In this piece Neal gives a great insight behind the scenes at the Champion of Champions in Coventry, focussing particularly on Friday 7th November when Robertson played Carter and Walden played Allen before Robertson played Walden in the evening. He also offers some entertainment when it comes to a missing suit, which will hopefully turn up for him at some point.
So, this is what Neal Foulds was up to on Friday November 7th and throughout the week in Coventry:
Yesterday was a rest day in the Champion Of Champions snooker at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry to allow ITV4 to cover Europa League football. Today sees the concluding pool of 4 players and by the time we go off air tonight at 10.15pm we'll know who will join Ding Junhui, Judd Trump & Ronnie O'Sullivan in the weekends semi-finals.
It's 9am and I'm down
at breakfast, the beauty of this event is that there is a new batch of players
here every day. On Monday John Higgins was tucking into breakfast with Dominic
Dale as I arrived. Dominic (aka the spaceman) was very proud of his new eBay
purchase. It's the wristwatch worn by Steve Davis throughout the halcyon days
of his career. Apparently Steve recently found it in a drawer, battery dead and
promptly put it up for sale. I assume he knew the batteries are replaceable!!
Anyway, John and Dominic lost their opening matches the same
day. John to an in form Barry Hawkins and in Dom's case the Davis Ebel watch
didn't bring about any old magic as Dom was beaten by Ding.
Tuesday's breakfast room saw none of the players in
attendance, World Champ Mark Selby lives less than an hour away & there is
no sign of Stephen Maguire, Judd Trump or the watch-less Steve Davis. The Nugget
eventually arrived only a few minutes before his match as his train to Coventry
was delayed. I was a little surprised he travelled here on the train in the
first place.
It's great to see Steve play again though, his defeat by Selby
was closer than the 4-1 score line suggests. Steve is and will always be a
snooker legend and has never changed since I first met him 40 years ago playing
in the British youth championships in Neasden in London. Oddly enough his first
round opponent that day was Tony Meo, another brilliant player.
Wednesday saw Ronnie O'Sullivan at the breakfast table,
chatting to WSA chairman Jason Ferguson. The Rocket looked lean & mean and
says he needed to lose some weight. A light breakfast ensued. If Ronnie needs
to lose weight what does it say for the rest of us?
He later breezed through his matches beating Stuart Bingham
& Marco Fu with the loss of only 2 frames all day. The Rocket being
launched into action on November 5th leads to too many options for media
headlines. I'll leave you to work out the possibilities but the worst pun I
heard was that nobody could hold a (roman) candle to him all day!!
Anyway back to today.
No players down at breakfast this morning but Clive Everton
is up and about, I've never got to breakfast before him in a morning! I've also
never made it into the commentary box without him already being in there as he
prepares for his opening line. An old pro.
Alan McManus is here too, combining practise with research
for today's game. Alan is very organised and writes everything down. He has
already been out for a run around the outer perimeter of the Ricoh Arena. I’m really enjoying listening to Alan's
commentaries this week.
In contrast I have just got up and walked straight down
here, no early morning run and no notepad!! Also a grey suit I put into the
hotel cleaning services 3 days ago seems to have disappeared off the face of
the earth. At reception they have no record of it being put in to be cleaned?
Did I dream it?Anyway Mark Johnston-Allen sits down opposite me, a former pro who has the record of beating Stephen Hendry 3 times in as many matches. MJA is the MC this week. I've told Jill Douglas to reference Mark as "giant killer" this week. Lovely bloke is Mark, although he appears a little bleary eyed this morning. Yesterday being a day off, I think Mark enjoyed himself at the bar!!
We've got all the stats ready for today. Neil Robertson is playing Ali Carter, a repeat of last year’s quarter final in Coventry. Robbo won 6-5 that night, lots of water under the bridge since then. It's great to see Ali back in good health after an awful past 6 months.
The other match is a repeat of the final of the
international in Chengdu only last Sunday. Ricky Walden beat Mark Allen 10-7
that day. In case you were wondering it's 9036 miles from Chengdu to Coventry
although I doubt you were!!
I'm asked to do an interview with Ali Carter at midday.
Looking forward to it as it's great to see him back. Ali arrives a bit late,
and somewhat flustered. Turns out aside from his other issues he has forgotten
his dress suit. I hope he didn't put it into be cleaned!! I have a nice chat
with Ali and wish him luck.Great introductions by Mark Johnston-Allen at the start of the match, Ali's walk-on to a standing ovation is really something. I look over at my colleague Jill Douglas who has a few tears in her eyes. MJA is wearing a suit suspiciously like the one I have lost. On a similar note Ali is wearing Ricky Walden's suit but changes it after the first frame as his own clobber arrives in Coventry.
As I write this the early signs are that Neil is doing a
professional job and has hardly missed a ball in leading 2-0.
Now the
session is finished. Two whitewashes Robertson 4-0 and Walden defeats Allen 4-0.
The session ends early (around 4pm) so Jill, Alan and I
have an hour to fill with chat and highlights before we tuck into dinner. The
food is laid on by the hotel for the ITV crew, the description of "traditional
lamb hot pot, rosemary roast potatoes and seasonal vegetables" sounds
fine but the portions are so small they are almost non-existent. I am hungrier
after the meal than I was before it.
I'm booked to interview Neil Robertson for 6.15pm ahead of
the evening session where he now meets Ricky. When Neil arrives he is in work
mode, polite and easy to speak to but one senses he is in the zone for his
match to follow. One thing in particular that Neil says interests me, he says
his thoroughly ruthless victory over Ali was to show him respect. Not take the
match lightly in any way. I like that comment. Snooker is a tough game on the
table and has to be played that way.
Another good session of play tonight. Great commentary from
Clive and Alan tonight and Robertson is too strong for Walden. Ricky looked
tired at the end, perhaps his body clock is still in Chengdu.
A swift beer after the game and off to bed. All things
considered a good day and despite no world champion in the semi-finals, a top
class line up for the weekend.
The sponsors and ITV seem very happy with things so far.
Apart from the disappearance of my suit all is good for me too as I sign off.
Well not quite all good, my night’s sleep is broken by a security alert
announcement at 5.30am. At that time you know it isn't a drill. A further
announcement is made 5 minutes later to disregard the previous one.
Seems that there might be a few bleary eyes on Saturday
morning.
I really enjoyed reading such behind the scenes views from Neal Foulds and I'd like to thank him for taking part in this feature from my blog, and hopefully i'll have more like this in the future. The snooker tour now has a bit of time off ahead of the Ruhr Open next weekend and then the big end to the year with the UK Championships in York and there will be a lot of build-up on here ahead of that one starting on Tuesday 25th November.
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