The deserted Crucible
 

Woohoo, the 2020 snooker world championship is underway, the qualification round has started.

Watched good ol Jimmy White beat a Russian youngster tonight, hope he makes it to the Crucible Theatre.

My money is on Judd Trump, maybe he will be the first to defend his title in Sheffield, and the "Crucible curse" can finally be broken.

Of course the tournament is a closed doors event, so the special atmosphere of the venue won't play a role this year. No TV commentator whispering "You could hear a pin drop!" What a pity!

Played Jimmy White twice in charity games in previous years (1-3 and 0-3) you'll never guess which side of the scoreline I was :)

Jimmy White: Best player never to have won the world title.

You beat him? Twice? Now that's impressing.

I wonder why he still participates in the World Cup qualification. A man on a mission? I like the idea. On the other hand we must respect players like Stephen Hendry and Steve Davis for picking the right time to retire.

On the contrary, I am the left hand score on each occasion and I suspect he gave me one frame the first time we met simply out of kindness :)

Has anyone ever seen the movie, the Hustler with Jackie Gleason and Paul Newman ? Paul Newman reprises his role as Fast Eddie Felson in the " Color Of Money " with Tom Cruise. This exchange reminds me of a TV show-the Fresh Prince of Bel Air and pool sharks / Hustlers.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RaWAQIBZ2I

Yep, a thoroughly enjoyable movie back in the day.

I watched the match Ali Carter (18) vs. Louis Heathcote (79) yesterday. A great game by Heathcote, he went 0:4 in the lead, then had to give up three frames (3:4), but he won 3:6. He had pocketed some almost impossible balls, but also gave away some safe balls.
It was a very exciting game. I am curious how far he will get.

Qualification is over and it produced some decent matches. Jimmy White didn't make it, neither did Dott and Doherty. Luca Brecel, who some consider the best player from "the continent", lost to O'Brien in preliminary round 3, so Switzerland's Alex Ursenbacher will have to fly the European flag (My Goodness!).

The 31 contenders and the defending champion will start on Friday:

The draw is as follows:

Judd Trump v Tom Ford
Yan Bingtao v Elliot Slessor
Stephen Maguire v Martin Gould
Kyren Wilson v Anthony Hamilton
John Higgins v Matthew Stevens
David Gilbert v Kurt Maflin
Jack Lisowski v Anthony McGill
Mark Allen v Jamie Clarke
Mark Williams v Alan McManus
Stuart Bingham v Ashley Carty
Ding Junhui v Mark King
Ronnie O’Sullivan v Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Mark Selby v Jordan Brown
Shaun Murphy v Noppon Saengkham
Barry Hawkins v Alexander Ursenbacher
Neil Robertson v Liang Wenbo