Returning after the success of last year is our inconspicuous snooker aficionado, Free Ball.
Throughout the World Championship, this unnamed follower of our beloved sport will provide a few musings on some of the not so well documented happenings in Sheffield – mostly from the luxury of his/her own settee.
The main talking points obviously surround the snooker played in the arena but there’s plenty of other things, both useful and useless, to take note of during a tournament of this extremity and length.
Read below for the latest offering, but who is behind the Free Ball?
Marco O’Getoveryourself
By Free Ball
Well I have to say, I was very disappointed Ronnie went out last night. Congratulations to Barry for getting that monkey off your back, but obviously the tournament has lost a lot of spice with The Rocket going out.
In my pure prejudice for O’Sullivan to win, I couldn’t help feel for Hawkins as well. As he saw his lead dwindling, the camera occasionally showed a face akin to a rabbit caught in the headlights.
But The Hawk came through in the end, and I was pleased to see Ronnie speak so graciously in defeat. I was also pleased he had some eyelashes left, as he spent most of the time, whilst sat in his chair, picking them apart.
So Hawkins will meet “Miserable” Marco Fu in the quarter-finals. In yesterday’s installment of the BBC’s Table Talk, Rob Walker joined the crew on the couch to discuss nicknames. Marco was asked his opinion, and deemed that it was disrespectful to the players. It’s not going away Marco, so we may as well go all out in dissing you. Any suggestions out there? Here’s another one – Marco Fucitious. Maybe not; that kind of sounds too gladiatorial for my liking.
Finally, there was an interesting chat between John Virgo and Nigella in the comm-box this morning. JV was asking how Ebdon found talking persistently throughout frames was going. Refreshingly, Peter has realised that, through looking at play from a different angle, he has got bogged down in competitive play. He feels he should revert to his original, pony-tailed free flowing game. I’ll believe it when I see it.
