The very first Snooker related piece produced in this space, back in 2012, was headlined ‘Sedate Pace But Not Much Grace’. At the time it was in reference to the tempestuous Mark Allen having a petulant spat with somebody or other. Probably all of the sport knowing him.
Other than that, we know Ronnie O’Sullivan is an, eh, enigmatic character. But even those two ‘characters’ combined wouldn’t hold a match to what I think were looney anti oil ‘protesters’ – anarchists more like – for chaos caused when a pair of unhinged lunatics stormed the playing arena in the Crucible Theatre and defaced one of the tables WHILE a match was in progress.
Leading, naturally, to the match in question, and therefore the entire tournament schedule to be thrown out of kilter. Now, unfortunately, half wit sh*t stirrers disrupting sporting events is nothing new.
Look no further than the clueless clowns at Aintree last Saturday. The annoyingly ironic thing is, those so-called animal rights ‘activists’ (scumbags in reality) actually caused more harm to the steeds and put them in the way of more harm than any ’cause’ they were hoping to advance.
But snooker lads, really? Right so it was a different set of fruitcakes who invaded the Crucible, but what the venue, the sport or, Lord help us, the tables did to irk their sensetive little souls is difficult to fathom.
While it seems extremely lax for Police to have let the culprits out on bail, this week of all weeks, in this part of the world, one is in no position to cast aspersions on anbody in that regard.
Anyway, thankfully some enthralling action on the tables has blessedly denied the meddlers the attention they so crave. Most notably from the aforementioned Mr Allen and, as referred to elsewhere, The Rocket and Neil Robertson and, my old favourite, John Higgins.
At this point, it’s worth noting that – at the time of typing – Sean Murphy and Mark Selby and Kyron Wilson and Ryan Day – who hit the highest break in qualifying for the Sheffield venue – have yet to enter the fray.
Akin to the Championships at Wimbledon when they enter the second week, I always feel the serious action doesn’t really get going until the action is reduced to a single table affair.
Again, in the interest of fairness, let it be said that in no way is this corner claiming to be an expert in the battle of many bals. Even though more of it has been taken in than would normally be the case.
Yet even with that, the inclination that the ultimate destination of the sport’s top gong will be with one of the usual suspects is hard to shake off. Meaning Ronnie or Selby or (hopefully) John Higgins, but then, there’s a corner of the calculation box here tempted to swing the lens in a different direction.
Thoughts are specifically drawn to Mark Allen who, lest it be forgotten, is chasing the sport’s triple crown, or Neil Robertson or Kyron Wilson. A bit of Johnny being good will do for me though.