Player Spotlight - David Gilbert

After a respectable and heartfelt performance at the World Championship this year, there is now certainly a rising fan base for a certain David Gilbert. His semi-final run, defeating players including Mark Williams and Kyren Wilson propelled his exposure and popularity to new heights. So let’s find out about the current World No. 12.

Born in 1981, Gilbert turned pro in 2002 and was on-off the tour for the next couple years before consistently remaining a pro since 2005. There has been a few occasions where Gilbert has considered giving up on the sport but he has surrounded himself with supportive folk that helped keep him in the game.

He has since been steadily rising up the rankings, previously achieving a best rank of position 19 in the 2016/17 season. Given his lengthy tenure so far, he has only reached the Crucible a total 5 times but was only able to reach the second round in 2012.

He hasn’t had notable successes like some of the players that viewers are more familiar with however, his best performances include being a runner up in the 2015 International Championship, 2018 World Open and the 2019 German Masters. Funnily enough, Gilbert had the highest breaks of these last two performances. And of course, who can forget the memorable semi-final run a few weeks ago?

Accumulating over 240 centuries show that Gilbert knows how to build breaks around the table. This became quite apparent as he strung together the 147th maximum break during the Champions League this year against Stephen Maguire.

Having arguably the best season of his career so far, with 2 ranking finals and reaching the semi-final of WSC, will surely give Gilbert the confidence he needs to win his maiden ranking title, Gilbert should take great confidence into his game knowing he can go toe-to-toe with the best and win. And he will certainly get a tremendous roar of applause when he does win those ranking events.

Fun fact: did you know there was a former snooker player called Dave Gilbert, born 20 years before David Gilbert?

Should 147 prize money be increased? (Part 1)

Previously, being able to achieve what’s known as the perfect break would result in 6 figure prize rewards. If you go back further in time, sometimes cars were offered as compensation for hitting that magical 147. Nowadays, a player would be lucky to even get over £10,000 for achieving one of snookers greatest feats. Is something wrong here?

Certain players (I’m not naming names) are notorious for either questioning prize money, or intentionally taking on a pink instead of a black during the middle of a maximum. As opposed to (significant) fixed sums being rewarded to a player, nowadays (since 2011 or so) a maximum break is rewarded via a rolling system where as each tournament goes on and no maximums are made, the prize pot increases. Once a 147 is made, the prize pot is reset.

Clearly, if we look at things from the perspective of World Snooker, they can’t afford to dish out £147,000 every time a maximum gets made. And maximums get made quite frequently, relatively speaking. For context, from the early 80s to late 90s only a handful of 147’s were made each year (2-3). This average has progressively increased over the years. From 2008, this has risen to roughly 7-8 maximums per year.

The only way World Snooker would be able to finance this would be to siphon funds from top prize winnings from various tournaments. And it’s no small amount that would be taken away. If it ever got to a point where prize money for winning tournaments were so low, then players would just enter tournaments to try and just get a single 147 as opposed to win any tournaments – reducing the standard of play across the board.

Obviously, the other view to look at is from the player’s side (and in a way, the audience’s as well). Hitting a 147 is by no means an easy feat at all. Being able to string together 36 precise shots definitely warrants a considerable reward for that player. Does Barry Hearn’s proposed changes following his recent press conference make any strides in going forward with 147 prize money? Check out part 2 of this short – coming soon.

The New Rankings List after WSC 2019

It’s pretty clear to see that the world rankings have changed drastically following the events of the World Championship. While some players have significantly improved their positions, others have conversely dropped down the rankings to a point where they risk danger of falling out of the Top 16/32.

Ronnie O’Sullivan still remains World No. 1 despite his poor WSC performance but absolutely phenomenal seasons prior to that. That just goes to show how strong his performance has been the past couple years to (barely) keep Judd Trump at his heels at No. 2 after a £500k boost. Trumps recent win propelled him from rank 7 to 2. And if he continues at his current rate, it won’t be long before he claims the No. 1 spot. However, Neil Robertson certainly will put up a fight for that No. 1 spot if he continues winning at the rate he has this season.

What’s also surprising is seeing former World No. 1, Mark Selby drop down to 6th place. Mark has now since lost a significant portion of his ranking points and will now need to start winning more events this coming season in order to remain within the top rankings. I don’t see Mark Williams remaining at the No. 3 spot for very long with his extremely laid back approach to matches and practice. Kyren Wilson and Mark Allen hold spots 7 and 8 respectively and I don’t see them moving down the rankings too much – their consistency is high enough to keep them at these positions or even move up a space or two.

Things get worrying for those in spots 9-16. The difference between 9th and 16th is £63,500 which means that any and all players within these rankings are in danger of potentially falling out of these ranks. In particular, players like Shaun Murphy, Ding Junhui and Stephen Maguire who I am sure have set tremendously high standards for themselves will need to remain cautious going into tournaments this season.

Now, we have to take notice of David Gilbert and his impressive jump to 12th place from 16th after his stellar WSC performance. Hopefully, this is the start of his ascendance along with Gary Wilson who leaped 12 places to reach rank 20.

What do you think of these new rankings and what are your predictions for this upcoming season?

World Snooker Championship 2019 - Shorts Thoughts

Best match: David Gilbert vs. John Higgins; followed closely by Luca Brecel vs. Gary Wilson

Best shots: Gary Wilson’s snooker against Trump and John Higgins’ long double against Gilbert

Predicted winner: Neil Robertson or Judd Trump. Leaned more towards Neil Robertson though

Biggest surprise: Ronnie O’Sullivan

Standout moments: John Higgins and Judd Trumps’ 147 attempts in their penultimate session in the final. Also, all the times the bottles of water dropped

Best ‘what could have been’ moment: A potential David Gilbert vs. Gary Wilson final

Favourite player: David Gilbert

Overall, this year’s WSC was top drawer in my opinion. So many matches that went into final frame deciders; breaking the Crucible century’s record; and the emergence of a few players that will prove to be a formidable force going forward.

One of the best parts for me though is that we witnessed a final which we haven’t seen for while where the victor dominates their opponent in a fashion worthy of being called a World Champion. It wasn’t a constant back and forth where things went down to the wire, like in the preceding years, but a display of sheer force and a possibility of what is to come in the following years. Incredible performance by Judd Trump and perhaps we could be seeing the start of a new era?