Coral Tour Championship – Shaun Murphy v Mark Allen – Preview

The 4th quarter final sees big mates Shaun Murphy and Mark Allen battle for bragging rights oh and also a place in the Coral Tour Championship semi final!

On the head to head, Murphy leads 15-7 in all competitions. Since Allen beat Murphy in the final of the 2018 Scottish Open, Murphy has been victorious in their last three meetings, all high profile matches in The International Championship, Shanghai Masters and Players Championship.

Allen competed in the recent Championship League. He finished second to Martin O’Donnell, in his group on frame difference. He beat both Nigel Bond and Michael White 3-1 before drawing 2-2 with O’Donnell. While he he was unbeaten in the three matches, he was ring rusty and did not play with his usual fluency.

Murphy’s last competitive match, was a 6-1 defeat to Yan Bingtao, in the Players Championship at Southport in February.

I feel that this match could go all the way and we may see the first decider of the tournament so far.

Coral Tour Championship – Mark Selby v Yan Bingtao Preview

The third quarter final on Monday is an intriguing clash between three-time former world champion Mark Selby and the rapidly rising young Chinese star Yan Bingtao.

There is nothing to read into the head to head. After only two previous meetings, they are locked at 1-1. Bingtao’s victory was in the 2017 Welsh Open, where he was victorious 4-1. Their other meeting was in this seasons Champion of Champions, where Selby won 4-0.

Both players have had successful seasons. Selby has won two ranking events. He demolished David Gilbert 9-1 to win the English Open and he beat Jack Lisowski 9-6 to win the Scottish Open.

Bingtao won the Riga Masters last July, beating Mark Joyce 5-2 to become the first player born after 2000 to win a ranking event. He also became the first teenager to win a ranking event, since Ding Junhui won the 2006 Northern Ireland Trophy as a 19yo. He was also runner up to Judd Trump in the Players Championship final at Southport in March, losing 10-4. He has also made the semi finals of The UK Championship, Welsh Open and the Shootout.

Stephen Hendry, has recently spoken about Bingtao and admits he is not a fan of his style of play or shot selection. However, he is only 20 and has rapidly rose up the rankings, hence his involvement in this tournament. He is increasingly involved at the business end of tournaments and there is no doubt it will be a tough match for Selby.

Selby though, excels in the longer format matches. His eight triple crown titles pay testament to that and I think his class and experience will see him progress to the last four with a hard fought 9-6 / 9-7 victory.

Coral Tour Championship – Judd Trump v John Higgins preview

The second match of the tournament  sees Judd Trump up against John Higgins.

The head to head favours Higgins 22-16-1 in all competitions. However this does include Championship League matches, which are a best of 5 lottery.

Trump won the last tournament before lockdown in March, The Gibraltar Open. Higgins did not play in this competition and incidentally, his last competitive match was a 6-3 defeat to Trump, in the Coral Players Championship at Southport in February.

Although, Higgins holds a slight advantage on the head to head, Trump has won their last six meetings, including the 2019 World  Championship.

Trump played in the Championship League at Milton Keynes earlier this month. He won his group with routine wins over David Grace, Elliott Slessor and Daniel Wells. However, in the group winners semi final stage, he finished second and failed to qualify for finals day. He lost 3-0 to an on fire Ryan Day, before beating Barry Hawkins 3-1 and drawing 2-2 with David Gilbert.

Higgins’ form is something  of an unknown  quantity, as already stated  Higgins has not played competitively since February. However the same could have been said of Stephen  Maguire, prior to his match with Neil Robertson yesterday, only for Maguire to upset the odds to beat Robertson 9-5 and knock in six centuries!

Personally, I can’t see anything other than a comprehensive victory for Trump, maybe 9-3 or 9-4.

Coral Tour Championship – Neil Robertson v Stephen Maguire Preview

Today sees the first match in the Coral Tour Championship at The Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes. A tournament in which the seasons top eight performers, compete for the £150K first prize.

Ding Junhui was due to play Neil Robertson today, however, due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, he decided not to make the journey from China. Therefore, his place went to the 9th placed player on the one year rankings list, which is Stephen Maguire.

In all competitions, these two have met on 27 occasions, with Maguire having what some may consider a surprising 17-10 upperhand.

The last time they met, was in January at the 2020 Masters at the Alexandra Palace in London and it produced a classic! Robertson stormed into a 4-0 lead and then 5-1, before Maguire staged a dramatic fightback, with breaks of 105, 81, 65 and 62 to complete a remarkable comeback to win 6-5. Robertson was in imperious form around this time, as he reached 3 consecutive finals in January and February, wining two of them. This highlights how good the Masters victory over Robertson was for Maguire.

The Championship League which started on June 1st, was the first snooker to be played since the Gibraltar Open in March. Neil Robertson competed, but failed to qualify from his group. He lost 1-3 to Ashley Carty, drew 2-2 with 1997 world champion Ken Doherty and beat Kurt Maflin 3-1. These results saw him finish 2nd in the group. Overall he performed underwhelmingly, however, after a three month break and his exertions early in the year, he can be excused and he will almost certainly be more polished for this exclusive event.

Stephen Maguire’s form is an unknown. He last played a competitive match on 28th February. It was also another classic! This time against Judd Trump in The Coral Players Championship. Maguire was 0-3 down, before surging into a 5-3 lead only to succumb to a 6-5 defeat. He did not enter the Championship League earlier in the month, therefore will most likely be a little ring rusty in a competitive match situation. He does, however, have his own practice facility, which he shares with John Higgins and Anthony McGill.

It should be a very competitive match and very much a free hit for Maguire, given his late invitation. Much in the way that Ally Carter was given entry to the Masters following Ronnie O’Sullivans withdrawal and went on to reach the final, Maguire will be hoping for the same. The longer best of 17 format suits both players and this match could well be very close.

My introduction to snooker and blogging….

Welcome to Right On Cue Snooker Blog. I have just launched my site this month, June 2020. I hope, over the coming months you will enjoy reading my blog. It is my aim to blog at least once a week to provide news, views and reviews of WST matches and tournaments. I also aim to provide a nostalgic look back at snooker in the 1980s and 1990s.

My first vivid memory of snooker, whilst growing up as a young child in the 1980s, is surprisingly not the 1985 ‘black ball final’ between Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor. No, my first memory is actually Joe Johnson’s pink shoes in the 1986 World Championship final.

From then on, I was hooked. Santa Claus kindly brought me a 4ft-6in table for christmas in 1986. I showed potential and if there had been a world championship held on a 4ft-6in table, then surely I would’ve been among the favourites to lift the trophy. I was unable to replicate my form on a full size table and my greatest achievement, thus far, is to be crowned a three-time runner up in the annual works snooker competition, where first prize is a £10 Boots gift voucher!! Not quite enough to threaten Judd Trump on the one-year rankings list.

I’m pretty certain that not many people will remember my second most vivid snooker memory. It was a 5-0 victory for Stephen Hendry against Silvino Francisco in a QF of the 1987 Mercantile Credit. I remember watching it live on TV whilst playing on my new snooker table. Hendry at the time was about 18 years old. I vividly recall the commentators raving about how good he was. As it turned out, they weren’t too far out in their assessment!

As a youngster I avidly watched whatever snooker was on TV at the time. Thirty five years on, things haven’t changed, other than I now watch even more, thanks to BBC, ITV and Eurosport. From memory, it seemed that in the 1980s, the venue was always one of The Hexagon, The Guild Hall, Wembley Conference Centre or The Crucible, although obviously that wasn’t the case.

I was desperate to actually attend a tournament in person at a venue, to see exactly what it was like close up. However, during the late 80s and early 90s, there wasn’t that many tournaments, let alone any in the north-east of England where i lived. Until, it was announced that the 1995 Skoda Grand Prix would be staged at the Crowtree Leisure Centre in Sunderland – my home town!! At last my chance to attend a professional tournament in person. All of the big names were there, Davis, Hendry, White and Parrott to name but a few. My first ever live game was to feature none of the above names, instead the first match I ever saw was a last 32 match between Mark Flowerdew and Ken Doherty. This was followed later in the evening, by Tony Drago against Dene O’Kane. At 4-2 up, Drago was laughing and joking with the sparse crowd. Three frames later, he was on the wrong end of a 5-4 scoreline and left a dividing curtain wondering what it had done to upset him as he left the arena – well cubicle.

This gave me the taste for live snooker and after pestering my dad for a long time to go to the Crucible, I finally got to attend the World Championship in 1998. The first match I ever saw, again involved Ken Doherty, this time against Stephen Lee. Any Crucible veterans reading this, will recall the old ticketing system, whereby, you had to complete a booking form by stating which matches you wished to attend and the quantity of tickets required. You then had to send the booking form back to the Crucible box office and cross everything that your application would be successful. A far cry from the current ticketing process….. Fortunately, my dad and I have been able to secure tickets for the World Championship every year since 1998 and should fans be allowed to attend this year, it will be our 23rd consecutive Crucible.

My three favourite matches I have watched at the Crucible are as follows:

Steve Davis 13 -11 John Higgins – 2010 – It was great to watch my favourite player growing up as a child, roll back the years to reach the QF at the age of 52. The atmosphere in the Crucible was electric as he doubled a brown, before sinking the blue and pink to seal a famous 13-11 victory.

Ali Carter 13 – 9 Ronnie O’Sullivan – 2018 – This match could’ve been renamed “shouldergate” or ‘Muhammad’ Ali Carter v Rocky O’Sullivan after their infamous shoulder barge incident. This was the first time Carter had ever beaten O’Sullivan in a ranking event.

Neil Robertson 13 – 12 Martin Gould – 2010 – This was the year Robertson won his first and to date, his only World Championship. At 6-0 down and 11-5 down, it seemed highly unlikely that he would progress any further. However, he managed to to conjure up a famous Crucible comeback and sealed a 13-12 victory, before going on to lift the trophy.

I hope that you have enjoyed my introductory blog. You can follow Right On Cue Snooker Blog on both Twitter and Facebook by clicking on the above links and you can also subscribe to my blog by clicking on the follow link.

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog.