Snooker: O'Sullivan overcomes the Melbourne Machine

This was a great match. In the first session O'Sullivan went 6-2 up with some great snooker. In the second session, O'Sullivan couldn't quite find his form and Neil Robertson won it 6-2 to take the match to 8-8 going into the final session. In the last frame of the second session, Robertson knocked in a majestic 140 to leap to the top of the high break board.

At 10-9 Robertson looked in control but Ronnie came back at him to make it 10-10. In the 21st frame Robertson needed a relatively easy pink with the rest to make it 11-10, but the pressure seemed get to him and he missed. Ronnie finally took the frame on the black.

Ronnie stepped up a gear for the remainder of the match and won 13-10. This was sweet revenge for Ronnie as Robertson has beaten him twice this season.

Ronnie now plays Higgins in the quarter finals which should be the pick of the quarters.

But the whole line up looks great with Maguire vs Hamilton, Ronnie vs Higgins, Stevens vs Murphy and Selby vs Carter.

Snooker: Selby defeats Grinder Ebdon

Mark Selby played brilliantly well to dispose of former world champion Peter Ebdon by 13 frames to 8.

During the match Selby knocked in 5 centuries, 3 of those in succession, the other 2 back to back. This has to be the best win of Selby's professional career and it will be his first appearance in the World Championship quarter finals.

He will play Ali Carter in the next round who beat a well out of form Stephen Hendry 13-6. That said, Carter played really well. Hendry said, "Every time I went to the table, the white was somewhere where I didn't want it."

Snooker: WSA Blames Global Warming!

Well, ...I've heard it all now. All the players are complaining about the table conditions, how the balls are "pinging" or speeding up of the cushions and also squaring up. Here's one that I never thought I would hear from the World Snooker Association, they're blaming Global Warming!

A WSA statement read, "The temperature inside the Crucible was above what we consider the optimum as a result of unusually warm weather,"

"We've brought the temperature back to optimum and re-clothed the tables."

According to the Met Office, April could be the warmest since records began. It is true that heat can speed up the table by drying the fine cloths quickly but it doesn't really explain the unpredictable cushions.

Isn't the Crucible air conditioned? Air conditioning is great, what you can do is set it to a particular temperature regardless of the temperature outside the venue. So whether the ice caps are melting, your elderly next door neighbour is freezing to death on his way home from the shops, or Miami is getting hit by a category 5 hurricane, a snooker player can feel quite comfortable in his waistcoat and bow tie. If the Crucible isn't air conditioned, then what are they doing there!?

Let's hope the snooker table conditions improve so we can see some great high quality snooker with no excuses from the players.

American Pool: 9-Ball Eurotour Germany

It's that time again and I can feel the excitement already building. When I wake up on the Monday morning of the week of a Eurotour event, I already start to get that same exciting feeling we used to get when we were kids on the night before Christmas. This event is going to be particular fun, as I'm planning to do a few interviews with top players and post them in our blog. It could be interesting to know what Tony Drago thinks of his mum's cooking, for example... or what Raj Hundal keeps hidden under his bandana... or how did Oliver Ortmann end up with such a strange cue action?

It's one of my favorite venues for a Eurotour in a pool club in Sindelfingen. The atmosphere there is always great because unlike a lot of the new Eurotour venues that are hotels, this event is still held in a pool club/bar and all the players hanging out waiting to play and watching are at the bar making for a much more exciting atmosphere.

Who's your money on for this event? Well... as always with 9-ball, it's anyone's guess, but you are usually safe to put a bob or two on the fact that players such as Ortmann, Souquet, Van den Berg, Peach, Chamat, Immonen, Homan and Engert... are all likely to play a part in the later stages.

Defending champion Harold Stolka will have it all to do to hold on to his 630 points from last year and avoid a large fall down the rankings. Ortmann finished 2nd last year so he will also be hoping for a good result to hang on to his top spot on the ranking list. With less than 400 points separating the top 8, it is gonna be exciting to see who the movers and shakers will be this year. Along with Ortmann, Feijen is also defending big points and failure to qualify for the last 32 by either of these two would open things right up.

Only 3 days to go now until it gets underway. Don't forget that the TV table will be shown live on bwin.com throughout the tournament and that the semi finals and final will be televised on Eurosport at a later date.

Snooker: Stevens overcomes valiant Allen

In a great match, Matthew Steven managed to keep his cool to beat Mark Allen by 13 frames to 9. This is a much needed win for Stevens who has been struggling to keep his top 16 place this season.

Mark Allen has had a great début at the Crucible beating Doherty and put up a great fightback against Stevens. Allen was 8-3 down and pulled the match back to 11-9. But he couldn't hang on with the pressure of the match building as the end was in sight.

Stevens now goes on to play Shaun Murphy in the quarter final, a repeat of the 2005 world final. It should prove to be a cracking match!

Snooker: Hamilton vs McCulloch

Anthony Hamilton stepped up a gear in the final session and won the first 5 frames to bet Ian McCulloch by 13 frames to 8. The match was largely a scrappy affair and McCulloch didn't really show what he's capable of.

Hamilton will now face Stephen Maguire in the quarter finals.

Snooker: Parrott Subdued by Murphy

Shaun Murphy played a good solid 5 frames to dispose of John Parrott by 13 frames to 8. John has really shown that the pubic should not be condemning him to the BBC TV studio as a full time job just yet!

Parrott showed great mettle to come back from 4-0 down, then to 7-4 and then finished the second session with a 123 break to level at 8-8. It certainly shows that Parrott isn't scared of modern day former world champions and Murphy wasn't playing particularly badly.

But the 2005 champion showed his class in the final session; punching his fist at his supporters going into the mid-session interval 12-8. During the frame that clinched his victory, the man from Rotheram didn't really blink and wrapped up the match that people thought he would win reasonably easily. Just goes to show that the old fellas can still give the young guns a good game over distance!!

It's great to see Parrott back on the main stage and I think Murphy now looks a serious contender for the championship.

Snooker: Boats and Arms

Now, I don't know if this is only getting to me, ....but it certainly IS getting to me! And what a better place to complain about it than my own blog! :-)

Snooker commentators seem to be confused about certain English sayings and phrases. I think it was John Virgo that started the trend of saying an incorrect English phase or saying when trying to be more elaborate about certain shots that players were playing.

I have to quickly state before I go any further that generally I like the snooker coverage supplied by various channels, and I like Virgo, Taylor, Thorne et al. They do know their stuff as they're all ex-players (although some of them might struggle bending over a snooker table these days) and they can be witty, opinionated, diplomatic etc, depending on which commentator we're talking about.

BUT, it seems that when a player "chances his arm", every commentator has jumped on the Virgo bandwagon and they all now seem to think he's "pushed the boat out". Straight away I have to state here that originally I'm from Yorkshire, so I know exactly what "pushing the boat out" means, as folk from round my way didn't do it very often! :-)

Pushing the boat out is something my old man does when he's at a party, pub, restaurant, or on holiday with people he likes. He gets his wallet out, brushes off the cobwebs, and gets more than his fair share of rounds in at the bar. The next morning he'll check his wallet and say, "Crikey! I pushed the boat out a bit last night!", meaning he spent a little more of his hard earned cash than he really wanted to.

What Virgo et al should be saying when players like Ebdon and Dott go for a pot is, "he chanced his arm there a bit!"

Chancing your arm is something my old man does when he's at the golf club having a quick drink after a 18 holes. His mates will be badgering him for another drink and he knows he's near the drink driving limit. But he's having a good time with his mates, and besides, his best mate Tommy is in the middle of a decent story, ...so he'll go to the bar get another drink, then he'll "chance his arm" and drive home hoping no pigs, ...erm, sorry, policemen will pull him over (If there are any police reading this and getting worried, ...I'm making this story up OK!). It's worth noting that while at the bar, he might have been in the process of pushing the boat out as well.

So come on John, Steve, Dennis, Clive and Willie, get your English phrases right!

Snooker: Selby, Robertson and Hendry Through!

Neil Robertson, Mark Selby and Stephen Hendry are through to the last 16.

The snooker tables seem to be taking more of a headline than the snooker players at the moment. The bounces of the cushions are ridiculous at times and are beginning to make the players look like they've played poor shots. That isn't always the case of course and the tables need to be looked at as soon as possible by the table fitters.

Robertson played well to beat Day who's a great talent and it was always going to be a difficult first round match for both players. Robertson will now play Ronnie in the next round and that one should be the last 16 match to look out for. He's beaten Ronnie twice this season already so look for Ronnie to get some revenge!

I didn't see any of the Hendry match but I've heard through the commentators on the BBC that Hendry struggled to beat newcomer David Gilbert by 10 frames to 7. Hendry said the cushions were a real problem as well.

Hendry is using a new cue, so maybe he's struggling with it a little under tournament conditions. When looking at his action with his previous cue, it almost looked as if it was a little too heavy and that he was trying to force the cue through the cue ball. I haven't seen him playing with his new cue yet. I don't think he's been the same player since his original Riley cue was stolen many years ago. He certainly hasn't had the same amount of success with his recent cues but that could be attributed to many different factors.

The victory of the day has to be Mark Selby who beat Stephen Lee by 10 frames to 7 after been 5-0 down! I heard the BBC presenter say that currently Lee's wife is not too well so Lee isn't practising as much as he needs to. Nevertheless, I think Selby is a great player and it's a great win for him. He's been over to Switzerland and played in the Swiss Open a couple of times and he's always performed reasonably well. It's about time one of my predictions made it through to the next round!

Snooker: 888 World Championships, Last 16 Order of Play

Thursday 26 April

Second round matches (best of 25 frames)

1430 BST
Shaun Murphy (Eng) v John Parrott (Eng)

1900 BST
Anthony Hamilton (Eng) v Ian McCulloch (Eng)

Friday 27 April

1000 BST
Shaun Maguire v Joe Swail (NI)
Shaun Murphy (Eng) v John Parrott (Eng)

1430 BST
Anthony Hamilton (Eng) v Ian McCulloch (Eng)
Matthew Stevens (Wal) v Mark Allen (NI)

1900 BST
Stephen Maguire (Sco) v Joe Swail (NI)
Shaun Murphy (Eng) v John Parrott (Eng)

Saturday 28 April

1000 BST
Anthony Hamilton (Eng) v Ian McCulloch (Eng)
Matthew Stevens (Wal) v Mark Allen (NI)

1430 BST
Stephen Maguire (Sco) v Joe Swail (NI)
Stephen Hendry (Sco) v Ali Carter (Eng)

1900 BST
John Higgins (Sco) v Fergal O'Brien (Ire)
Matthew Stevens (Wal) v Mark Allen (NI)

Snooker: 888 World Championships, Second Round Matches

For me the pick of this round will be Ronnie vs Robertson and Allen vs Stevens.

Ian McCulloch
Anthony Hamilton

Stephen Maguire
Joe Swail

John Higgins
Fergal O'Brien

Neil Robertson
Ronnie O'Sullivan

Mark Allen
Matthew Stevens

John Parrott
Shaun Murphy

Peter Ebdon
Mark Selby

Ali Carter
Stephen Hendry

Snooker: Williams vs Swail

What a fantastic match. Unfortunately another former champion bites the dust but Swail really turned it on under pressure to win a final frame decider 10-9.

Williams looked in command when 8-6 up but missed a couple of long pots to let Joe Swail in. Swail's long potting was excellent and he was banging them in from all over the place. He looked under control right until the end and the first time he lead the match was when he took the final frame.

Williams hasn't really been on form for a couple of seasons and only looked good in spells. His positional play wasn't quite there and he missed some easy balls in and around the black spot.

Overall, Swail deserved the victory, ...just! Great to see another final frame decider at the Crucible.

Swail will now play Maguire in the next round.

Snooker: North vs South

Mark Allen has defeated the ex-world champion Ken Doherty by 10 frames to 7. This must rate as Mark Allen's best professional performance of his young career!

I was talking about newcomers in one of my previous posts, Mark Allen is now the only newcomer to have made it through to the next round. He now goes on to play Matthew Stevens, another very tough match as Stevens tends to play his best snooker at the Crucible, having been runner-up twice.

Unfortunately I was unable to see the final session of the match. If anybody out there saw it and would like to comment, please feel free to do so with the "comments" link below.

Snooker: Jonni Fulcher on YouTube

Check out some funky vids by our other contributor, Jonni Fulcher on YouTube!