UK CHAMPIONSHIP SNOOKER2014
LAST 16 TODAY
In this blog and tomorrows as well I plan to look at the players
competing in the UK championship and give you a brief history. This is the third biggest tournament o the
year and to the players this is considered one of the three majors. I have
written down the matches that are being played today as this is the first
serious round of competition and I plan
on giving my thoughts on who I think will win.
Wednesday 3 December
Last 16
13:00 GMT
Anthony McGill (Sco) v John Higgins (Sco)
Stuart Bingham (Eng) v Ricky Walden (Eng)
19:00 GMT
James Cahill (Eng) v Joe Perry (Eng)
Neil Robertson (Aus) v Graeme Dott (Sco)
ANTHONY MC GILL
Anthony McGill (born 5 February 1991) is a Scottish
professional snooker player. He turned professional in 2010, after finishing
fourth in the 2009/2010 PIOS rankings. He was runner-up to Stuart Carrington in
the 2006 Junior Pot Black. He was
runner-up in the 2008 European Under-19′s Championship behind Stephen Craigie.
In the 2009/2010 season he won the fifth event of the International Open Series
and finished fourth in the rankings. Thus, McGill received a place on the
professional Main Tour for 2010/2011.. McGill did not manage to qualify for the main
stage of any ranking event tournaments during the season, reaching the final
qualifying on one occasion in an attempt to reach the German Masters. He reached the semi-finals of Event 3 in the
minor-ranking Players Tour Championship series, which included wins over
experienced campaigners Matthew Stevens and Stephen Lee, before losing 0–4 to
Ben Woollaston. McGill's season concluded with a 8–10 defeat to Anthony
Hamilton in the penultimate qualifying round for the World Championship,
finishing the season ranked world number 50, his highest position to date.
Born 5 February 1991 (age 23)
Glasgow, Scotland
Sport country
Scotland
Professional 2010–
Highest ranking 37
(November 2014)[1]
Current ranking 38
(as of 24 November 2014)
Highest break 144
Best ranking finish Quarter-final
JOHN HIGGANS
John Higgins, MBE (born 18 May 1975) is a Scottish
professional snooker player from Wishaw. Since turning professional in 1992, he has won
25 ranking titles, including four World Championships and three UK
Championships, as well as two Masters titles, making him one of the most
successful players in the modern history of the sport.
In terms of world titles in the modern era, Higgins is fifth
behind Stephen Hendry (7), Steve Davis (6), Ray Reardon (6) and Ronnie
O'Sullivan (5). In terms of ranking titles, he is fourth behind Hendry (36),
Davis (28), and O'Sullivan (26). Known
as a prolific break-builder, he has compiled more than 550 century breaks in
professional tournament play, placing him third behind Hendry and
O'Sullivan. He has also compiled 7 competitive maximum
breaks, placing him third behind O'Sullivan (12) and Hendry (11). For 16
consecutive full seasons from 1996/1997 to 2011/2012, Higgins never fell below
6th in the world rankings, and was world number 1 on four occasions.
John Higgins at the 2014 German Masters
Born 18 May 1975
(age 39)
Wishaw, Scotland
Sport country
Scotland
Nickname The
Wizard of Wishaw
Professional 1992–present
Highest ranking 1 (3
years 9 months)
Current ranking 14
(as of 24 November 2014)
Career winnings £5,962,885[1]
Highest break 147 (7
times)
Century breaks 561[2]
Tournament wins
Ranking 25
Minor-ranking 3
Non-ranking 13
World Champion 1998,
2007, 2009, 2011
STUART BINHAM
Stuart Bingham (born 21 May 1976, in Basildon, Essex) is an
English professional snooker player. As an amateur, he won the 1996 IBSF World
Snooker Championship, but he then spent many seasons as a journeyman
professional before improving his form to become a top-ranked player in his
thirties. He first entered the top 32 in
the world rankings for the 2006/2007 season, and first reached the top 16
during the 2011/2012 season. At the age
of 35, he won the first ranking title of his career at the 2011 Australian
Goldfields Open. He claimed his second
ranking title at age 38 by winning the 2014 Shanghai Masters. He has been the runner-up in two other ranking
events, the 2012 Wuxi Classic and the 2013 Welsh Open, and also won the
non-ranking 2012 Premier League Snooker. He has compiled more than 230 century breaks
during his career, including three maximum breaks.
Born 21 May 1976
(age 38)
Basildon, Essex
Sport country
England
Nickname Ball-run
Professional 1995–
Highest ranking 4
(March 2014)[1]
Current ranking 9
(as of 24 November 2014)
Career winnings £1,114,591[2]
Highest break 147 (3
times)
RICKY WALDEN
Ricky Walden, born 11 November 1982 in Chester, is an
English snooker professional.
Walden turned professional in 2000 and it took him eight
years to win his first ranking title at the Shanghai Masters. He has since won the 2012 Wuxi Classic and the
2014 International Championship and has been inside the top 16 in the
season-ending rankings on three occasions. Walden has reached the televised stages of the
World Snooker Championship on four occasions with his best reBorn 11 November 1982 (age 32)
Birth place: Chester
Sport country
England
Nickname The
Stamina Man
The Walnut[1]
Professional 1999,
2001–
Highest ranking 7
(August–September 2013)[2][3]
Current ranking 8
(as of 24 November 2014)
Career winnings £990,402[4]
Highest break 147
JAMES CAHILL
Career Highlights: 2013 European Under-21 Champion, 2013 ET4
last 32
A former North West U-16’s champion, it is fair to say that
James Cahill has a fine snooker background, as he is the nephew of seven times
world champion Stephen Hendry, while his mother Maria (the sister of Hendry’s
wife Mandy), is also a former top ladies player.
Having played snooker since the age of 10 at the Stephen
Hendry Snooker Club in Preston, owned by his parents, Cahill entered his first
PTC events as an amateur in 2010, before impressing at the 2012 Q School with a
fourth round run at the first event.
Name: James Cahill
DOB: 27th December 1995
Nationality: English
Turned Pro: 2013
Highest Ranking: 117t
Highest Break: 106 (2014 World Championship
JOE PERRY
Joe Perry (born 13 August 1974 in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire)
is an English professional snooker player. He is often referred to as the "Fen
Potter" and also nicknamed "the Gentleman" for his likeable
attitude. He has run courses to teach people to play.
Perry climbed the rankings steadily after turning
professional in 1991, and reached the top sixteen for the first time in 2002. His first ranking final came at the 2001
European Open and he had to wait another 13 years for a second which came at
the 2014 Wuxi Classic. The 2013/2014 season was Perry's most successful to date
as he reached two ranking event semi-finals and a further four quarter-finals. It was also the year when he won his first
title carrying ranking points by claiming the minor-ranking 2013 Yixing Open.
Born 13 August
1974 (age 40)
Wisbech, England
Sport country
England
Nickname The
Fen Potter
The Gentleman
Professional 1991–
Highest ranking 12(2008/09–2009/10
and November 2014–present)
Career winnings £1,270,171
Current ranking 12
(as of 24 November 2014)]
Highest break 145
NEIL ROBERTSON
Neil Robertson (born 11 February 1982) is an Australian
professional snooker player. He made his first breakthrough into the top
professional ranks in the 2006/2007 season. He won the 2010 World Championship and was the
world number one later in the same year, a ranking that he attained again in
2013 and also in 2014.
Robertson is the only Australian to have won a ranking
event, and was undefeated in his first six televised finals. Robertson is also one of eleven players to win
both the world and UK titles, and one of nine to win the triple crown of World
Championship, UK Championship and Masters. During the 2013/2014 season he
became the first player to make 100 centuries in a single season.
Robertson is considered Australia's best ever snooker
player, as well as one of the best overseas players (i.e. from outside the
United Kingdom) in the sport's history. He plays left-handed.
Born 11 February
1982 (age 32)
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Sport country
Australia
Nickname
The Thunder from Down Under[1]
The Melbourne Machine[2]
The Centurion
Professional 1998/99,
2000–2002, 2003–
Highest ranking 1
Current ranking 2
(as of 24 November 2014)
Career winnings £2,395,385[3]
Highest break 147
GRAEME DOTT
Graeme Dott (born 12 May 1977) is a Scottish professional
snooker player and snooker coach from Larkhall. He turned professional in 1994 and first
entered the top 16 in 2001. He has won
two ranking titles, the 2006 World Snooker Championship and the 2007 China
Open, and was runner-up in the World Championships of 2004 and 2010. He reached number 2 in the world rankings in
2007, but a subsequent episode of clinical depression seriously affected his
form, causing him to drop to number 28 for the 2009/2010 season. He then recovered his form, regained his
top-16 ranking, and reached a third World Championship final. In 2011, he published his autobiography, Frame
of Mind: The Autobiography of the World
Snooker Champion.
Born 12 May 1977
(age 37)
Larkhall, Scotland
Sport country
Scotland
Nickname The Pocket Dynamo
The Pocket Rocket[3]
Dott the Pot
Pot the Lot Dott[2]
Professional 1994–
Highest ranking 2
(2007/08)
Current ranking 17
(as of 24 November 2014)
Career winnings £1,861,977
Highest break 147
MY
REVIEW SO FAR
Yesterday was
a day of shocks especially Mark Allen 6-4 defeat to Rod Lawler and Ding Junhai defeat to English teenager James Cahill. This shows that if you tell big players have
to play more matches they will be getting beaten more often,. The people who
impress me at this moment are Ronnie O Sullivan and Neil Robertson and also I cannot see beyond these TWO for the title.
From today's players I feel John Higgans is a champion Joe Perry has proven he has
the capability to win.I also think Ricky Walden will have the edge.
