2009/2010 Masters Qualifiers – Another Rory Wins

2009/2010 Masters Qualifiers – Another Rory Wins

Following the success of Malaysia’s very own Rory (i.e. Thor Chuan Leong) in winning his first Malaysia Snooker Championship, Rory McLeod won his first professional title  by beating Andrew Higginson 6-1 in the final of the Masters qualifying event at Pontin’s, Prestatyn and booked a place at snooker’s most prestigious invitation tournament.

The 38-year-old from Wellingborough, whose parents are Jamaican, will make his Masters debut at Wembley Arena in January against either Mark King or Mark Williams.  World No 39 McLeod became the first black player to compete at the Crucible (World Professional Snooker Championship) early this year, and he is now set to mark an equivalent milestone at Wembley.

He has won five matches this week, culminating in a comfortable victory over Higginson, who seemed overcome by tension with so much at stake and managed a top break of just 29.  “It’s been a long time coming. I’ve won loads of pro-am events but this one is more prestigious and it’s great to be able to take home a trophy,” said father-of-three McLeod, who coaches the Qatar national team. “I wanted to win this all week, I just had to keep calm. I’ve done the job now so I’m happy.

“The Masters is such a big tournament, I went to Wembley to see Paul Hunter win it in 2001 and it was a great atmosphere. Only the big boys play there and after the Crucible it’s the next venue you want to get to.”  Asked if he considers himself an inspiration to black people aiming to succeed in snooker, McLeod added; “I’ve shown that you can do whatever you want if you put your mind to it. There will be a lot of people watching me and hopefully they will give snooker a go.”

The Masters runs from January 10 to 17 and will see Ronnie O’Sullivan trying to defend his title against the likes of John Higgins, Stephen Hendry and Neil Robertson.

And that’s not where the similarities between the 2 Rory’s end. Besides being successful recently, both Rory’s are using Original Omin Cues.

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Why Players Find It Hard To Win The Final Frame

The ability to cope under pressure allows the player to successfully cross the finish line. How often do you find yourself in a situation where you need one more frame to win the match but you find it tremendously difficult? Without a doubt, the final frame is the hardest to win.

Here, I’ll share with you some insights that I learned from Steve Davis and Ken Doherty, two former world champions.

The player who is behind in the match tends to throw caution to the wind and play with more freedom. He has no more pressure and you often find he will play much better than you. The pressure on you mounts with each shot missed or with each poor safety shot.

You need to block the fact that it is the final frame and treat it like the first. Do not emphasise that it is the final frame. If you emphasise that it is the final frame, you will put more pressure on yourself. Players needing to win the final frame have the tendency to try to get the ball over the pocket or trying too much, instead of just playing the balls. Meaning you should continue on with your strategy that has gotten you in front of the match. If the strategy has worked well so far, why change it?

If you notice, players tend to miss simple shots at the end of the frame. This is largely due to the player’s desire to win taking over the desire to play. Not that I’m saying that the desire to win is bad, but over do it and you will forget that you still have to play the game. You forget about the hours of training that you have put in.  Don’t you find it a great waste of all your training if you do not play your normal game and lose?

In a match, especially in a tournament, it is not how you play the shot but how you react to it after wards. This shows the psychological frame of mind that you are in. In Steve Davis heydays when he was on top of his game, you cannot find any facial reaction from him when he made a mistake. This is important so that your opponent does not know what is going on in your mind.

Lastly, to quote Sun Tzu, “know yourself and know your enemy, a hundred battles fought and a hundred victories.”

From the “Snooker Psychologist”, Dr Anthony Teh

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Why I Lost!!! by Anthony Teh

Before anyone jumps to the conclusion that I am giving 101 excuses on my recent tournament loss, this is not a case of being a sore loser. Nope, not at all. What this is, is an analysis on how a club player should approach a tournament game.

I am not going to dwell on practice schedules and styles. These are commonly found and vary according to the player’s strengths, weaknesses, needs and suitability. But an analysis about a tournament loss? It’s as rare as hitting Toto Jackpot (to overseas readers, Toto Jackpot is Malaysia’s very own sweepstakes).

Back to my “excuses”.   For easy reference and reading, I’ll list all 5 excuses out with some notes.  Here goes:

1. “The player should be well rested, with enough sleep the night before and fresh on tournament day.” I was able to do this for the first 2 rounds which I won.  Unfortunately, like for many of us, we have day time jobs. I had to wake up early that morning to drive 350km to Penang for a meeting and drive back for the tournament.  Though I try to ignore it, I was physically and mentally tired.
2. “The player should have his meal 3 hours before the match.”  This is to allow your digestive system to work and provide you with optimum energy from your food.  However, I did not had the opportunity to eat as I was driving from Penang and subsequently rushing to the tournament venue.  Stomach wise, I was not at a level that I should be.
3. “The player should arrive at the tournament venue 1 hour before the start.”  This is to allow you to get used to the environment and also to slow down your heart beat.  You have to get comfortable and familiar with the environment – don’t you find that you are a bit uneasy whenever you are in a strange place?  Slowing down the heart beat allows you to play calmly and at your preferred pace – that’s why some drugs (like beta blockers) to slow down heart beat are banned in most sports like the Olympics.  Needless to say, I arrived just about 2 minutes before the match. As such, psychologically, I was uncomfortable and I was playing at a much faster pace than my usual game.  Speed wise, I had transformed from Steve Davis to Ronnie O’Sullivan.  Misses and mistakes came easily.
4. “When in trouble, go for a toilet break.” This allows you to calm your mind and prepare for the next frame. This also disrupts your opponent’s momentum. I didn’t do this and the result was that my match was the fastest to finish.  The only positive thing about this was that the table charges that I had to pay was quite cheap.

So, those were my “excuses” for losing.  I hope you can pick up a few pointers from the lesson that I had to pay and do well in your next tournament. But please forget everything when you are playing me, hehe.

Oh, I have one final excuse. My opponent was simply better than me.

Good luck to all of you, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

From “The Sore Loser”, Anthony Teh.

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Professional Ranking After UK Championship

POS NAME
1 John Higgins MBE
2 Ronnie O’Sullivan
3 Neil Robertson
4 Shaun Murphy
5 Allister Carter
6 Ding Junhui
7 Stephen Maguire
8 Ryan Day
9 Stephen Hendry MBE
10 Mark J Williams MBE
11 Marco Fu
12 Liang Wenbo
13 Mark Selby
14 Ricky Walden
15 Mark Allen
16 Mark King
17 Peter Ebdon
18 Jamie Cope
19 Joe Perry
20 Matthew Stevens
21 Stephen Lee
22 Michael Holt
23 Steve Davis OBE
24 Barry Hawkins
25 Stuart Bingham
26 Judd Trump
27 Dave Harold
28 Graeme Dott
29 Gerard Greene
30 Mark Davis
31 Ken Doherty
32 Joe Swail
33 Jamie Burnett
34 Anthony Hamilton
35 Andrew Higginson
36 Mike Dunn
37 Stuart Pettman
38 Robert Milkins
39 Dominic Dale
40 Peter Lines
41 Nigel Bond
42 Rory McLeod
43 Marcus Campbell
44 Martin Gould
45 Adrian Gunnell
46 Andy Hicks
47 Tom Ford
48 Matthew Selt
49 Ian McCulloch
50 Alan McManus
51 David Brown Gilbert
52 Michael Judge
53 Rod Lawler
54 Jimmy Michie
55 Fergal O’Brien
56 John Parrott MBE
57 Joe Delaney
58 Mark Joyce
59 Simon Bedford
60 Barry Pinches
61 David Morris
62 Jimmy White MBE
63 Matthew Couch
64 Michael White
65 Tony Drago
66 Patrick Wallace
67 Paul Davies
68 Jin Long
69 Jimmy Robertson
70 Craig Steadman
71 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
72 Lee Spick
73 Daniel Wells
74 Ben Woollaston
75 Joe Jogia
76 Xiao Guodong
77 Bjorn Haneveer
78 Atthasit Mahitthi
79 Li Hang
80 Zhang Anda
81 Noppadol Sangnil
82 Sam Baird
83 Jordan Brown
84 DavidHogan
85 James Wattana
86 Mark Boyle
87 Brendan O’Donoghue
88 Stephen Rowlings
89 Liu Song
90 Andrew Norman
91 David Gray
92 Christopher Norbury
93 Lee Page
94 Ian Preece
95 Mei Xiwen
96 David Roe

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