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Well the 888.com World Snooker Championship is upon us already, although for the first time in 27 years without the legend Whirlwind Jimmy White, who failed to qualify. 

It seems like it was just last month that Graham Dott ground out a victory over Peter Ebdon.  Like so many former Champions, he has fallen already to the crucible curse, losing in the first round to fellow Scot Ian McCulloch.  Clearly devastated Dott said that the result had “ruined his year”, although he can have no complaints with the result, having played some of the worst snooker of his professional career.

Rocket Ronnie looks set to send Ding packing having stormed to an 8-1 lead.  If body language is anything to go by Ding was beaten mentally after the first 2 frames.  (Perhaps he has memories of the masters still resonating in his mind).  The drama of the first round though was saved for the match between veterans John Parrot and Steve Davis.

In a nail biting match Davis came back from 6-1 down to take Parrot to a deciding frame.  In a nervy frame riddled with mistakes, Parrot eventually won, with Davis unfortunately sinking the white off of an attempted pot to give Parrot the chance he needed.  An interesting point came up during the final frame though.

Parrot had only the black to aim at and no clear safety shot on with a red hanging over a corner pocket.  A debate immediately sprang up between Terry Griffiths and Willie Thorne with Thorn suggesting that Parrot deliberately play the black onto the red conceding the 7 points but leaving the white safe.  Griffiths seem to think this could be called a deliberate foul and a miss for unsportsmanlike conduct.  Parrot tried it nervetheless and whether by accident or design the red failed to drop.  The referee would have faced a difficult decision had it gone in.  Davis carefully side-stepped the issue by saying it could have been deemed unsporting, but was a mute point as it hadn’t gone it. 

I wonder if it would have ruined a friendship - either way it could have led to an interesting atmosphere in the commentary box later in the tournament!

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