2014/15 Season Review

Stuart Bingham, the 2014/15 Champion of the World

Well, I've decided to make two big posts here in the blog, the first one (this one) will be a review from the last season, where I will say what I thought of that and bring back you some highlights, like all the complaints about kicks and what I think of that, how the worldwide Snooker audience growth this season, the young players who impressed this season and much more!
Later I will comeback bringing you a post where I will look ahead of the 2015/16 season, talking about the new World Cup which will be inaugurated in Wuxi next month, the Barry Hearn's announcement which told us the total prize money for the season will be increased again and much more, keep alert!

So, let's have a look on what I have from the 2014/15 season:


Season of the frames in a row:

This season we saw the greatest standard ever in my opinion, it's so tough to pick an event winner with Shaun Murphy, Ronnie O`Sullivan, Judd Trump, Mark Selby, Mark Allen, Stuart Bingham, Neil Robertson and many others always fighting for titles.
It's not by nothing we saw so many frames been won in a consecutive way.
You look at the finals of the Big Events and you see Judd Trump winning 5 frames in a row from 5-9 behind to force a decider in the UK Championship Final against eventual Champion Ronnie O`Sullivan. At The Masters, Shaun Murphy won the first five frames against Neil Robertson and also won every frame of the evening session to win 10-2. And the the season couldn't finish in different ways, at the World Championship Murphy got the first three frames and then when it was 4-4 he won four in a row. He also came back from 12-15 to 15 all but lost the last three frames, on the bounce.
It's just examples using the three biggest matches of the season, but we also had many, many other examples, like Bingham winning the last four to beat Ronnie in the World's semi-final and the remarkable comeback from Judd Trump at the Champion of Champions final, where he won 4 in a row to comeback from 3-8 to 7-8 but lost the last two frames in the match I considered as the highest standard ever in a Best of 19 match. But Judd Trump also had his revenge, winning the last 6 frames on the trot from 4-7 behind to beat Ronnie O`Sullivan 10-7 in the World Grand Prix Final.


New kids on the block:

This season saw the confirmation of Michael White in China and the Storm of Anthony McGill at the World Championship.
Michael White became a promise after making an excellent 2012/13 season finishing up reaching the Quarter Final of the World Championship, later got forgotten with a

The Smiling Assassin, Anthony McGill

poor 2013/14 season, but came back as strong as ever making his career breakthrough by winning his first professional tournament at the Shoot-Out in blackpool. Well, you might think the shoot-out isn't proper Snooker and doesn't mean much (I also think it to be honest), but it gave an amount of confidence for White who could put in the table all the ability and talent he has in the tank at the Indian Open, winning his first ever Ranking Event. But he unfortunately had to play the World Championship Qualifiers because of only one position in the Ranking and failed to qualify losing to Craig Steadman in the penultimate Round. I think it's something you cannot afford to do, making your debut at the Crucible, have an impressive run and then fail to qualify again. Let's hope it doesn't happen with our new pupil, Anthony McGill. Anthony McGill did a great season, which already rewarded him at the UK Championship when he impressed with a run to the Quarter Finals only losing 4-6 to eventual Champion Ronnie O`Sullivan, but his real storm came at the World Championship. The new grinder sensation beat Mark King in the last qualifying Round with a magical Century in the decider, and so he did in his Crucible debut, beating Stephen Maguire. "It's not a bad habit to have knocking in Centuries in deciders" said Anthony McGill, who drew Defending World Champion Mark Selby in the last 16, just to play some amazing Snooker which made people even dream he could win the title as the Scottish defeated the Englishman 13-9 conquering the crowd with his rare-less smiles.
His run ended in the Quarters with a defeat by Shaun Murphy, 8-13. He's now got some money, some knowledge and confidence, let's hope he keep up the hard work and keep qualifying for the Crucible year after year - what I think isn't going to be hard as he's got every chance to enter the Top 16 this season - and then I'm sure he'll lift the trophy one day.


Kicks: an unpredictable excuse:

It's a lot of opinion now, but I find it terribly incredible how the players go down to Twitter to complain about kicks after loses.
I think if you have to complain about something, do it in the press after a victory (like Ronnie O`Sullivan always does and did at the Welsh Open), if you lost and then complain on twitter, you've got no sense. If you really think it's wrong, then contact someone from World Snooker and they will make everything to solve it, but going to Twitter shows me a big miss-character, there's a couple of players who I was fan but I ain't more, because of it.
As a fan who regularly plays Snooker and have a Top Break of 140, I don't think kicks happens from nothing. Of course I've never played in a 12-foot table with those ultra-thin cloths, but I personally rarely have kicks, and when I do it starts to happen deliberately until I change some small mistake I'm doing with my cueing, and they disappear.
So I don't think the kicks are unpredictable or something caused by conditions, for me it's all bad excuses for losers, for example: have you ever seen Ronnie O`Sullivan or John Higgins getting a kick? Yes? But have they ever complained?. And what about the 90's and 80's players? Did they never got a kick or what? The fact is that it's boring Snooker, looks like players don't miss anymore, they get a kick. And they neither lose position, the get big bounces.
I've made a post here with my arguments against kicks, you can see it here.


Snooker audience as big as ever:

Well, we've got to congratulate Jason Ferguson (see my exclusive interview with him here) all the way for the audience Snooker is getting worldwide now.
Many TV Channels around the Earth showing our wonderful sport, and our big contender BBC has rumors of increasing their number of 4 events to 5 for the next season. My favorite broadcaster is BBC, due to all the special segments they do and all the mobilization they have when Snooker is on for them, but looking at Snooker growing around the World and looking to get inside the 2020 Olympic Games, the most important channels for Snooker must be Eurosport, which shows Snooker for all Europe and CCTV5, the biggest Chinese Channel which shows Snooker for billions people in China.
And all that is a result of the business travels around the World from WPBSA Chairman's Jason Ferguson, looking to spread the word of Snooker in every zone he goes.


Ronnie O`Sullivan's season:

Unfortunately in Snooker, most of the fans have the philosophy that only the BBC Events matter and you hadn't a good season if you didn't it good at the Crucible.
For me, Ronnie O`Sullivan didn't have a consistent season in terms of form, but in terms of results he was better than average, won two Major Tournaments playing sublime Snooker, the Champion of Champions and the big UK Championship, reached another Final, one semi and quite a few Quarters. It's not what people expect from Ronnie, and his exit from the World Championship made people lost some trust on him, but I think after 3 years dominating the game, it's normal to lose a bit of motivation, so for me it was a good season anyway.
Has he got chances to win the Big Events and principally the World Championship yet? Yes, no doubt, but it's something I will talk in my next post looking ahead to the 2015/16 season.



It's it from me now, but keep here in the blog because I will comeback with a Big Preview of the 2015/16 season, follow us on Facebook for even more Snooker related news!