Snooker

So we have a World Champion, and he’s Australian. Neil Robertson was brilliant up until the final, but then again so was Graeme Dott. The contest, last more than half a day of solid table time, showed the fragile line between brilliance and mediocrity. These two players had been exceptional on their routes to the final, but the prize unnerved them at times, and made the unmissable missable. It wasn’t flowing, fluent sport, but it was something equally compelling. It was men against their demons, their fears and their hopes, trying to find equanimity. Often when two opponents are at their best you don’t see that side of the event. But Robertson, this time, had just enough.

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Twenty20

The rainy season begins in large chunks of the Caribbean, Guyana included, in May. Good time for cricket, then. Sure, it’s sharp shower, but that tends to be all one needs to blight a three hour cricket game. The Duckworth Lewis system does not appear to be calibrated for Twenty20, and when rain intervenes, the result is seemingly unfair revised totals, and a desire to get a result at all costs. England found that to their cost last night against the West Indies, when 14 poor balls at the start of their bowling innings cost them a game which they would have had 17 and a half overs to put right normally, and earlier in the day it killed the contest between Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka before it ever really got going. These results may not determine the overall winner - but should the semi-final or final fall prey to such rainfall, the upshot could be farce.

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Now we’ve seen Mayweather fight Mosley…

… we want the same thing we wanted all along. Mayweather-Pacquiao. The idea that these two might not meet in the ring is just too hideous an idea to even contemplate. Mosley and Clottey, the two men the fighters met instead of each other, are admirable adversaries, obdurate boxers, gifted and resilient, champions on their day. They simply don’t hold a candle to either Mayweather or Pacquiao. All we really need to know now, all we need to be excited about for months of build-up, is which one of the Filipine aggressor or the American counter-puncher would win a 12 round contest? The credibility of boxing hinges on the fight happening.

Steve Davis does… something he’s done before

Beating world number 1 and defending champion John Higgins over 25 frames was probably some achievement, but once again, we weren’t quite sure how to explain it. Enter the Daily Mail:

Steve Davis, at the age of 52, knocking out world champion and new world No 1 John Higgins. It really does represent an extraordinary story.

Davis has officially ‘rolled back the years’ before, notably in beating Ronnie O’Sullivan to win the Masters in 1997, and then again in reaching the UK Championship final in 2005.

That particular phrase is rolling back the years, too.

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Carl Froch is… licking his wounds

Yes, Mikkel Kessler probably just about had the better of their fight in Denmark, and Froch has in the process surrendered his WBC title and his unbeaten record, but though he is hurting at the moment he can surely walk away with his head higher than he normally keeps his hands. Since he claimed the title he has proven himself a game champion, ready to face tough opponents here, there and everywhere. He has provided great entertainment, and the only shame is that it has all too rarely been easy to view. Tough questions follow for Froch in the wake of this defeat, but he still has much to give boxing and the Super Six competition.

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United and Chelsea are… determined to drag title race out

The only way that this unpredictable race cannot go to the final day is if Manchester United are beaten away at Sunderland on Sunday - and as topsy-turvy as the league has been this year, one cannot help but feel that the twists will continue to the very end. United found a way past the rejuvenated Spurs, and then Chelsea delivered an almighty thumping to Stoke, which was as impressive as it was ultimately meaningless. And just when you think you can take your eyes away from the action, there’s the small matter of Tottenham facing Manchester City to determine fourth - unless Liverpool or Villa sneak in instead. And then in the summer there’s a nice, inconsequential friendly tournament in South Africa to think of…

Steve Davis - Photo J a 1 CCA

We couldn’t possibly comment - but then we don’t need to. We have these reports of last night’s 10-9 victory over Mark King to help us understand just how Steve Davis triumphed:

BBC Sport: Steve Davis rolled back the years to beat Mark King 10-9 in a first round match lasting more than seven-and-a-half hours at the World Championship.

Sky Sports: Steve Davis rolled back the years to beat Mark King 10-9 in a late thriller in the Betfred.com World Championship at the Crucible.

Daily Star: STEVE DAVIS rolled back the years to make it a glorious return to the Crucible last night.

It turns out, however, that this business of year-rolling-back has been going on for some time. In fact, disconcertingly, the whole concepts of space and time come into sharp focus when you realise that Davis is rolling back the years to a time when he was already rolling back the years.

Daily Mail - Feb 2007: Steve Davis rolled back the years to knock world champion Graeme Dott out of the Welsh Open in Newport tonight - then went in search of a hotel room.

Mirror - February 1997: But he kept Wembley’s biggest snooker audience enthralled as he rolled back the years…

Of course, all of this is a credit to Davis for displaying a remarkable longevity and wonderful standard of snooker. He stands alone from his era in still being able to compete with the best of today’s game. But perhaps, then, the least his achievements deserve are some less cliche-driven reports.

Jenson Button

The man who was giving up a title-winning car and joining a team where he might be considered the second driver is currently leading the Formula One World Championship. Sure, rain has helped, but it should not be forgotten that Hamilton, Button’s team mate, was supposed to be the master of the wet race. Whatever else you can say about Jenson, and wherever his season goes from here, he’s certainly fared better than many of his critics suggested he would. Now we await the arrival of F1 for the European summer, volcano fallout pending (did you think we’d ever have to write that?)

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Title race

Remember when the title race was over? Four point lead, four games remaining - Chelsea were home again. And it was a whisker away from being three points and a game in hand, but it wasn’t to be. United won their derby, and Chelsea lost theirs. Who knew? Then Arsenal finally confirmed that they weren’t a factor in the Championship race by spurning the chance to close to three points with inexplicable defeat at Wigan. The volcano wouldn’t have affected United or Chelsea this week even if they had qualified for the semi-finals of the Champions League which take place this week, but at least the race has erupted back into life. (OK, we’re already running low on sport and volcano material).

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Snooker time

Sheffield in April is one of our favourite stops of the sporting year, and the first weekend was a hint at what was to come. Confident opening games from the likes of John Higgins and Mark Selby, the tension of Stephen Hendry finding a way to the second round, and Ronnie O’Sullivan, Mark Williams and Neil Robertson still to come. They may make changes to the game with the arrival of Barry Hearns, but just as it is with Test cricket, there is something special about the the length and the flow of the World Championships. Make changes elsewhere. And no, snooker at Sheffield is one event which we’re very unlikely to ever see threatened by the fallout of an erupting volcano in Iceland.

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Oh - and…

Rafa Nadal’s had a lean time of things, but he’s not terrible on clay courts, is he?

The Jester from Leicester was the night's entertainment - Photo Nux CCA

Snooker loopy

The people who say that snooker is a dying sport have already closed their minds to it, and their opinions will not be changed. The evidence to the contrary, however, was there for all who want to see it with a magnificent final which saw Mark Selby claim the Masters title at Wembley for the second time in only his third attempt. He did so by reeling off the last four frames to turn a 9-6 deficit into a 10-9 victory. Ronnie O’Sullivan has been on the wrong side of comebacks recently - his defeat to John Higgins in the semi-finals of the UK Open was brave but in vain - but in the process he has produced some of his best snooker, and forced his opponents to do the same. When the best players produce close contests, the results are captivating.

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South Africa secure some of what they deserve

Sadly the English cricketers could not muster such a contest against the South Africans as the gripping Test series reached its conclusion. Having refused to be cowed in the First and Third Tests and in the process securing priceless draws, England simply appeared to have run out of fight by the time they reached the Wanderers. But had one suggested that England would not be beaten over the course of Test, Twenty20 and ODI series against South Africa, it would have been a struggle to find anyone who would have believed it. There’s something disheartening about the end of the series, and the same issues of under-performing batsmen and unspectacular bowlers remain from the Ashes series, but the feeling lingers that the side is moving in the right direction.

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A Savage face shot

One crumb of comfort of being stuck on the road on a Sunday afternoon is the chance to follow the football on the radio. Sometimes you get a cracking match, and the vivid words of the commentary team combined with the flights of your imagination produce huge excitement. Sometimes you have to make do with a damp squib of a game, such as the one between Aston Villa and West Ham yesterday, with ‘expert’ analysis from the man with far too much of a media profile, one Robbie Savage. Just when you’re ready to give up on the radio, though, the summariser catches a ball flush on the face, and it’s all worthwhile.

Giggs disappointed - had voted for Mark Cavendish - Photo Gordon Flood CCA

SPOTY 2009

Having assumed we were going to be here this morning writing a long post about how Jenson Button’s reward was nothing but a reflection of Formula One being the only sport that the BBC covered in any real detail on television this year, and that this was therefore reflected in a public vote little more meaningful than Strictly Come Dancing the night before, it transpires we were wrong. Instead, we have to write a post about a sentimental award given to an admittedly quite excellent footballer in the twilight of his career whose achievements this year in a team sport match very few of his rivals in individual pursuits, rendering the public vote little more meaningful than Strictly Come Dancing the night before. No winner of the award would have made much sense - but that’s a reflection on the outmoded-but-more-fiercely-plugged-than-ever Sports Personality of the Year awards rather than the ten excellent choices for finalists (let alone the many others who were contentiously left out).

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Snooker provides our highlight of the sporting weekend

John Higgins had built up an 8-2 lead in a semi-final clash with Ronnie O’Sullivan and required only one more frame. Piece by piece, though, O’Sullivan drew him back in. Sometimes Ronnie was merely gritty and took advantage of half-chances, sometimes, as when he compiled a break of 134, he was quite brilliant, and sometimes he benefited from a huge chunk of luck and a loophole in the rules. But before you could quite believe it the score was 8-8. With six chances to win the match spurned already that evening, Higgins finally found enough to get past the line. When the world’s best players in any sport produce such a close contest it is inevitably worth watching. Snooker needs its profile raising because there are not enough nights like the one Higgins and O’Sullivan provided, but when Barry Hearn takes over we must hope he doesn’t create events which cannot recreate such drama.

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Heavyweight boxing rumbles listlessly on

A heavyweight title fight really ought to produce considerably more emotion and excitement, but Vitali Klitschko’s win against Kevin Johnson in Switzerland was another damp squib. Klitschko was efficient and untroubled throughout, and it was a travesty that Kevin Johnson picked up a single round on one of the three judges’ scorecards, so far away was he from competing. But for all his dominance Klitschko rarely moved away from the jab and his four victories since re-emerging from retirement have done little else but remind us that he is still the best of a very average bunch of heavyweights. Haye must fight a Klitschko brother, and it must be in 2010. For boxing, it is a chance to breathe some life into the division which used to be the standard bearer. For Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko, it’s a chance to win a fight against someone that would make the boxing community look upon their careers a little more kindly.

For those of you watching in black and white... - Photo isriya CCANC

The BBC look for a quirky story most days which tends to appear on the right hand column next to the transfer gossip, and today’s offering is a fine example of a story which on the surface may sound rather exciting but in the end struggles to be even mildly curious.

Allen plays down colour blindness

A snooker player who can’t differentiate between colours? But colours are so important in snooker! Whatever next? A pole vaulter who’s afraid of heights? So what’s the story?

Northern Irishman Mark Allen has played down reports that he has been able to move into snooker’s elite despite being affected by colour blindness.

Careful, my journalist friend, that sounds like he’s denying that he has moved into snooker’s elite, not that he’s denying the colour blindness had any effect. Given he’s in the top 16 and has just beaten Ronnie O’Sullivan over 25 frames at the World Championships, it’s safe to say that he is one of the better snooker players in the world.

“It’s not really that big a deal,” said the 23-year-old.

Brilliant. This is getting more newzy by the minute. Incidentally, can anyone show us the reports where they said that this was a big deal?

“Sometimes I have a bit of problem between the reds and brown but if I’m in any doubt, I ask the referee.”

Minor problem - obvious and simple solution. Newz!

Allen added: “If the brown is on its spot it’s never a problem but if it’s among the reds, sometimes I have to ask the referee, which I’m allowed to do.”

Minor problem very gently clarified - obvious and simple solution - also within the rules of snooker. Newz!

According to Wikipedia colour blindness affects approximately 8% of Caucasian males. In the provisional world’s top 16 snooker rankings for next year there are 14 Caucasian males. One player being colour blind would work out to just over 7% of the Caucasian male membership of snooker’s elite being colour blind, which despite being a small statistical sampling is nonetheless consistent with society at large.

What we learn from the above is that becoming an excellent snooker player is probably more to do with accuracy, cue control, the ability to perceive angles, potting and composure, and so forth, rather than the ability to discern one colour from another. Who knew? Snooker was still seen on TV when pictures came in black and white - colour is not the game’s defining characteristic.

Still, Mark Allen can’t always tell the difference between red and brown - bet we could get a few hundred words out of that.

Anyone for snooker - Photo cauneUK CCANC

There is so much to see on YouTube that it tempts you to give up full-time work and enslave yourself to seeing every last video (barring those ones of babies and kittens doing cute things). But where to begin? Sport without Spin will guide you with a digest of some of our favourite clips.

This week our excitement is reaching fever pitch as the World Snooker Championships get under way at the Crucible in Sheffield, and to whet your appetite, here are seven glorious moments of ingenuity, bravado, escapism and class from some of the leading lights of the game.

1. Alex Higgins shows he has some natural aptitude for snooker

Long before Ronnie the Rocket brought his own brand of genius and controversy to snooker there was Alex ‘The Hurricane’ Higgins, a ridiculously talented snooker player with a volatile personality and a fondness for drinking a lot back in the day when drinking and smoking at professional tournaments was the norm. Much like Ronnie, his achievements are a poor reflection of his talent, and this clip of him knocking around with John Virgo showcases the natural ability that won him two World Championships including his very first attempt. If the length of the table pink along the rail isn’t enough to make your jaw drop, wait for the one handed black to middle followed by a nonchalant chucking of the cue onto the table before it drops, safe in the knowledge he won’t need it again.

2. Mark Williams makes snooker look very very easy

Mark Williams, the only left handed player to win the world title (although Ronnie often reverts to playing left-handed out of boredom with improbable success), has been hugely inconsistent since his second world title in 2003, but has often made the game look very easy, including a superb Crucible 147 in 2005. This clip shows enough skills to pay a few years worth of bills, starting with a very difficult shot made to look very easy, developing reds from the bottom cushion by screwing with no little side spin off the black, followed by an bafflingly effortless underarm pot and a fluke for good measure.

3. Ronnie O’Sullivan plays a treble - why not?

Arguably the most talented player to have graced the game, it is a fair reflection of Ronnie’s ability that it is hard to doubt that he not only meant this treble to middle but also played for position on the pink.

4. Stephen Maguire escapes an O’Sullivan snooker

There is a strong possibility that Maguire is a future world champion, and this ingenious escape from an O’Sullivan snooker blends imagination with talent by using spin, the cushion, and the jaws of the pocket to avoid fouling in a tight frame and earn a fully deserved rapturous round of applause.

5. Jimmy White believes in snooker with spin

Jimmy ‘The Whirlwind’ White will probably be forever known as the greatest player never to win a World Title, snooker’s answer to Colin Montgomerie without the consolation of a cracking Ryder Cup record, as a Europe v USA snooker match would be unbelievably rubbish. He will, however, always be affectionately remembered as a great showman and one of the most exciting players of all time, not least for his sparkling crucible maximum in 1992. It is a notable achievement of the snooker towards the end of this break that it manages to upstage the outrageous white get up worn by his opponent Kirk stevens and the Mullet-off sideshow they have clearly both indulged in (Stevens wins comfortably). On his way to the 1984 Masters title, White compiles his century break and then jumps on the showboat to complete the clearance with more spin than a tabloid paper’s transfer rumour.

6. Jimmy White escapes a snooker

The mastery of the cue ball demonstrated by White in the previous clip was not just handy for eye-catching clearances, but also for getting out of the odd pickle. The snooker O’Sullivan leaves White in should have taken a lot of consideration and a good few cushions. White somehow makes the shot using none.

7. Ronnie O’Sullivan scores 147 in 1997 at the rate of 1 point per 2.17 seconds

O’Sullivan’s 1997 maximum is probably the best example of perfection on a snooker table. Ronnie made what was his first ever maximum break in competition with ridiculous ease, taking just 5 minutes and 20 seconds to clear the table. He has since made 9, more than any other player, including 3 at the World Championships where no other player has made more than one, and The Rocket justifies his nickname with the five fastest of all time. His first remains the quickest, and it is hard to see it ever being done quicker. Unless Ronnie does it himself.