think it has been fantastic. Alan McManus is a top class commentator also.

Re: 888.com World Grand Prix Last 16 Discussion !!!

Postby Cloud Strife

Goldenballs147 wrote:http://www.dailypost.co.uk/sport/other-sport/watch-ronnie-osullivan-praises-world-8871721

Okay Ronnie played better tonight than he played on Monday (which wouldn't be difficult) but two/three centuries? Come on. I know we only see what the camera shows us but I only saw one occasion where they got in each other's way and it was because the referee needed to get the ball out of the pocket so that the frame could continue.

I love ROS but his attitude is really grating on me at the minute. I get that he doesn't like the events with 128 players and he doesn't feel he makes enough money anymore, but at the end of the day he's a professional snooker player and if he gets his act together he could be finishing the week with a 100K cheque in his hand. Not bad for a weeks work surely. There's no point in taking his attitude out on the referee in public. A quiet word backstage would have sufficed.

At least he praised the event and the venue. I think it has been fantastic. Alan McManus is a top class commentator also.


Yeah, I agree with you and I feel the same way. I've been following Ronnie's career from the very start and there's comes a time when you just become tired of the man's antics. A lot of it can be entertaining if taken in the correct context, but his behaviour towards the ref today wasn't entertaining at all, it was just plain rude and disrespectful. And he even saw fit to lambast the poor ref afterwards in his press conference as well. <doh>

I thought this kind of attitude from him was a thing of the past after his resurgence in the last 3 years under Peters, but clearly its reared its ugly head again which is a great shame. I hope he sorts his head out before the World Championship otherwise he won't be lifting the trophy there, that's for sure.

Re: 888.com World Grand Prix Last 16 Discussion !!!

Postby Andre147

Goldenballs147 wrote:http://www.dailypost.co.uk/sport/other-sport/watch-ronnie-osullivan-praises-world-8871721

Okay Ronnie played better tonight than he played on Monday (which wouldn't be difficult) but two/three centuries? Come on. I know we only see what the camera shows us but I only saw one occasion where they got in each other's way and it was because the referee needed to get the ball out of the pocket so that the frame could continue.

I love ROS but his attitude is really grating on me at the minute. I get that he doesn't like the events with 128 players and he doesn't feel he makes enough money anymore, but at the end of the day he's a professional snooker player and if he gets his act together he could be finishing the week with a 100K cheque in his hand. Not bad for a weeks work surely. There's no point in taking his attitude out on the referee in public. A quiet word backstage would have sufficed.

At least he praised the event and the venue. I think it has been fantastic. Alan McManus is a top class commentator also.


I CAN'T believe Ronnie still went babbling on about the referee <doh>

The only stupid person here is him, not the ref, period. Marcel Eckart is a great up an coming ref, has been refereeing top class level for the last 2 or 3 years, has refereed tow major finals in a row, this seasons German Masters and Welsh Open, and I have on good authority he may become eligible to referee at Crucible this season, and he fully deserves it.

The ref wasn't badly positioned, it's just Ronnie with his stupid antics trying to find something to justify his silly mental state at the moment.

With this kind of behavious from him I almost want him to get knocked out by Dotty next round.

Anyway, hopefully he won't be like this at Worlds, but at the moment though I wish I could punch him in the face for some of the things he said there pmsl

Re: 888.com World Grand Prix Last 16 Discussion !!!

Postby Goldenballs147

Cloud Strife wrote:
Goldenballs147 wrote:http://www.dailypost.co.uk/sport/other-sport/watch-ronnie-osullivan-praises-world-8871721

Okay Ronnie played better tonight than he played on Monday (which wouldn't be difficult) but two/three centuries? Come on. I know we only see what the camera shows us but I only saw one occasion where they got in each other's way and it was because the referee needed to get the ball out of the pocket so that the frame could continue.

I love ROS but his attitude is really grating on me at the minute. I get that he doesn't like the events with 128 players and he doesn't feel he makes enough money anymore, but at the end of the day he's a professional snooker player and if he gets his act together he could be finishing the week with a 100K cheque in his hand. Not bad for a weeks work surely. There's no point in taking his attitude out on the referee in public. A quiet word backstage would have sufficed.

At least he praised the event and the venue. I think it has been fantastic. Alan McManus is a top class commentator also.


Yeah, I agree with you and I feel the same way. I've been following Ronnie's career from the very start and there's comes a time when you just become tired of the man's antics. A lot of it can be entertaining if taken in the correct context, but his behaviour towards the ref today wasn't entertaining at all, it was just plain rude and disrespectful. And he even saw fit to lambast the poor ref afterwards in his press conference as well. <doh>

I thought this kind of attitude from him was a thing of the past after his resurgence in the last 3 years under Peters, but clearly its reared its ugly head again which is a great shame. I hope he sorts his head out before the World Championship otherwise he won't be lifting the trophy there, that's for sure.


I only started watching snooker properly at the 2014 Masters and while Id heard and read about Ronnie's behavior over the years I was amazed at how different he seemed last year. This year however has been a stark contrast. I'm so glad I missed the really bad days because I think I would have been completely put off him.

The flawed genius excuse only goes so far. Ronnie has absolutely no excuse as a (near) 40 year old man to behave the way he does. If he isn't happy with his form there is an an easy solution, practice more. He's probably the most naturally gifted player to ever lift a cue after all. Then again by his own admission in that post match interview he doesn't need much practice, in my opinion that just highlights the fact that he's in a "f*** it" mood at the minute for whatever reason and cant be bothered trying.

Maybe with him taking up boxing it'll knock some sense into him.

I agree with Andre also Marcel is definitely one of the better refs on the circuit at the minute.

Re: 888.com World Grand Prix Last 16 Discussion !!!

Postby Andy Spark

armchair de critique wrote:Ronnie had a go at the young ref for not getting out his way during the break :chuckle:

Yes, I think Ronnie was put off his stroke as the young ref failed to grab his balls in the way Ronnie likes them to be grabbed...i.e. swiftly, firmly, decisively. :chuckle: