Kev The Rat
Player Valuation: £70m
Selby may have broken Allen mentally here
Frame 9 was critical
Frame 9 was critical
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World Snooker Championship
- Thread starter summerisle
- Start date
Black Belt Jones
Player Valuation: £25m
Selby in very ordinary form but still bosses that session. It's close but feel Allen has missed a big chance to pull away early.
Barnfred 55
Player Valuation: £80m
Si is just amazing today.
Drico
Player Valuation: £60m
Si's is a great story. Would be great for the game if he won it all.
That said, I expect the winner to come from the other semi. WST might be relieved if Si could finish off his match tonight, though, because the other two might need all of tomorrow the way that's going...
That said, I expect the winner to come from the other semi. WST might be relieved if Si could finish off his match tonight, though, because the other two might need all of tomorrow the way that's going...
That was an amazing session of snooker
Black Belt Jones
Player Valuation: £25m
Nice clearance from Allen at the end there to keep him in it. Both of them playing like a bag of dicks to be honest, hopefully they find some form for this evening.
Rita_Poon
Player Valuation: £90m
I realise he's gone through quite an ordeal over the past couple of years, as well as turned his snooker round and been incredibly successful, and I'm not knocking him for having lost a lot of the excess weight he was carrying, so, to me Mark Allen looks very ill, gaunt. It's as though he was a nesting doll (Matryoshka Doll) one size up and slimmed down to the immediate size beneath, but has kept the eye size. Really jaded.
Drico
Player Valuation: £60m
I actually agree with you. I think he looks terrible. Whisper it, but sometimes a man as he gets older might be better off with a little weight. Mark, obviously, had far too much, but I suspect a more gradual loss of, say, three stone might have been better than this dramatic loss of six.
That said, I think he's in a tremendous position to win this match tonight. Mark Selby, as in the 2021 semi-final with Ronnie O'Sullivan, has blown the chance to twist the knife at 10-7. Allen has survived, won four of the last six, and now has the momentum. Yes, he's behind, but he should have been buried.
Selby normally grinds you into dust...slowly. He hangs on in sessions where he's struggling, but he tends to eke out 5-3 wins in enough sessions to slowly pull away and demoralise his opponent. He hasn't managed to do that here. And now he faces, pretty much, a best of 11 (with a one frame advantage). He's intimidating over a marathon - but Allen has clung on and now we have, if not quite a sprint, then a shorter course.
First few frames critical tonight, but there is a path to victory for Allen - which might be better for the final, because I can see Selby strangling Si - if it is he - to death should they meet over 35. Picture a beautiful, fluffy, bunny rabbit and a cunning, stealthy boa constrictor...
FrenchDarrenBent
Player Valuation: £20m
Brecel reeling in Si.
Si has been looking like prime Stephen Hendry and current Jimmy White in one match.
Si has been looking like prime Stephen Hendry and current Jimmy White in one match.
Drico
Player Valuation: £60m
Si's been a great story, but he hasn't the all-round game to trouble a fully-rounded player over this course.
Brecel is not quite that, hence Si still in with a great chance. But I would be shocked if the winner does not come from the other semi-final. Allen might give him or Brecel a sniff, but Selby will strangle either slowly.
summerisle
The rain, it raineth every day
The Chinese lad needs a cup of coffee with a dash of brandy.
It's been a shocking collapse from Si since mid session last night