Crucible Catches Fire
The fire scare at the start of yesterday’s play turned out to be true. This year’s tournament ignited with the most incredible snooker we’ve seen so far.
With a pot success rate of 95% Mark Selby was breathtaking. Stunning stuff from the youngest player still in the running. I think I rather like this 23-year-old Eight Ball Pool Champion. In addition to his awesome table form, he’s really intriguing to watch when he’s not potting balls. He has a gallery full of facial expressions and displays little theatrical mannerisms whenever fate deals him an unexpected card.
And as for the Ronnie O’Sullivan – Neil Robertson battle, well, finally, this proved to be an enthralling match with some classic Sheffield tension, master break building, luck, skill and grit. Auzzie Neil put up a serious fight but it went Ronnie’s way in the final half session, mainly down to his tip-top play amongst the balls – and a terrible safety in the last frame. It was so bad he actually potted the red and a subsequent snooker for Neil helped Ronnie back in to clear up. He admits his long play still needs some work and he’ll have to find complete form before taking on the Wizard later today.
I just hope the Rocket’s motoring skill amongst the balls will not be affected by his coach’s recent misadventure. It seems Ronnie’s driver ran over his foot!
Rumour has it, he was hopping mad.
But back to that Fire…
Ok, so there wasn’t a real one. We did however get a visit from the local fire brigade. A little evacuation excitement but nothing else…
Oh, and a little confession to make. So far, I’ve had very little tolerance for certain players blaming their mediocre form on the Crucible air conditioning – apparently a result of Sheffield’s ‘tropical’ weather. I take it back fellas. Was in the arena today and yup, it’s pretty darn cool!
So you can have that one. I see why Ronnie needs to warm his hands with mugs of hot water.
Shame to see snooker’s quiet man go out, he always adds a relaxing sense of calm to the game. Maybe the icy auditorium affected Ebbo briefly as he made the funniest foul I’ve ever seen with a random act of aggression on an unsuspecting yellow. If you didn’t see it, campaign the BBC to show it again at the end of coverage. Hopefully they’ll do it anyway by editing together a montage of crazy snooker mishaps. Look forward to that.
And finally, a belated salute to veteran pundit Clive Everton, who at the weekend turned in his 500th snooker commentary. Not sure what’s more impressive, the fact that he’s clocked up 500 sessions – or that someone somewhere has actually counted them all. Anyway, nice one Clive, wouldn’t be the same without you.
