Tour Championship

Ronnie had his moment of glory in the morning session when he was 3-1 down and he got 3 centuries in 4 frames to go 5-3 up. However in the evening session Williams took 7 frames in a row to win 10-5. While Ronnie was struggling with his potting form, Williams just had that mojo and everything he was trying was just coming off.

Williams hasn't beaten Ronnie in a ranking final for 23 years, since the 2000 Grand Prix. They've both been professionals for 30 years. Williams turned 49 a couple of weeks ago, Ronnie will be 49 in December.

All 12 participants in the Tour Championship now have a break of about 2 weeks until the televised stages of the World Championship. For all players not in the top 16 on the 2 year ranking list, World Championship qualifying starts tomorrow.

Blimey, I was righter than I knew about him being a battler. I think he's often overlooked compared to Higgins and O'Sullivan, but he really does deserve bracketing with them two.

I see that this will be on ITV4 as well

Good news! With ranking points Craptain Carter loses for the 2023 Tour Championship, he drops out of the top 16 in the 2 year ranking list, so he has to go through Judgement Day to qualify for the World Championship. That leaves Jak Jones as last man standing at no.16 on the 2YRL. 15 of the 16 players that go through automatically to the Crucible are known. The only question is who will be the 16th player: Jak Jones or Wu Yize. Wu is the only player in the Tour Championship not in the top 16 on the 2YRL, and he hopes he doesn't make an early exit so he can steal the final top 16 place. Chris Wakelin will be first in line to replace anyone who withdraws from the Tour Championship, and he will have to hope someone does withdraw so he can make a run at stealing the last top 16 place.

Defending champion Mark Williams turned 50 last Friday, so if he turns up despite his eyesight problems he will be defending the Tour Championship as a centenarian.

As it turns out; Tubbs v Hawkins part 3. As last year, the top 5-8 on the 1YRL play the top 9-12 on the 1 YRL in a playoff to play one of the top 4 in 1 YRL in the quarter finals.

Order of play:

Monday 31st March
1pm
Tubbs v Hawkins first session
Xiao Guodong v Wu Yize first session

7pm
Tubbs v Hawkins concluding session
Mark Williams v Ding Junhui first session

Tuesday 1st April
1pm
Mark Selby v Si Jiahui first session
Xiao Guodong v Wu Yize concluding session

7pm
Mark Selby v Si Jiahui concluding session
Mark Williams v Ding Junhui concluding session

Wednesday 2nd April
1pm
Judd Trump v Tubbs or Hawkins first session
John Higgins v Xiao or Wu first session

7pm
Judd Trump v Tubbs or Hawkins concluding session
Neil Robertson v Selby or Si first session

Thursday 3rd April
1pm
John Higgins v Xiao or Wu concluding session
Kyren Wilson v Williams or Ding first session

7pm
Neil Robertson v Selby or Si concluding session
Kyren Wilson v Williams or Ding concluding session

Too late to edit my post so I'll just put a little addendum. I am given to understand that the word to describe someone in their 50s is quinquagenarian. I thought it would be a simple word, one that I had actually heard before. Anyway Mark Williams has invested in contact lenses, so on Monday evening he should be defending his title as a quinquagenarian.

Good that Mark Williams has sought some sort of remedy to his sight issues. His comments at the Players Championship indicated some of the long shots were guesswork . What with him being colour blind as well the way things were going he could have ended up thinking the green was the pink and the yellow pocket a drinks holder .

I was going to guess at demicentenarian, but I guess I must have opted not to split hairs (first time for everything).

Barry Hawkins has blitzed his way into a quarter final against Judd Trump after a 10-1 demolition of Shaun Murphy. The victory was largely built on a completely obscene quality afternoon session where he rattled in breaks of 126, 101, 132, 131, 79 and 134. The evening was a mere formality and The Hawk knocked in runs of 57 and 59 to finish the job.

Oh dear, how sad

The lesser of the two evils won. Still...5 centuries!? It's worrying what kind of form he might be on when Judd has to face him.