The Hallucinating 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...

Sorry, I don't understand what you mean?

I'm with @Eddie on this. Let's just have a solid test series against Australia and see England actually play at least some games. With how the international game is on its rear end these days it would be good just to see a few well attended, solid tests, rather than a load of empty stadiums, potentially blow out scorelines in games no one is interested in that make the international game look even more of a joke.

3 down, 10 to go. Sword Song next! I love Bernard Cornwell!

So, with the main draw less than two hours away, what are my pre-tournament predictions? Mark Allen v Judd Trump in the final, Judd to get his 2nd title. Who do I want to win the title? I'd love to see Luca defend his title but that just isn't going to happen. He's not had the best season to follow up his win last year and then there's the Crucible Curse as well. I'd also love to see Hossein Vafaei have a really solid run to gain some decent ranking points and maintain his position high up in the rankings cos he's gonna lose the points from his Shoot Out win next season so will be dropping down the rankings unfortunately. If someone was to come through from the qualifiers to win? Jack Lisowski can put in some brilliant performances and has been in 6 finals down the years, alas yet to win one. I'm really looking forward to seeing if Jackson Page can at least get through the first round; the up and coming Welsh player in my opinion with some real potential to go far in the game. It looked for so long like Michael White was gonna be the next great Welshman but he's really fallen away now so let's see if Jackson can step up! Obviously never write off Ronnie, though in the last couple of seasons mistakes have been creeping into his game much more and he does seem to be faltering a bit against the top players, granted he can always perform at the Crucible. Talking about faltering against top players, the performance Mark Williams put in to beat him in the British Open final will go down in the sports history as one of the greatest performances, 3-5 down at the break, comes back in the evening and wins 7 frames without reply. Unbelievable performance and Mark does have a history of coming from nowhere to win this title in the past so you never know! I haven't even mentioned Mark Selby. An unspectacular, and sometimes quite forgettable player in terms of style of play but always solid and efficient and with 4 titles already under his belt you can also never write Selby off. Like I say though, I'm going Judd for the title.

The players certainly wouldn't be happy if it was moved from the Crucible and I could almost see a few boycotting it if it was in Saudi. The players say about how it is their dream to play at the Crucible because the atmosphere and prestige of the venue far outweighs any other. They say about how, because the arena is so small and intimate, how close the fans are to the action, that the atmosphere is just so intimidating and tense and it can really affect a players game if they aren't used to it. The atmosphere can be cut with a knife because of how it weighs down on the players, even the most experienced players can get too absorbed in it. The atmosphere is essentially why the Crucible Curse exists, because of the expectation and anticipation that radiates off the fans, the players just can't handle that feeling. You'd never be able to creating that intimidating atmosphere at the massive, modern, soulless arena.

Sim City 4 = the greatest computer game of all time. No question.

So the big news from the final day of qualifying today is that Jamie Jones has beaten Neil Robertson, meaning for the first time since 2004, Neil will not be appearing at the Crucible! It was a very successful qualifying for Welsh players as well with 5 coming through qualifying, making it 6 Welshmen in the main draw tomorrow. The main tournament draw will be live on Radio 5live at 8.45am tomorrow.