The Hallucinating Goose

Just bought the complete boxset of Hamish Macbeth in a charity shop for a fiver. Not a show I've seen before but Mrs. Goose says she used to watch it, and I like Robert Carlyle so worth a watch.

The tables were re-covered last night and watching Judd v Tom Ford, it is obvious Judd is certainly not happy with the new cloth. He's miscued a couple of times and misjudged the pace quite a bit as well as making gestures at the table and faces and constantly smoothing the cloth.

I read them all last year, not the best quality writing but entertaining enough nonetheless.

This morning I purchased 15 novels of Julian Stockwin's Thomas Kydd series in a local charity shop. I've not read any of the series or know much about it particularly but I'm a big fan of Patrick O'Brien so thought I'd give these a go. I bought them as soon as I saw them because about a year ago, the same charity shop had a lot of Alexander Kent's novels but when I decided a few days later to get them they had already gone, and I've been struggling to find them ever since.

I hadn't heard of this film so just looked it up and saw it has a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes! That's not something you see very often! Of course I decided for myself it must be rubbish when I saw Robert Patrick is in it.

So far 8 of the 16 seeds have fallen in the first round, and Higgins' match with Jamie Jones is still very close after the first session so it might be 9. This is an incredibly unpredictable and intriguing championship. It really feels like anything could happen.

The players rarely talk to each other in the arena. Their minds are totally focused on the match and nothing else, they are completely in the zone, focused on the table and won't be distracted by anything. You see this when they're stood waiting to enter the arena. Hawkins and Day yesterday were chatting away like the good mates they are backstage but as soon as they walked into that arena a switch was flicked and their minds were on the game. You saw similar with Selby and O'Connor; really good friends who have known each other for 20 years, since O'Connor was a kid going into the club Selby played at. Selby basically mentored O'Connor and coached him when he was a kid and a teenager but they did not say a word to each other during their game. The moment the game ended however Selby jumped up with a massive smile on his face, congratulating his friend and giving him a massive hug. They're just professionals being professional.

On this day in 1932, Benny Rothman led the mass trespass of Kinder Scout, an event which arguably led to the creation of the National Parks and opened the countryside up to enthusiastic walkers such as this goose.

This tournament is extroadinary. Another one of the favourites is out after Mark Williams lost 10-9 to the young Chinese player, Si Jiahui.

And Selby is out. The top seeds are dropping like flies!

Mindset is such a big part of playing at the Crucible, keeping your concentration for the whole match, something the more experienced players are tuned into doing which is why so many debutants do tend to struggle and so many of the old guard keep going strong.

I can't believe how many of the games are going against the favourite. Selby is down 8-4 as I write this! No one could possibly have predicted that scoreline!

Has anyone seen the film 'Studs', from 2006, starring Brendan Gleeson, about Sunday league football? I saw it around the time it came out but its so obscure it doesn't even have a Wikipedia page, and I haven't seen it since, on tv or even a dvd in a charity shop, but discovered it is on YouTube so will probably give it another watch because I've been watching a few films recently with football as the theme.

Well done to Tom Ford for a convincing win over Ricky Walden, 10-6. After over 20 years of being a journeyman pro, Tom Ford has finally won his first game at the Crucible! Fantastic performance Tom!

I just jumped up in the air and screamed the house down! A toe was offside....

This is turning into a very unpredictable championship. The relatively unknown, Jak Jones has beaten one of the seasons most successful players, Zhang Anda and after the first session of their game, debutant Joe O'Connor is absolutely battering one of the all-time greats, and his mentor, Mark Selby, 7-2.

Wow! Wow! What a thriller we have been treated to to start the tournament off! Dave Gilbert has beaten Luca Brecel 10-9 after needing to win the last 4 frames in a row and doing so. Luca only has himself to blame for the loss, a couple of frames having been only a pot or two from winning the match and missing some easy balls. Dave didn't lead once during the entire match but seized on Luca's self inflicted mistakes perfectly. What a performance from Dave Gilbert, I knew this one was gonna be an exciting match but that has exceeded all my expectations and really set us up for a truly wonderful rest of tournament! The Crucible Curse lives on!

What about him?

A great first session from Luca and Dave, snooker of the finest quality, we're off to a fantastic start!

Less than 4 hours until we get going! So excited! Luca Brecel v Dave Gilbert to start us off; that's gonna be a very competitive game and a tough one to call. Then Judd v Hossein this afternoon, really looking forward to that one; a bit easier to call I think but should still be a very entertaining encounter. And then Luca and Dave concluding this evening. What a day of snooker we have ahead of us! For a bit of fun, here are my predictions for the entire tournament! First Round Luca Brecel v Dave Gilbert Robert Milkins v Pang Junxu Ali Carter v Stephen Maguire Shaun Murphy v Lyu Haotian Mark Selby v Joe O'Connor Kyren Wilson v Dominic Dale John Higgins v Jamie Jones Mark Allen v Robbie Williams Judd Trump v Hossein Vafaei Tom Ford v Ricky Walden Zhang Anda v Jak Jones Mark Williams v Si Jiahui Ding Junhui v Jack Lisowski Gary Wilson v Stuart Bingham Barry Hawkins v Ryan Day Ronnie O'Sullivan v Jackson Page Second Round Luca Brecel v Pang Junxu Ali Carter v Shaun Murphy Mark Selby v Kyren Wilson Jamie Jones v Mark Allen Judd Trump v Ricky Walden Zhang Anda v Mark Williams Jack Lisowski v Gary Wilson Barry Hawkins v Ronnie O'Sullivan Quarter-Finals Luca Brecel v Ali Carter Mark Selby v Mark Allen Judd Trump v Mark Williams Gary Wilson v Ronnie O'Sullivan Semi-Finals Luca Brecel v Mark Allen Judd Trump v Ronnie O'Sullivan The Final Mark Allen v Judd Trump This is a very hard tournament to predict though, so many of these games could go either way and that list of games could look very different even just after the first round.

Great Post! I hated Hendry when he was playing but away from the table he seems a right laugh. He does a YouTube channel called Cue Tips which he's fantastic on and he's one of my favourite people in the game now!

Looking at the draw, I'd say Mark is almost certain to get through his side, like I said, I'm going Mark v Judd in the final. I'd prefer Mark to win, one of my favourite players in recent seasons but I just think Judd will have a little too much for Mark over 4 sessions. It would be very close though, only a couple of frames in it.

If you think there aren't characters in snooker then it's obvious you don't watch much of it.

Yeah, I was just being dumb. It was too early in the morning. I do live in Beverley and you're quite right, we do have a suffragan bishop. Yeah, I wasn't thinking when I read your post!

Hossein gets Judd... Jackson gets Ronnie... The curse of the Goose on the draw it seems...