Monday 21 January 2008

Snooker: Selby Seals His Maiden Win

Mark Selby thrashed Stephen Lee 10-3 in the final of the Masters yesterday evening. Throughout the tournament he had earned some really hard victories against Hendry, Maguire and Doherty. He took home a winner's cheque of £150,000 and, remarkably, in the final frame when the crowd were going mad and taking photographs with the flash on, knocked in a 141 to tie the highest break with Ken Doherty and take home a share of the £10,000 high break prize.

Selby's will to win is very visible when playing and it's great to see. Lee's frustration was evident, he certainly thought the balls were running against him and I think it was difficult for him to keep positive throughout the match. Lee couldn't manage a single frame in the evening session as Selby powered on.

In all Selby recorded 4 centuries in the match, a 124, 132, 125 and a 141, pretty devestating stuff! After this career debut win, is it possible to say he will win another tournament this season? Hard to tell as the standard is so high. Well played Mark!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, quite some performance, especially the 141 which I think is Selby's career high break! Lee never really got his teeth into the match, but the relentless way Selby went about the win, I don't think Lee had much of a chance anyway.

Selby will definitely be winning more titles if he keeps up his form, but then Roberston was playing like that last season and has let it slide, so who knows?

I was very amused in the final session when the commentators kept making witty remarks which caused the Wembley audience listening on headsets to laugh out loud! The players and other spectators with no headsets must have wondered what was going on!

andy said...

I don't think Robertson won either of his titles in as convincing a fashion as what Selby did last night!

Unknown said...

Selby did well, but who was he playing? Big boy Stephen Lee? He could barely make a 40 break all day, and he's surely out of puff after a few frames. It's tragic that the standard of snooker has gone down so far. Remember when Hendry, Higgins, Williams, O'Sullivan, Doherty, White, were all on top of their game 10 yrs ago, the game is unrecognisable now. Once O'Sullivan goes out, pretty much the standard drops like a stone, and so do the ratings.

Selby is a prolific century maker, seen that in amateur tournaments, but we need more class in the tournament. He did dig deep to beat Doherty and I suppose that was the real final. Lee didn't look like he knew what day it was. IMHO ;)

andy said...

Douglas, all I can say is, ...I hope you don't bump into Stephen Lee down a dark alley, I'm sure he's an avid reader of this blog! :o)

I was going to say more on your comment, but I guess I'll write a post on the standard of snooker today compared with yesteryear instead. The comment was getting a bit long.

Unknown said...

No better way to attract attention for your site Andy than to stir it up a bit with a few controversial comments! If I meet Lee down a dark alley I'll make sure I point him to your site... ;)