Snooker Weekly (August 27, 2007)

by Alex Holowczak

Welcome to Snooker Weekly, an weekly article (funnily enough...) about the happenings and going on in the global phenomenon that is the world's favourite cuesport.

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.
26. Another error from White left Hendry in to reduce his deficit to 14-12.

Frame 27

Other News

• Floyd Ziegler came from nowhere to beat favourite Alain Robidoux to take the Canadian National title. Robidoux lost 6-3 in the Semi Final. He beat Tom Finstad 6-0 in the Final to cap a brilliant tournament. He had three 4-0 wins in his group, before earning a 5-2 and 5-0 win to set up the Robidoux clash. He only lost 5 frames in the entire competition, and is perhaps a great prospect for Canadian snooker.
• Barry Pinches beat Ken Doherty to win the Paul Hunter German Open in front of a sellout 1,800 crowd. It was a shock victory for a player ranked number 80 in the world provisionally.
• Supoj Saenla won the Thailand Open, the sixth ranking event on the Chinese Tour, by scoring a 5-4 win in the final. Thepchiya Un-nooh was behind throughout, and did well to force a decider.

Other "Odds and Sods"

• Matthew Stevens will face Jimmy White in a Masters qualifier. White is adored in London, but faces Stevens, who is rebuilding after a poor 2006/07 season. White may still earn a wildcard, even if he loses, due to the non-ranking status of the event, and due to his popularity.

This week

• The IBSF World Under 21 Championship takes place this week. The favourites after the group stages are Daniel Wells of Wales and Passakorn Suwannawat of Thailand.
• Also beginning next Monday is the IBSF World Billiards Championship, to be held in Singapore. (Remember, IBSF means amateurs only.)