WILLIAMS TARGETS MASTERS RETURN

There were some familiar faces absent from the Dafabet Masters line-up this year, including Mark Williams, Ali Carter and Graeme Dott. The 38-year-old Williams, known for being fairly laid back about all things snooker and indeed life, has made the most of the week off but even the Welshman, a two-time winner of the title, admitted he has unfinished business at the tournament for the top 16 only after missing only his second Masters in 18 years.

World No18 Williams also admitted that he has not been glued to the TV from afar, with Ronnie O’Sullivan almost the only player whose matches he can sit down and enjoy from start to finish.

He said: “Of course I would have preferred to have been at the Masters, there’s a few of us not made it that are usually there with Ali Carter and Graeme Dott. But I have made the most of the week off and enjoyed myself.

“I have taken the kids to school, spent time with the family, been out for a few drinks, chilled out, and played some darts. I have actually been practising very hard recently, I know some people might find that hard to believe.

“And I don’t think I am finished at the Masters, and will be looking to be back there next year. You certainly aren’t going to get there without practice.

“I haven’t watched too much of it, bits and pieces and to be honest Ronnie is virtually the only one I would watch all the way through, so I saw all of his first-round game against Rob Milkins.

“Ronnie is pretty much the only person I can watch and enjoy watching. If I tune into other matches it might be a frame and then turn over. I’d rather watch ‘Location, Location, Location’ than a whole match involving some of the others.”

It takes a lot to rattle Marco Fu. After all, we are talking here about a man that man when unwillingly and wrongly dragged into the ‘Chinese cheating’ row a couple of years ago responded with the sledgehammer blow: “Everyone is entitled to their opinion.” So it should come as no big surprise that he is not in the least bit fussed when it comes to how he is regarded when it comes to nationality. His birthplace of Hong Kong, of course, has technically for many years been part of China but the 36-year-old Fu insist he would be happy to be introduced as being from the Moon as long as he is winning.

World No9 Fu said: “I don’t mind at all whether people write Hong Kong or China in reports, or when I am introduced into the arena. I see myself as both from Hong Kong and Chinese, it’s really like saying Jimmy White is from London. He is also from England. Hong Kong is still a special administrative region. It is Chinese but even there has kept some separate identity. I mainly get introduced in the UK as being from Hong Kong, in China tournaments they would say ‘China Hong Kong’. It is a bit different, because they wouldn’t say ‘China Shanghai’ just because a player came from Shanghai. And then in the Asian Games there are three separate teams, China, China Hong Kong and China Macau.”

One of the reasons we set up this website is that it isn’t always easy to interest the national press in the UK in snooker. All too frequently, if they do carry anything about snooker it’ll be somebody knocking the sport, usually employing a catalogue of tired old clichés. This is why we were pleased to see snooker defended by one of Britain’s leading sports journalists, Martin Samuel, in his column for GQ.com, which can be read at the link below.

http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/comment/articles/2014-01/14/pub-games-daylight-snobbery-darts-pool-snooker

O'SULLIVAN'S CHINESE INSPIRATION

World champion Ronnie O’Sullivan has revealed the inspiration and full background for THAT Chinese song which provided the musical backdrop for his walk-on against Rob Milkins, and that he will be using not only while he remains this year’s Masters but for the foreseeable future.

The Rocket, a four-time Masters winner, raised one or two eyebrows on Tuesday night by picking a Chinese anthem for his grand entrance

O’Sullivan has ditched Robbie Williams’ ‘Let Me Entertain You’ for the ditty, seen by millions as a a motivational tune – think M People’s ‘Proud’ and you wouldn’t be far off – and which means ‘A Man Should Better Himself’.

The theme from popular Hong Kong Fung Fu  film ‘Once Upon a Time in China II’ was sung at various times by both Hollywood star Jackie Chan and George Lam.

And snooker’s ‘People’s Champion’ O’Sullivan claims he identifies with the hero of the movie, played by martial arts screen legend Jet Li, who is loved by the masses.

O’Sullivan said: “My Chinese mate Kenno was doing his shopping for his restaurants and in his car he said listen to this, played it to me and I thought it was great.

“He told me all about the background, Jet Li plays this hero Wong Fei-Hung – he fought everyone off who was trying to invade China with his martial art skills.

“He was the People’s Champion in the movie, which I liked. I have heard the music and loved it and I will be watching the film soon.

“It is a pretty big motivational song over there, and Ken said why not use it for your walk-on and I loved it. Robbie Williams is a nice song, but it is a bit cheesy.

“It is not a one-off, I am sticking with it for this tournament, and probably for ever.

“I have massive support in China and spend time there, I love the place, the culture and everything about it.”

Shaun Murphy should probably take most of the credit for his much-needed win over Ding Junhui at the Masters – but the former world champion was left wondering if other motivational forces had subtly contributed to his success, having chosen for the first time the ‘Superman’ film theme music for his entrance.

Murphy, 31, said: “It struck me over Christmas watching the darts here that walk-ons are your little opportunity to have a bit of fun and show a bit of your personality. I used to have ‘It’s a Kind of Magic’ being the Magician, and the theme from ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’, because I liked it.

“Then it hit me that I have been the biggest Superman fan since I was six, so why don’t I use it? It’s a piece of music I really like, everyone else likes it, it is a bit of fun, and that’s it. It only puts extra pressure on myself walking in to Superman if my opponent has Kryptonite, and luckily Ding didn’t have any with him.”

The power cut a couple of minutes before the start of the Ding Junhui/Shaun Murphy match had officials for the tournament, broadcasters and venue scampering around the building desperately trying to establish the seriousness of the situation, and more importantly how long it would take to fix. In the end, the emergency response team all performed admirably, and a delay of 75 minutes was a result for all parties. It was originally feared it might take several hours to regain the electrics, something that would have impacted on the Ronnie O’Sullivan/Rob Milkins match and may well have resulted in one of the clashes being played very late or very early. But in the end none of that was necessary, and BBC cameraman Jim Cemlyn-Jones got his big moment, doing an impromptu acoustic guitar set in the manner of Cliff Richard - and not so much The Office’s David Brent, as he didn’t have to go home for his guitar. It was in the car.

All of the players both involved, in to practice, and former greats waiting around to commentate insisted they had never seen anything like it before. Murphy headed off to practice before rejoining the dimly-lit party in the arena led by MC Rob Walker, and Ding was taking pictures in the gloom while refuelling on an apple. No, not that one.

Dennis Taylor, the 1985 world champion, was taking it all in his stride. “I haven’t ever seen this happen in a big tournament, never,” he said. “But I do remember plenty of exhibitions during the strikes back in the 1970s which we had to do by candlelight.”

It is uncertain whether that solution would have got past the Ally Pally management on health and safety grounds.

In the build-up to the Shaun Murphy/Ding Junhui match no fewer than EIGHT former world champions were mingling and exchanging banter in the media centre at the same time. The cast list included Murphy himself as he prepared to go out into the arena, Stephen Hendry, Steve Davis, Dennis Taylor, Terry Griffiths, Joe Johnson, John Higgins and Ken Doherty, with a combined haul of 22 world titles won at the Crucible.

Johnson and Higgins were also quick to patch up their minor spat that hit the headlines during the UK Championship, initially sparked by a very strong headline placed on a piece the Yorkshireman had done for a Scottish newspaper discussing the Glaswegian’s recent spell of poor form and changes of cue this season.