Snooker Weekly (August 20, 2007)

by Alex Holowczak

Here's the second installment of Snooker Weekly. This will be a lot shorter than last week for one fundamental reason - not a lot has happened. But there's still enough to talk about in an article.

Video of the Week

So far

1. Hendry made a 105 break to lead 1-0.
2. White made breaks of 70 and 47 to level the match at 1-1.
3. The closest frame of the match as Hendry won a black ball game after both players missed chances. He lead 2-1.
4. White made a 100 break to level at 2-2.
5. A tight frame that took over half an hour with a lot of safety exchanges. Foul and a Miss rule came into play before White went into a 3-2 lead.
6. Hendry touched the black and called a foul on himself, but White missed his chance and Hendry won the frame to level at 3-3.
7. A close frame that White won on the pink to lead 4-3.
8. Poor play from Hendry - nervous misses from him handed the frame to White, who led 5-3.
9. Good start from Hendry. White fought back, but Hendry closed the frame out, to trail 5-4.
10. Another win for White, a break of 43 took him over the line, to go into a 6-4 lead.
11. Hendry was behind all the way, but an error from White at the end gave Hendry a chance, that he took, to be only 6-5 down at the mid-session interval.
12. Hendry was winning the frame, until White fluked the yellow and position on the green. It won him the frame and gave him a 7-5 lead.
13. White dominated the frame after bad play from Hendry to lead 8-5.
14. White made two 30 breaks to extend his lead to four frames at 9-5.
15. Hendry took advantage of a mistake from White to reduce his deficit to 9-6.
16. A strong break from White who won to extend his lead to 4, and a 10-6 lead.
17. A 40 break from White to start, and then a consolidation break of 50, to give himself a 5 frame lead at 11-6.
18. A 134 break from White gave him a 6 frame advantage to lead 12-6.
19. Hendry fights back with an 86 break, to reduce his deficit to 12-7.
20. Another frame won by Hendry, and he is back within four at 12-8.
21. White won the frame comfortably to extend his lead to 5 at 13-8.
22. A great long red paved the way for White to go 6 ahead at 14-8, and move to within four frames of victory.
23. Chances for White, but Hendry responded to pinch the frame, and move only 5 frames behind.
24. White looked certain to win the frame and lead 15-9, but Hendry cleared magnificantly with a 64 break, after White missed an easy red. So 14-10 into the evening session.
25. Hendry stole the frame from White, and the lead was reduced to 14-11.

Frame 26

Other News

• Matthew Couch won the Paul Hunter English Open in Leeds. He had a surprising victory over Aussie Neil Robertson, the World Number 7, 6-5 in the final. Robertson made the two highest breaks, of 134 and 133.
• David Morris won the Irish Classic, a weekend tournament involving 7 Irishmen from North and South of the border, as well as one Englishman. He beat Fergal O'Brien 5-3 in the final.

Other "Odds and Sods"

• Stuart Bingham made his second 147 maximum break, doing so in the sixth frame of his match against Joe Swail, a frame that won him the match 4-2.

This week

• Canadian National Championship - five time Canada Champion Alain Robidoux will try to retain his title. He will face competition from Tom Finstad, and 33 others in what was once the best snooker nation in the world. Greats from the 1980s such as Cliff Thorburn and Kirk Stevens have not entered this year.