The Beare Truth... !
The Crucible was a spectacular sight on day 15, busy and bursting with ambiance. The sun was shining in Tudor Square but sadly, two weeks after Dotty sank that white, it has started to set on the tournament.
Four rounds down and the fate of this year’s World Championship is all but sealed. Day 15 brought us some top-notch snooker - if Dennis Taylor is to be believed, ‘the best play of the tournament so far’.
Higgins put on a superb performance to come back and win his semi-final. The 1998 Champion hasn’t reached the final since he lost to Ronnie in 2001. But this year he seems more driven than ever. The 31-year-old Scot told us it’s all about that one precious commodity – confidence. Apparently, most of the season he was severely lacking self-belief - until a convincing Spring-time win over Michael Judge in Northern Ireland. Since that day, his confidence has been well up and he has gone from strength to strength.
And it was John who bagged the 1000th Crucible century break, thirty years after Cliff Thorburn set the counter going.
Not so much praise for Stephen Maguire I’m afraid to say. Nothing to do with his play. more his attitude. He apparently told press members he didn’t consider the Murphy-Selby semi-final to be a real match and was taking his clash with Higgins as the final. Don’t know about you, but I think that’s rather disrespectful. Mark has been playing a demon game and Shaun is a former world champion.
Very odd. A bit of the old Scottish-English sport banter maybe? Whatever it is, it’s a black mark for you, Maguire.
Anyway - what a match that was! As predicted right here, it went to the wire. Shaun was gutted but stoic about going out – although he did take issue with the vicious nature of Mark’s supporters.
And I completely agree. It’s one thing to cheer your man on, but to actively shout “miss” or “kiss the ball” while his opponent is at the table, is completely unacceptable. This is of course what upset Ding so much in the Masters final against Ronnie O’Sullivan earlier in the year.
Come on folks, let’s have some manners.
Mark and Shaun are good friends, I’m sure it will get resolved. Mark said he’ll ask his guys to tone it down and Shaun is planning to stay around to support the 23-year-old Leicester lad in the final. He’s just so nice.
Speaking of nice guys – that Richard Beare. He’s a card.
I’d like to think a professional referee would be allowed to do her job without fear of being derided in front of a packed-out Crucible Theatre.
‘The Hunk From Holland!!!’ Jan Verhaas doesn’t have this problem when he enters the arena so why should ‘The beautiful/gorgeous/capable(?) Michaela’ stand for such comments from the uber-tanned MC.
This has happened a couple of times in the tournament and Gabi’s Gossip thinks that it’s not on. Fortunately, the comments (not repeatable here) only received a pity chuckle from a handful of audience members. Snooker is trying to be a modern game. Mr Beare should respect this initiative and honour Michaela as a referee, not use her as a vehicle for his club routine.
Right, back to the play.
Four intense sessions, two anxious players, pundits in bow ties, media scrum poised and yes, we’re all trying to guess which tune the BBC will use for it’s legendary compilation montage……….
It’s that time again, bring it on.
