Redcafe Snooker

Bertie Wooster

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Liam Davies beat Artemijs Zizins 4-3 in the Euro U21's semi final. He now faces Poland's Antoni Kowalski in the final.

Davies reached the final of the recent Q Tour play offs. Kowalski had lost in the semi finals. So one of them is going to quickly get over that disappointment and book a main Tour place. The other is going to have a second agonizing defeat inside a week.
 

Bertie Wooster

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Liam Davies beat Artemijs Zizins 4-3 in the Euro U21's semi final. He now faces Poland's Antoni Kowalski in the final.

Davies reached the final of the recent Q Tour play offs. Kowalski had lost in the semi finals. So one of them is going to quickly get over that disappointment and book a main Tour place. The other is going to have a second agonizing defeat inside a week.
He's only gone and done it! :yawn:

Liam Davies has just beaten Kowalski in the final 5-3, to win the Euro U21's and earn a 2 year tour card. :)
 

Bertie Wooster

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Brilliant news!!
Yes, delighted for him. He looked absolutely ecstatic, as of course he would be. :)

That's all four of the youngsters I was rooting for that's got on the tour in the last couple of years. Moody (2nd year) and Davies will definitely be on it next season. The young Belgians, Mertens and Leclercq, face a tough fight and if they want to avoid Q School they'll probably have to do well at the World Championship Qualifiers (which Jack Lisowksi and Neil Robertson are likely to be in as well!)
 

ChrisNelson

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There are only two more ranking events before Sheffield and Robbo currently sits inside the top 16. Also one of his main rivals for a seeding spot, Tom Ford has lost in the last 64 of the World Open. Robbo plays this morning UK time.

Lisowski along didn't even qualify for China so he's almost certainly consigned to the Qualifiers. #12 Gary Wilson didn't qualify either and Hossein Vaffaei could be one to watch coming up on the rails.

Edit: Zhang Anda also out so the bottom few places will be shifting about quite a bit now.
 
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Bertie Wooster

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One of those mornings were all the results that I had any preferences for all went wrong!

But they were only milder preferences. Main interest in today's games are the upcoming ones - where I'm especially hoping for wins for Judd, Robertson and Page.
 

LawCharltonBest

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One of those mornings were all the results that I had any preferences for all went wrong!

But they were only milder preferences. Main interest in today's games are the upcoming ones - where I'm especially hoping for wins for Judd, Robertson and Page.
Robertson is incredibly irritating. And he's a ginger denier
 

Bertie Wooster

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Robertson is incredibly irritating. And he's a ginger denier
I like Robertson.

He's a fascinating player to watch - can be very attacking and a great break builder, can also start second guessing himself and become defensive at times and then it's interesting watching him be aware of that and try to speed up again.

He's also had it very tough mostly being the only Australasian on the tour, and with no tournaments there so he hardly ever gets home. All the other players have others from same or similar area and tournaments based in their country / continent.
 

Bertie Wooster

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Watching the European U21's, and now the main European competition for all ages, I've liked what I've seen from Latvia's Artemijs Zizins.

Fortunately, Liam Davies managed to beat him in the SF of the U21's on his way to winning it, but I like the way Zizins seems to plays - aggressive player and good potter. He's on YouTube now, in his final group game of the European competition. He's already won the first two so is through to the knockout rounds.
 

ChrisNelson

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Vafaei defeats Ronnie in the last 16 of the World Open which will disappoint the home crowd as Ding could await in the quarter-finals and Ronnie v Ding for a Chinese crowd would have been epic.

Trump v K. Wilson appears to be the pick of the ties in the quarter-finals so far.
 

Bertie Wooster

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To complete the QF line up:

Trump v K. Wilson
Slessor v Page

Junhui v Vafaei
N. Robertson v Hawkins

Personally, I'd love a Trump - Robertson final. But would also be happy to see Jackson Page reach it. In the bottom section, definitely want to see Robertson make it through.
 

Bertie Wooster

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Another impressive performance from Jackson Page today, and he's now into the semi final awaiting the winner of Trump and Wilson.
 

ChrisNelson

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Jackson is doing very well, it's just a shame he's Welsh.

Trump has soundly beaten Wilson and will play him next.

I like Slessor so slightly disappointed he didn't put up more of a fight.
 

Bertie Wooster

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So that's the semi finals sorted:

Trump v Page
N. Robertson v Ding Junhui

Happy with anyone but Ding winning it. Generally prefer Trump, but it would be a much bigger win for Page and a more important one for Robertson as it would get him back into the Top 16 (he'll be out of it, otherwise, when his points for winning the 2022 Tour Championship come off).

I'm also following the European Championship (plenty of matches on YouTube), the winner of which gets a 2 year tour card.

They're into the QF's, which start pretty much now:

Robin Hull v Florian Nuissle
Iulian Boiko v Robbie McGuigan
Brian Cini v Paul Deaville
Ryan Davies v Craig Steadman

I'd be happy to see any of Boiko, Nuissle, Deaville, Davies, McGuigan (in that order) make it. I've enjoyed what I've seen of Artemijs Zizins as well, but unfortunately he got knocked out in the last 16.
 

Bertie Wooster

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Following on from my last post, brilliant 71 clearance from Boiko to steal the first frame from Robbie McGuigan on the black. It's on YouTube and should be a good standard game (for two teenage amateurs).
 

Bertie Wooster

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Following on from my last post, brilliant 71 clearance from Boiko to steal the first frame from Robbie McGuigan on the black. It's on YouTube and should be a good standard game (for two teenage amateurs).
Boiko hasn't played great since that fantastic first frame clearance, but just as it looked like he was going out he's produced another quality clearance of 69 to steal the 6th frame on the black as well and it's going to a final frame decider at 3-3. Very enjoyable game.

EDIT: McGuigan won 4-3. Deserved, as he looked stronger with Boiko mostly hanging on in there.
 
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Bertie Wooster

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Robbie McGuigan has just qualified for the tour after winning the European Championship - beating the experienced Craig Steadman 5-4 in the final.

He's the 19 year old Northern Irishman who is / was the step son of Mark Allen. He beat Iulian Boiko and Florian Nuissle in the QF and SF, both of whom I'd have preferred to see qualify. But I was hoping he'd beat 41 year old Steadman and glad for him that he's got onto the tour.
 

T00lsh3d

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Robbie McGuigan has just qualified for the tour after winning the European Championship - beating the experienced Craig Steadman 5-4 in the final.

He's the 19 year old Northern Irishman who is / was the step son of Mark Allen. He beat Iulian Boiko and Florian Nuissle in the QF and SF, both of whom I'd have preferred to see qualify. But I was hoping he'd beat 41 year old Steadman and glad for him that he's got onto the tour.
Where are you watching these matches?
 

Bertie Wooster

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Where are you watching these matches?
They've been live on YouTube. I did mention that in a few of the posts in case anyone else wanted to follow them as well.

That's it now though for that run. There's been three consecutive tournaments, all from Sarajevo. The first was for the Q Tour play offs, then there was the Euro U21's and the European Championships. All one after another. It's been a good way of seeing some of the younger amateur players - some completely new to me, others that have been around for a while now even though they're still young (like Davies, Boiko, McGuigan..)
 

T00lsh3d

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They've been live on YouTube. I did mention that in a few of the posts in case anyone else wanted to follow them as well.

That's it now though for that run. There's been three consecutive tournaments, all from Sarajevo. The first was for the Q Tour play offs, then there was the Euro U21's and the European Championships. All one after another. It's been a good way of seeing some of the younger amateur players - some completely new to me, others that have been around for a while now even though they're still young (like Davies, Boiko, McGuigan..)
Sound. I used to watch loads of snooker when I played the game a bit more but it fell out of favour to rugby and NBA.
Be nice to see some some youngsters coming through though….seems to have been the same players dominating for about 10-15 years now
 

Bertie Wooster

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Sound. I used to watch loads of snooker when I played the game a bit more but it fell out of favour to rugby and NBA.
Be nice to see some some youngsters coming through though….seems to have been the same players dominating for about 10-15 years now
In keeping with the likely future of the sport (sadly), most of the youngsters coming through that look like they'll have a realistic chance of winning things are Chinese.

Two of those - Zhao Xintong and Yan Bingtao - were already winning some tournaments and into the top 16, but they were amongst the group of Chinese players banned for match fixing.

As regards non-Asian youngsters, the most likely ones in the last decade have probably been Luca Brecel and Jackson Page. Luca's now in his late 20's, so isn't a 'youngster', though in snooker terms that's still pretty young. And is obviously the reigning World Champion. Jackson Page is early 20's and has been highly rated but has under performed - though he got to this latest tournaments SF so that's finally something.

There's some teenagers around the circuit at the moment that I was hoping would do well - a couple of Belgians, Mertens and Leclercq, and 17 year old Stan Moody. But they've not really done anything so far and face a fight to stay on the tour.