9.8.10

FORD'S FOCUS PAYS OFF

So Tom Ford won the third Players Tour Championship and with it £10,000.

He is a player, like so many, blessed with considerable talent who has underachieved. By his own admission he has not dedicated himself to his career as he should have done, preferring evenings out on the lash to an early night readying himself for another day's practising.

Tom explained when he qualified for the Crucible earlier this year that Mark Selby, his fellow Leicester player, provided the perfect inspiration. Selby is a hard worker and success has followed. Ford wants a piece of that too.

Not enough snooker players over the years have realised that what they do really is a profession.

In fairness, when there's six or seven weeks between matches it can't feel like one.

That's all changed now: PTC4 starts at the end of the week and is followed shortly afterwards by the qualifiers for the World Open.

Ford has never really played well on television but everyone knows how good he is. Hopefully this win can be the springboard for a successful season.

I was pleased to see Jack Lisowski reach the final. Only two years ago he had cancer. If anyone was going to grab the opportunity to play professional snooker with both hands it would be Jack.

This season is going to be very interesting. Why? Because there's so much snooker to be played.

The likes of Ford and Lisowski will hope to use the confidence gained from the PTC and go forward with it. That's the value of this new series.

And even the players who lost early have reason for cheer: they can make amends this week.

20 comments:

Betty Logan said...

The PTC could produce a similar effect to what we had in the mid 90s when the open game produced a whole slew of fresh talent. We all noticed the quality tail-off in the latter half of the last decade, and that's because talented players weren't experienced enough to retain their places on the tour. The PTC should go some way to address that.

I still think it could have gone further and seeded the top 8 non-tour players on the order of merit into the main tour qualifiers throughout the season. Players who lose their places would still have the opportunity to play in the proper events then.

Anonymous said...

anyone know where the ptc order of merit is updated to include event 3. global and WS are still asleep

Anonymous said...

well Top 7 is

1 Mark Selby £13,100
2 Tom Ford £12,100
3 Mark Williams £10,200
4 Barry Pinches £7,100
5 Stephen Maguire £6,200
6 Jack Lisowski £5,000
= Marco Fu £5,000

Ramona Dragomir said...

If I`m not wrong, Tom Ford hit a 147 break at the 2007 Grand Prix, where he played against Steve Davis.

He did a spectacular job at PTC 3!Hopefully, the fact he won, will keep his spirit up and he`ll be more focused and practice more.

RichP said...

I like the headline Dave, how long have you been waiting to use that one?!

Dave H said...

Let's just say I had to get the duster out before using it

Anonymous said...

well done hawkins

Anonymous said...

11.57. Asleep? dead more like it. Snooker journalists must be the laziest of all sports, that nobody can put the updated ptc list on their website. All they say is "its up to world snooker". same with the results at the weekend.
perfect chance to steal a march on their rivals. useless. i predict in 2 years as the game grows and attracts proper professionals, the majority of current websites will be gone.

Anonymous said...

Snooker © The Fine Art Method
A secret is wasted if not shared
Dear Betty Logan @ 8:17 am Hello Dave
How are you both! Without sounding condescending lass I think all you girls do great for the game of snooker but not near enough for the ladies side of the game.

Please admit Betty the game has neither physical bounders nor handicaps for female players. The upper structure is only a problem going down with “Both Shoulders to the Board”.

Correct “Stance and Balance” takes all the embarrassment and any suggestiveness felt when going down on the shot.
Advance standard of snooker with four hours regular practice should take about six months as against three or four years with the “Watch Me” and I’ll show you again method.

Most lady players have copied every bad snooker habit in the men’s game as the girls do not realise that snooker is really a female game that’s perfect for showing attractive “Gear” with cosmetic and beauty lotions on show. Mr Hey You

Anonymous said...

It's world snookers job to produce the order of merit and ranking list. That's what governing bodys (are supposed to) do.

Anyone else who does it can't claim its official or even correct.

Anonymous said...

what a lot of drivel from 8.16

if you are new to daves blog, ignore this mans ramblings or you will need anger management

Anonymous said...

Hi Dave,

Re: the point above...

I suppose if you put snooker hacks up against other sports, then yes, i don't think there's as much pressure/workload - except a late night at the world championships - when sports editor's all want good coverage copy and not a paragraph by the sports results!

Here's an intetesting point. I notice that darts doesn't get any sports coverage/results noted in papers. But on a certain sports news channel they like to show PTC results. Strikes me as odd, when the snooker ones haven't been put up as well.

Sports editors agenda i suppose...?

Thanks, joe

Dave H said...

I love the ignorance people have for other people's jobs.

A journalists's workload depends on how many orders they have. We are all freelance. I've been a tournaments where I've never stopped.

I don't complain about it: I enjoy it. But I'm not lazy!

Anonymous said...

Hi Dave,

The only thing I will say is that snooker journalists - unlike football - multitask a lot of reports - whether regional/national papers, or the same for radio stations. Also, like you say, Dave, if there are only a few hacks on-course, then there'll be expected to do the workload.

You will not see other sports journalists do that. Saying that, Tennis journalists work incredibly hard on the circuit.

At the end of it, it depends how big the sport is (tournaments,coverage etc,) as to whether more media give more coverage,hence more jobs for sports journalists.

Hopefully this will change.

Thanks, Joe

Anonymous said...

Most journalists years ago in the dubai classic used to sunbathe or go golfing while Phil Yates stayed and actually watched the matches. Then they would get back and just copy Phils work. Hence the stories in all the papers were almost word for word. That was also the same event where you would get journalists who would not normally cover snooker all of a sudden turn up because thier exs were paid and the hospitality was great. I used to have a go at Phil for letting them take the p**s out of him .A lot of these so called snooker journalists were never seen on a rainy day in Preston .Not having a go at you Dave but you know who they were.

Anonymous said...

538, tell us who they are please.

kildare cueman said...

5.38, I suppose having all the reporters copying one of the SS lads was, in some ways better for the game, as half of them wouldn't have a clue anyway, and would probably end up dwelling on a spectacular miss or behind the scenes argument.

At least Phils coverage would be informed and knowledgable, and would enable fans to get a proper idea of how a match went.

Anonymous said...

12 57. My point was that most papers were not and are still not interested in snooker.Editors of certain papers which hate snooker would still send a journo to Dubai because the sponsors paid for it. Then the would put a couple of paltry lines in the paper(copied off Phil) cus they had to justify being there .At least Phil is genuine.

Dave H said...

Actually the Dubai Classic used to get a lot of coverage because, as you say, the sponsors paid for the journos to go out there

I'm aware not all of them spent all day following the snooker but it was still better to have them there than not

Anonymous said...

I agree it was better to have them there Dave but a lot of them would not be seen at tournaments in the uk.Even the hexagon at reading which for most of them would have been a short trip from London. I wonder why? (not).