EPTSnooker in my Area
Snooker in Germany is something really awkward thing. There definitely is a sub community of interested fans and players, but getting into that circle is anything but easy. If you're not living in one of the bigger cities, it'll be rather hard to have an opportunity to play, to exchange with fans or anything of the likes. It took me six long years to find a group of people with the same interest in a club after attending an open tournament. Really, it was sheer luck I found them. There's no information whatsoever. Futhermore, there's not a real professional scene, no real coverage, nothing you can attend regularly. It's rather sad. All you can do is to hope for a bunch of professionals to visit Germany in order to play Exhibition Show Matches. For those you have to plan a two hour drive at the least, spend fifty bucks or more, just to see them cue for about three hours. It's less frustrating to settle for being a Brood War die hard in modern times. Then you at least have 24 hours Snipe streams each day.
However, there is the city of Fürth. Fürth is one of the few centers for Snooker fans, and fortunately, it's not far away from my place. For those who only have American geography skills, Fürth is Nürnberg's parking lot. If it wasn't for Snooker, I'd never ever set a foot into that city. It's not that Fürth is ugly, quite the contrary, it looks nice. But that's all it does – it looks nice, it's sleepy, it's boring and it's full of one way streets, narrow streets with bad traffic signs, lots of traffic signals and it takes you an hour or so to drive through it. As for sights goes, Fürth has some Signoria-Florence-Fake and an Ikea. It's so uninteresting, that even the people to put up descriptions have a hard time to invent slogans. People there are nice and friendly, but mainly because they're so desperate to attract visitors.
Anyhow, besides the point. We have Fürth. And Fürth is the place where the German Open took place – a rather large Snooker tournament, for which a ton of the international super stars signed up. I was there in 2009 and the atmosphere was more than just awesome, even back then. You had the option to talk a little to the people you'd only see on telly, take photos with them, get signatures and whatnot. The games however were not that great. You'd see the occasional century break, good safeties and all that, but it wasn't thrilling. It was relaxed. There was no tension before the semi finals. Players didn't care too much if they lost against weaker players, it felt a little as if it was just a different training session, a small thank you to the few German fans. Not the kind of aura you'd expect from a ranking tournament with huge sums of prize money.
Fürth – Paul Hunter Classic
The „German Open“ or apparently „Fürth Grand Prix“ was an attempt of Fürth's local Snooker club to celebrate their own achievements. These guys wanted to promote their sport and asked a couple of professionals to attend their open tournament in 2004 – one player heeded the call, the rising talent Paul Hunter.
Paul Hunter, back then, was one of the faces you watched out for. A generally very nice person, an embessador of the sport and the guy to be on the verge of turning into the dominating player of his generation. I saw him a couple of times on TV back then, and boy he was gifted. Eventually, Hunter took the title in Fürth's anniversary tournament. However, Hunter was diagnosed with cancer a year later and died in 2006.
Fürth, thanking for the promotion and to raise cancer awareness, changed the name of to Paul Hunter Classic in 2007. This was kind of a game changer, as more and more professionals signed up for the otherwise not so spectacular tournament. Now the oldschool stars and the current elite came and went – o'Sullivan, Higgins, Davis, Parrot, White – all were there. Fürth was the place to be in Germany, the Mekka of German Snooker.
Since the main tournament was re-structured in 2010/2011's season, Fürth was promoted to a so-called minor tournament. This meant more prize money and ranking points for the professionals. I can't know for sure, but have to rely on my 'local' sources, the few I know that is: the atmosphere changed entirely since then. The professionals were still there for meet and greet, but also had the message about cancer awareness with the additional incentive to really play as serious as they could in order to defend their ranking position.
I really tried to go to Fürth every year, but failed after 2009. Mostly, because I either had to work, had no option to get tickets in time or family business – it really did clash a lot with my personal schedule. This year however I thought fuck my birthday party, let's go – best decision of the year so far.
The past Week: Hype
I spent an awkward amount of time in the past week to follow updates prior to the event. As for tournaments go, it's never really sure who'd turn up. With more than 128 players participating, some drop outs just happen. The hype really was building up for me.
Steve Davis signed up, one of the players you simply HAVE to watch. Sadly, he already dropped out on Thursday or Friday against a less notable player, a day before I had the chance to see him live. Ken Doherty had to cancel his trip as well, something I only learned via tweet. These were huge downers.
unrelated: even the Süddeutsche reported about Snooker.
However, there was a good news as well: Ali Carter, one of the titans of the scene, announced he'd come back to the tournament. To elaborate, Carter has along history of medical issues, e.g. fighting Morbus Crohn. A few years back he was diagnosed with cancer, fought it off and was diagnosed with lunger cancer last year. It wasn't sure if he'd ever return to the tables or not, after all lung cancer is one of the nastiest things you could catch. Apparently his therapy paid off and he'll return in the near future. What a fighter!
Saturday: Round of 128
Finally, Saturday, the tournament was about to begin. After driving through each and every single construction site of the A73, one way road and dead end in Fürth I finally found somewhere to park. My father and me arrived at the venue just about in time for the second matches of the day!
But, that's where the orginazational chaos hit us. The venue was the Stadthalle in Fürth, a rather large building. There were ten tables, a giant beamer throwing the standings on the walls and tons and tons of people. The Table 1, the TV table, was in a separated area, for which you had to show A-class tickets, the only table easy to reach. The others were grouped: 2 and 3, 4 to 8 and 9 and 10 were put rather close to each other. Each of these groups had paper walls and seatings surrounding them, so you couldn't glimpse through and had to wait until there was a seat free, much different to what I saw in 2009. You basically saw everything from the entrance.
There was no time table, no tournament grid, nothing. It was basically like, sit at the TV table or randomly try to get a seat for a match between two random players, who'd still had to be announced for any round yet to be played. Ghastly. After one hour of asking tournament officials, referees, German players we found the guy at the merchandise (!) to tell us where the tournament grid and the schedule for visitors was placed. Five A4 papers in the corner of the entrance displaying a Ro128 grid without results. Great, you still had no idea what to watch for.
I don't know how it exactly worked, but my father simultaneously annoyed people at the organization point. This was reserved for players. My father doesn't really speak English, or if he does, it's more like Sziky level. He came back with the same tournament grid, but also the dress code, and it also had a map printed on it, for the players, which showed the route from their hotel to the venue. It was an IE screen shot. Which you could barely read. Another symbol of the quality of the overview you had as random visitor. 8[
Consequently, I just sat down at the TV table and watched whatever would come next. Fortunately, the first match was already great: Neil Robertson vs. Elliot Slessor. Wait who and what? At the end of the day I found out that this was still the Round of 128, Slessor was one of the lowest ranked players and rather young. But that didn't matter, the kid played awesome, especially if you kept in mind he was about to face the second ranked player of the world in front of an audience. Robertson played „sloppy“ - at least for his level. A 50 break here and there, but Slessor fought back and clawed himself in the lead. However, the champion's qualities showed when he won with a 4-3.
The referee announced there'd be a 30 minute break on the table. During this time, I went out, got myself something to drink and wanted to go to the toilet. The toilet was huge fun, though. When I was done minding my business, I realized that ANY professional would go to the public rest rooms. To my surprise I met Marco Fu and another professional I have never seen in front of a paper dispenser – or whatever these devices are called. You know, these kind of things which give out paper towels. They were utterly confused, as the machine clearly wasn't working. There was this button you have to hover your hand over, so the machine gives out one single towel. So they tried their best Star Wars force impressions, but the machine only responded every other minute. Especially the unknown professional got really sad, confused and upset at the same time, mumbled „why doesn' t it work“ - it really looked as if he was about to cry soon. Fu responded with something along the line „maybe it makes you wait until your hands are dry?“. That were my five minutes of fame, when I suggested they should simply use the second of the three devices, which wasn't broken. For some reason both haven't thought about that. Once they were done, another random Snooker organizer staff person came out of the rest room and tried the same broken machine – except he thought it would blow hot air and was surprised when nothing happened. This machine was really entertaining.
Saturday: Round of ?
Back at the TV table the next match was on: Mark Williams vs. Rod Lawler. Lawler I once saw in 2009, Williams is one of those players I tend to cheer for. Easy thing. Also, my father was really hyped about the match as well, as he liked how Williams looks as if he'd be part of the mafia </quote>. People gave him odd looks when he asked if Williams would soon suggest offers you can't refuse. My father also has a short attention span.
What I knew and he did not is that Lawler is basically one of the real old school. He takes about a minute before potting, he thinks a lot and plays really, really slow. It's unnerving really. I wanted to watch a different match, but the frame already begun, so we had to wait. And it took a long, long time for that game to progress. And when I say long, I mean long. At one point, when I was shortly before falling asleep, Lawler made a clean 70ish break, like really good break, flawless and all. But it took him 20 god damn minutes.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/dGe0sEG.jpg)
Rob Lawler, stolen from the WorldSnooker twitter
This was when I finally made up my mind, changed all of my previous thoughts about the game and the role the referees and the markers have. If you think higher mathematics are hard, you have no idea how hard it must be for referees. They never once forgot to put a colour back on the table, never added the numbers wrongly and changed the score THE SECOND Lawler potted. This needs to be put in perspective – Lawler really played as if he wanted to put the audience to sleep. I distinctively remember how silent it was. A Snooker crowd is really, really silent, but here it was like anti-loud. You could hear a needle drop. Not few viewers actually fell asleep or closed their eyes. Yet, every time Lawler potted a ball the audience applauded, as if Lawler just scored a 147. Holy shit, you applauded because you had forgotten if Lawler ever potted a ball. And he knew. Williams knew as well. He had to sit there for 20 minutes, until the frame was lost. He eventually was knocked out by Lawler.
It's not that the game was bad, it was just as if you'd watch a Terran vs. Terran on the slowest game speed. The scheduled start was at 14:00, the game ended at 17:00. By that time the Ro128 and Ro64 was done on most tables. Holy shit, this was taking AGES.
Saturday: Round of 64
After the match I needed coffee, which btw, was rather cheap for that kind of events. „Only“ 2,50€. While standing in the queue I overheard a conversation between the Marker (person to update the scores) of the Lawler match and another German referee – asking him politely to never have to do the job at Lawler's table again.
While drinking coffee I waited on the top of the stairs leading down to the tables. I realized I could see the table the match Mark Selby vs. Dominic Dale would take place – without needing to bump with people in order to get a seat there. So I watched from there, drinking coffee.
Selby, the sole reason I wanted to attend the event so badly, butt raped Dale – even though I really like Dale as well, I couldn't help but smile. He 4-0ed him so quickly and with such an elegance... great shit. On a different note, he killed him within an hour, the time Lawler needed to win one and a half frame.
Saturday: The Nail Biter
After watching a few frames of games by players like Fu, Fergal O'Brien, Adam Duffy and others, we went back to the TV table, as the Ro32 between Shaun Murphy and Mark Selby was about to start.
I'm not quite sure, but I think it was the world number one against another Top 8 player. It's rather frustrating that the PHC didn't use the ordinary seeds and such a clash had to happen early on, but fuck it, I could see it live. Apparently it was also broadcasted live on Eurosport.
Anyhow, the audience surprised me once more: there were only about fifty people in the crowd, maybe even less. Fortunately, this also meant we could just sit in the VIP area reserved for staff, press photographers or something, as nobody complained.
However, fifteen minutes before the game would start, I had an awkward encounter with the referee. It was some random German guy with a mouth very similar to Angela Merkel's – meaning he's the grinch of smiling. Snooker referees are persons you usually respect, cause of their conduct and everything, but that guy overdid it by a lot.
At that point everything was pointing towards a long day, so I wanted to text my mother really quick in order to inform her it'd be getting late. She has her way of thinking you were dead if you don't inform her (evidently there's a huge chance of getting stabbed and your kidneys being stolen at a Snooker tournament); also I had to drop off my father, hence better text her, to avoid getting looks the days after. Back to that, cell phones should be turned off during a game. So...
… the referee saw me texting near the entrance 15 minutes prior to the game. He came over and talked to me in English. I answered in German, informed him of what I did. He nonetheless gave me a five minute speech about how disprespectful I was and how he could throw me out if I would not turn off my phone. I told him it was already off. He ignored that. I ignored him.
The game started, or at least was about to start. When the refree saw a camera. Rinse repeat the speeches he gave to me, with the small expectation that he now talked to someone with an 'Acess All Area' badge. Given the later story, he might even have been an official press photographer. Nevermind.
The game started – and I cheered for Selby. I really don't like Murphy. Not hate, no loathing, I just don't like his style, and everything. And Murphy scored right away, 80+ break, 1-0. Selby retaliated, 1-1. Murphy took the lead, 2-1. So far it was ordinary match between two of the best players of the world. That's not nearly as close as I want it to sound. It was great shit, I envied the both of them for their marvellous cueing.
The fourth frame of the Bo7 however was THE SHIT. Both of them exchanged some safeties, before Murphy's overly aggressive style allowed him to score the first point. However, the reds were still in a cluster and he had to split – which he did. The white ran through the reds and finished in an awkward positon. Murhpy succesfully snookered himself on ALL colours, at least that's what I thought. And Murphy thought. And Selby thought. Time stopped at this moment. Murhpy paced around the table and tried to come up with a clever escape from the situation, anything to leave the White safe.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/CvH3mhN.png)
As you can see, Murhpy sees no ball. It looked as if he could hit blue, but one of the reds blocked him. His plan: Hit the yellow.
Murhpy tried to espace via the cushion, but couldn't hit the ball full on. In fact, he missed yellow by a lot. Nothing out of the ordinary yet. Consequently the White went back and he had to take the shot again. Not a huge deal, Murhpy missed again. Again he missed by a good few centimeters.
Now, an issue came up. The referee always has to ask BOTH players if they think the balls are where they are supposed to be, or in other words, if they agree the situation is the same as before. At first Murphy pointed out the White was off by an inch or so, so the referee changed it. Again, not a big deal. Selby agreed, apparently trusting his opponent, respect is everything – remember that.
The referee then informed Murhpy, that in the referee's opinion, Murphy could hit the blue ball directly. Since he missed twice already, Murphy had to target blue, hit it, or the frame was lost. You're not allowed to miss thrice if you can hit a ball-on directly. Murhpy disagreed, mildly. He then agreed and was about to shoot, when the referee, according to rules, asked for Selby's opinion. Selby got up his seet and made his usual jests to cover up he really did want to look at the situation closely.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/e7vwyFp.png)
Selby inspecting the scene
At this point it was getting hard to understand the players, as the audience was (righteously) laughing at the situation. The referee didn't mind either, he didn't take Selby's theater seriously. Nobody did, but Murhpy and Selby. Murphy was confused and insecure, he knew something was up and wasn't too fine about the situation. Even though not likeing him, I could only respect his poker face and him not complaining. I mean, it was a crucial frame, it could basically mean the difference between a potential 3-1 lead over the current world champion or a 2-2 in a Bo7.
Selby then continued his show, got to Murhpy, bowed down and looked again and again. It took a few minutes. He said he wouldn't agree. The referee pointed out his opinion again. Usually, case closed. Any referee would now end the situation and MAYBE ask the Marker for his judgement. The German did neither, he just thought the situation was over, truth by reptition.
Now Selby, trying to find a solution, took the referee's glasses and bowed down again – to make his point. Murphy, in his opinion could not see blue fully – the warning was not correct. He clearly did not want to win like that if push came to shove. That's the spirit. The referee still did not agree.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/btBdbJF.png)
“Just Show, Nothing Else?“
It took another two minutes until Selby finally somewhat agreed to the situation. While sitting down, this happened:
Selby: Shaun, get a second opinion
Referee: He had one
Selby: Yeah, but from the same person [everyone's laughing]
That was kind of strange and awkward. You simply don't say this kind of stuff to a referee, nor does a referee buy that shit or let it come to this. Honestly, I don't know whose fault it was. Selby clearly didn't need to do the jokes with the glasses (though really fun), but I couldn't help but admire him for not want to win due to a technical issue.
Eventually Murhpy escaped via black ball, but couldn't put it safe. Selby took the frame, the issue was a key to the match.
Up to this point in the game it looked as if Selby would lose, regardless of the tied situation. He tried to pot long balls, often failed or played weak safeties. Murphy took his chances and appeared to be cold blooded enough.
In the last three years, thanks to Eurosport's policy of not showing anyone as long as o'Sullivan was still in, I haven't seen my personal snooker hero playing that well as in the next two frames. Fans often argue that Selby's safeties were his key to success. He often is blamed for being boring and is framed as bad break builder in yahoo comments. I disagree with both. Selby is outlandish in every of these categories – his safeties are exotic, but work, part of his pool legacy I assume. However, his break building is equal to the one of o'Sullivan or Higgins, he really does not have to hide. It simply appears as if Selby is often not using / or not being able to use his A-break building. It rarely shines through.
Personally, I think Selby's true strength is his consistency game wise. He always has a plan. While many people, and here's where I'd put Murphy, only think maybe three balls ahead in safety play, Selby seems to have thought it through for the next ten shots. Argument pro safety-Selby? No. Selby is the guy to not just play safe, but to also go into solid pot mode when the pace changes. He gets his chance, he takes it and he builds a break just large enough to decide the frame. Most players can't do that. If they enter a 30 minute safety battle, they need another five minutes to return to good break building – some sort of cool down time. Selby doesn't need that for most. If he can't he just does an emergency safe, a safe fitting a world champion. That's his speciality. Something reminding me on the glorious days of John Higgins.
Back to the game – Murphy definitely expected an easier win. Given Selby's performance so far, he definitely had his chances. Yet, the sixth frame Selby had one chance and made the first century I saw that day – 107. Decider. Murphy was getting slightly nervous, while Selby was still doing his jokes and seemed rested, fit and eager to play another hundred frames – at 23:00. Murphy screwed up slightly, the tiniest of mistakes, another 87, just like that, as if he would face a friend in a trainging game.
End of Day 1. I thought. When I got up and wanted to drive home I realized there were still games – at 23:45. Mind you, the Ro16 games for Sunday started at 10:00. And at the table right next to the TV table just had a match starting. Guess who it was: Rod Lawler. Yeah well, I just went home, that didn't need to be watched, I really didn't plan to leave later than 01:30. My colleagues told me the game lasted until 2:00 – Lawler won. Really, you have to admire the old man for taking down so many and making it to the Ro16.
Sunday: Too Late
Thanks to traffic I arrived at home at 1:45 in the night Sunday. Birthday over, shower, go to sleep. I slept in, my alarm didn't go off – fuck. It was 9:00 when I got up. No way I would see the Ro16, which was shitty, as it was Selby vs. Liang Wenbo, Wenbo, my favourite Chinese ever. Simply because he's so confused.
Thanks to traffic I arrived earlier than expected, I was in Fürth at 10:55, entered the venue at 11:05 – just to see Selby vs Wenbo was over already. Selby advanced 4:1 easily, according to one of the tournament guys I knew. Shiat, at least that went well.
So, what to watch? Most games ended, or were about to end. That was so-so, at least one table had enough free seatings to follow – Neil Robertson, World #2, vs. Dechawat Poomjaeng, one of Asia's most notable players, despite not having won a world ranking title in his career. Surprisingly, he took down the Australian super star with a 4-2. And not because Robertson played bad, from what I saw, he scored 50ish breaks regularly. I was really impressed by the Asian's play.
The next game was only starting around 13:00. I was still a little tired and got a coffee, went outside and smoked. That's when I saw Selby marching up the street, trying to get into the venue. He was walking really, really energetic, long steps, fast pace, approaching the glass doors. Four meters in front of me he walked into the door and almost slammed his head into it. He surprisingly looked at the door, turned to the security and mumbled „thought this spelled push, should have a word with the translator“; what he thought push (drücken) actually meant pull (ziehen). Great scene. Shortly after Ricky Walden came out, saying something to his manager/coach (?) about being tired and being afraid of his next opponent.
I didn't mind and went in. Still having another hour I chatted with the random people I knew and had a look at the merchandise. At the cue selling table thing I watched with curiousity how a 60+ year old woman bought a cue for her grandchild, so he could play a little pool – she bought a jump cue, thinking she just purchased a snooker cue. She entirely ignored the seller.
Wandering off, I came across the SnookerStars merchandise, offering this and that, mostly o'Sullivan stuff – who was knocked out at 10:00 by Tiang Pengfei. I saw an event poster signed by EVERY player at the venue (meaning you barely saw the poster) for 50€ - a little much. However, the prize table behind it said you could also buy a poster for 10€ with „a signature“. Out of interest, I politely asked what that meant. It meat some A5-ish paper thing with the signature of various notable persons, out of which you could pick one. But there was only one left signed by Michaela Tabb, a female referee. I was like „oh, ok“. Question anwered. That came across completely wrong. Two people standing next to me, apparently a snooker coach and Jan Verhaas (another VERY prominent referee and colleague of Tabb) turned heads and looked at me. „Don't you like her?“. Errr... aaaaaawkward. Ten minutes of explaining later, I headed back to my seat.
Which was taken. By a player I don't know. He said he'd only wanted to watch one frame or two, I should take his seat a bit more back, so he could leave in between frames. Didn't know him, found it a good trade, so I agreed.
Sunday: Ro8/Ro4
It was Mark Selby vs. Ricky Walden. Boy, Walden I don't like to watch on TV. Eurosport's camera people really love to close up zoom on Walden. Walden has the habit to play with his mouth open, which looks awkward. Like... strange.
That's when I learned how much the TV cameras actually fool you. Watching him play without close up zoom for dental lovers is really refreshing. Now I could actually focus on his play, which is brilliant. He made up a good fight, especially since Selby played sloppy safeties again.
It went full distance, 3-3 and both starting to play sloppier than before. At this day the cushions were funky, they reacted rather strange. Balls returned in angles you haven't thought possible, sometimes they bounced and stuff. More so, both suffered from heavy kicks on that table. Never saw a referee having to clean as much balls as in this frame.
From the looks of both player's faces, Walden appeared to be the one being more exhausted. Selby still looked fresher, even though not as fit as the night before. The game really took its toll from the players.
Now Selby was forced to play his very destructive style – lay safeties, put reds across the table, make breaks nearly impossible. Walden had a hard time to keep up, but he didn't need to. Selby argueably had more chances, but more often than not missed after just a few points. In the last frame it showed, Selby missed, Walden was in. Walden then showed he was anything but bad and made a break of roughly 60 points, sunk the frame ball and potted a few more. All in all, the game was over, Selby needed six (!) fouls off Walden - and tried his best. He came, potted every red and started with the Snooker. He got them, almost all. After ten long minutes only one point in difference, only one Snooker required. Walden started to sweat, you could see how hard he was pressured. Finally, Selby slipped once and his red finished just a few centimeters too far - Walden came on the table, potted and advanced.
And another hour to wait for the next match. In the meantime Judd Trump, the star of the youngest generation, advanced over Tian Pengfei, Mark Allen won vs. Allen McManus and - this suprised me by quite a bit - Rod Lawler advanced. The reminder, Lawler played until 2:00, had to face yet another opponent at 10:00 and the next one at 13:00. This old guy impressed me more and more.
So: Trump vs. Walden, Lawler vs. Allen
At 16:00 we watched Trump vs. Walden - a rather one sided show of snooker. Walden was exhausted and couldn't really deal with the highly aggressive youngster. Trump could do whatever he wanted, there simply wasn't any ball he would not hit. He made the game look easy, no difference to a o'Sullivan. 1-0, 2-0, 3-0 - Walden was just a bystander. In the fifth frame Walden gathered his last resources and tried his best; he finally potted and started to go into breakbuilding. After a 60ish break he had to leave the table, again being in the safe zone after killing the frame ball. And Trump did what Selby did, potted every red but the last and left the table with a really, really nasty Snooker. I really felt for Walden at that time, he must've been thinking the odds left him. He again showed he is a fighter, he took no risks and secured it 3-1. However, Trump didn't bother much and took the first chance he had 4-1.
Best scene of the match: Trump tries to lean over the table. It took the poor boy more than three minutes to find a somewhat comfortable position, as his shoes lost grip the entire time.
Meanwhile, Allen was up against Lawler and couldn't really start off too well. From what I heard afterwards the game was long undecided, nobody had the upper hand. Lawler did his best to show his oldschool style, very conservative, very safe against the younger Irish who likes to play as agressive as Trump. I only saw the last two frames in which Allen really did have a hard time to stand his ground. The last frame, 3-3, took a long, long while, and not because Lawler took so much time to play a single ball. He played safeties as if he was a regular Top 10 player, which he clearly isn't. He played as if it was a world champion finale. Eventually Allen could score 20 points followed by another 40ish break; iirc it was Allen 66 - 30 Lawler with one red remaining. Frame ball was gone, but Lawler still had chances. However, Lawler forfreited the frame and it was over.
Sunday: Finals
After two long hours waiting and having nothing to do, the finale started just in time. Rolf Kalb, Eurosport Germany's main commentator opened and tried to hype the audience. Surprisingly enough, he isn't a bad entertainer himself. He was funny, amusing and told some insight stories to pass time.
Apparently, during last year's final in Fürth a mouse ran around. So people asked what happened with the mouse - he didn't know. He also, and that's kinda odd, reminded the audience to maybe change seats. Apparently some guy sued Eurosport International for his divorce costs; the cameras recorded him sitting next to his affair, his wife realized that and... well you can imagine the rest. The kind of shit you got told.
Then the players entered - Allen first, Trump later. Most interestingly though, Kalb had to commentate the game, at least that's what he said. In between his moderation and the players starting the finals were about 20 seconds. I really want to know from WHERE he commentated. He just left. And that was most definitely live. Teleport?
I thought that these finals would be as one sided as it possibly could be. Allen had to endure a three hour marathon against Lawler, whereas Trump had a rather easy day with somewhat exhausted opponents. He is younger, was obviously in a better condition and has the higher ranking. He was also the guy to start the game with a 48 break before he had to leave. His safety wasn't bad, but not good enough - Allen went to the table and answered with a 42, before he had to leave as well. A few safeties later, the first frame was taken to a respotted black. Now it showed that Trump had the less efficient safety play. Allen took the lead.
The game went back and forth with both of them playing rather good in my opinion. Today I could read that Kalb said a lot of bad cushion contacts and kicks stopped the players - well I don't know, I couldn't really see that, opposed to what I saw in previous matches. Maybe three or four kicks overall, but that's more or less not too strange, given that both used tons and tons of screw balls and side the entire game. It was really amazing to see that there are no special effects or anything, but that these kind of screws can be done - just like that. "Just" like that.
Eventually Allen's safer and less risky play payed off. Trump showed a high break, somewhat in the lines of 80 something, but that was basically all he could do. Allen took the 3-2 lead and sealed the game with high 80ish break. A great, great game.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/anUReNN.jpg)
The winner! Stolen from WorldSnooker as well.
Well, hopefully someone read through that. Not sure. Just wanted to share >_>
Snooker<3
