If you are not reading a certain word in Stephen Hendry’s voice, you are doing it wrong.
This is only just a fun countdown to wind down the end of the year. Starting this, I could think of a number of things, such as Mark Williams’s war with BT, the STAR tables during the World Championships and even thought of the infamous Ghou Yolonge and Jamie Jones accidently flying to the wrong country until I realised these two were last year. Anyways, here is the countdown!
Comfortable win for Shaun Murphy 6 1 against the young Chinese player Ghou Yolonge. In The UK snooker. Back to back https://t.co/8wRZFJXH51
— Dennis Taylor (@dennistaylor147) November 28, 2015
6. Trump’s not-so-smart and fiery Twitter rant (against Dominic Dale)
Surprisingly, my initial search of “Trump twitter rant” came out with many different sources of material than I initially expected.
After specifying what I was looking for, I made a blurb about it. Judd Trump used Twitter to reach out to those lucky enough to be in Sheffield at the time to buy them a drink if he came back to win against Liang Wenbo in the first World Championship match from at 7-3 down. He came back to win 10-8 and thousands of pounds worth of beer were flowing. The next time Judd used Twitter were for different reasons. In the next round, he was involved in a spat against Dominic Dale after Dale criticised his cue ball control compared to Ding Junhui’s. Judd responded by saying “You are clueless. Watch my first break of 80 something then watch both his frames.” He went on to lose 13-10 to Ding, with Dale defending his comments and getting rid of his Twitter account altogether.
Dale was maybe wrong to criticise him during the game but why the hell would you use social networking to distract you from the game? Judd claimed the argument played no part in his loss, but still……
5. The unfortunate feathering of Anthony Hamilton
Most of these are muck-ups for good old laughs, but this one so heart-wrenching and shocking that I had to put this in. In the Northern Ireland Open, both Hawkins and Hamilton are one frame away from a place in the final to face Mark King. Hamilton was at a start of a potential high break until he touched the cue ball, committing a foul and Hawkins went on to make a break of 59 – not the winning break but vital.
This is so shocking simply because it barely happens in the professional live game and also because everyone was rooting for the Sherriff of Pottingham to go on and win his first ranking title. The most important time and we will never know if he would go on to make that winning break or even beat Mark King to steal the limelight of winning his first ranking title! Seems like he will be known as the best player to never win a ranking title for a few more months…. [1]
4. “Un-Nooh, I’ve done it again!”
We, unfortunately, have all seen Thepchaiya Un-Nooh’s very quick attempt for a 147 in the 2015 World Championship only to miss it on the final black and how agonising it was. Now, in the World Championship qualifying this year – IT HAPPENED AGAIN.
This was the second 147 attempt and the SECOND time he missed it on the final black, provoking outcries of the commentary box, Thep throwing his cue across the table and having to dwell on it during the first interval. He then went on to lose 10-7 to Anthony McGill in the final qualifying round. The worst deja vu moment ever.
But, here is the good news – Un-Nooh is now part of the exclusive club to score a 147! He hit the 119th maximum break in professional competition against Kurt Maflin in the Paul Hunter Classic this year!
3. John Virgo’s public liking of Match of the Day
Actually, Match of the Day is a very good programme. I mean, my team Swindon Town are never on it otherwise, everyone’s televisions will waft a foul odour if their ‘highlights’ ever turn up. Now I probably reminded you lot that Match of the Day is on tonight. You are welcome.
What we actually do know is that John Virgo also likes Match of the Day so much that he spoke of his impatience to watch it during the World Championship semi-finals between Mark Selby and Marco. The video clip is below:
When John Virgo starts moaning about missing the racing and having to settle for the F***ing MOTD 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/Zq7bHHSs7v
— Alex Walmsley (@engywalmsley) April 30, 2016
Now, this is the bloody semi-finals where fantastic potting and especially safety play was absolutely mesmerizing and yet Virgo has to complain about that. You can argue – fair enough – that particular frame ran to 76 minutes and 11 seconds and became the longest in the Crucible’s history. The #careless thing about this is that Virgo believed his conversation could not be picked up by the microphone – he was rightly embarrassed and apologetic about it – but we know it can be so much worse. Just look at Richard “It Was Just Banter” Keys, Andy “Can you believe that? A female linesman” Gray and even worse, Ron Atkinson!
2. Got my waistcoat, my tie, and my chalk – I’ll go to the arena and….oh bugger.
So, as a new champion Mark King enters a new ranking event champion, ready to play his first round match against Sam Craigie and what does he do? He forgets his bloody cue. King admitted it was one for the ‘silly book’ and loved the idea that within days has done two things for the first time – win a ranking title and forgetting the one bloody thing to play the damn sport. Mark Lawrenson commented that it’s like a footballer not putting his boots on!
Oh. There it is.
1. The very sleepy and too relaxed Xiao Guodong
But at least Mark King brought himself to the match. Xiao on the other hand, slept through his! Apparently, he thought his match was in the next session, but there is no excuse for forgetting it! It was the Shanghai Masters qualifiers, and he was due to play Jimmy Robertson for a place in China. Unfortunately, he was nowhere to be seen.
This isn’t even the only careless thing he has done this year – during the English Open, he drove from the tournament with the wrong cue! He took Chris Wakelin’s cue by mistake (after losing 4-3 to him? A likely story!) He managed to return it before Chris’s first quarter-final though (not enough stress for him!)
Who do you think are the most careless cock-ups? Write it down below!
[1] EDIT: A Twitterer mentioned that I repeated an Anthony Hamilton paragraph twice. Now that is #careless. I decided to get rid of that mistake, but please appreciate the irony!
