I am considering a wager on the Merlin of Milton to win the 2018 World Championship

He is probably only slightly better than 50-50 to reach The Crucible.

He could/should have been one of the truly great players, but a missed black against R.O'Sullivan, and a missed pink against J.Higgins finished him off. He's been little more than a shadow of that fearless, and high class, player for the last 10 years.

Unfortunately his time has been and gone.

If more of the 30 and 40+ age group had kept themselves in the kind of shape Ronnie has then the last 10 years would have been much more interesting.

The Rocket must be commended for this, considering he had to shed the puppy fat himself. He has never looked back.

Long-term over-indulgence in pies does not appear to have affected John Higgins unduly.

Absolute gentleman is Stephen. Love him to win it.

I think Higgins could have had more maybe 6 or dare I say it more, basically ran out of puff last year. Also went right out of form for a bit, most probably down to slobbery.

Unpopular on here, but will anyone argue he is the most complete all round player of all time?

Yeah I will. That is a nonsensical statement.

You hate him jed, any opinion is clouded.

It is far from nonsensical it is the consensus among fellow pros and ex pros.

The facts do not bear it out BTW. And I don't hate him, I just feel that his crimes have gone unpunished.

There is no doubt that Higgins ranks highly in the pantheon of snooker greats, but the most complete player? I hate all that guff anyway, who's the best long-potter, who's the best break-builder, who's got the best safety game? It's all meaningless. Snooker is an individual sport, mano a mano, and the records are there to prove who is the best - it's about trophies. Davis - who incidentally I had a little chat with on Saturday - O'Sullivan, Hendry are all superior players, the trophy count shows it unequivocally.

Davis and Hendry both dominated the game for a decade - Higgins has been one of the best for a couple of decades. He won three World titles in five years, very commendable, but Selby has won three of the last four and you wouldn't find many people in the game who believe he's among the best ever - not yet anyway.

Nice little name drop in there jed...

Decent bloke from what I hear Davis.

Yeah he's a good lad

Perhaps you misunderstood me jed.

He may not be the best ever at any aspect of the game, but he isn't below 8/10 on any of them.

Ronnie you could say suspect temperament 7 or less, although better nowadays.

Hendry, safety very suspect probably a 6.

Can someone tell me who the Merlin Of Milton is ??

Interesting comparisons borntowin - Higgins has often seemed annoyingly not bad at any specific aspect in his game, whenever I've been against him!

Opposing him can be painful at times, as he trudges through matches never seeming brilliant, but still winning.

Would potentially Selby be a closer comparison for a player who is 8/10 in pretty much every aspect of the game though?

8/10 or above in fact

The Merlin of Milton is Stephen Maguire.

I am not the man to ask about Selby as I am not a fan.

However I would agree he is a solid 8/10 across the board, without being near as aesthetically pleasing on the eye as Higgins.

Just checked the draw as posted on The Stunning's thread.
Not really the first round match that Stephen would be looking for to ease gently into the competition

I'm on him just a bit as have taken on board the comments about the conditioning disadvantage to ROS.
It's odd thinking back to the Hendry/White era. People talked about natural talent, then who has the bottle, and then who puts the practice hours in. Nobody really talked about conditioning.
I wonder if it's something Hendry ever thinks about ie if he had taken the physical fitness side of the game as seriously as Ronnie, could he have extended his period of dominance another 5 years or so

If Maguire wins i will never bet again i bet.

Insane to even consider it..

That match was a microcosm of S.Maguire's whole career. So much potential, so much promise, so much talent but it has all fizzled out. It's a real shame, but he'll go down as one of the great unfulfilled talents.

A truly brutal interview given there by S.Maguire. If ever a 3 minute interview summed up a player's career and his whole attitude throughout his career that was it - a compelling, if disturbing insight.

What was he saying gobelins?

He said it (the defeat) doesn't hurt too much, as he has accepted his standing in the game - which he believes is somewhere between 16 and 25. His whole demeanor was of someone who knows he has wasted the immense talent he once had, and doesn't want to do anything to change it.

S.Davis and S.Hendry were understandably scathing of him. If you get a chance to watch it on the BBC website, take a look - it is very enlightening.

Too easy a life - lacks ambition - needs to get fitter but that is not going to happen - amateurish attitude at best ... imo of course ...

"I will now float around the top 32 for the next few years without breaking into the top 16. I have to get on with it and accept that these boys are a step better than me. Players have improved and I have stayed the same. When they play well they are awesome, I do not have that.

"I have not won a tournament for years and all the other boys are consistent."

The words of a man beaten before he starts. He should have been top 8 for years and years, picking up several titles.

Amazing he even qualified with that attitude - I did point out on a post sometime earlier that I thought his attitude during some qual matches looks pretty poor to me.

Apr 22, 2018 -- 7:01PM, stu wrote:

Amazing he even qualified with that attitude - I did point out on a post sometime earlier that I thought his attitude during some qual matches looks pretty poor to me.

It was particularly bad at 7-7 (?) against Vafaei when he churlishly had a hit and hope and fluked a red.

Yep, was watching at that point - in fact have to admit I was backing him at that point, and swearing rather a little!

Was interested to learn that, surely in a minority among the top players, Maguire doesnt use the new chalk which, I reckon we can say with confidence now, radically reduces the number of kicks and bad contacts at the table. Of course Maguire got several horrendous kicks at crucial times in his match against Ronnie which probably contributes nicely to his general woe is me attitude towards the game. If he refuses to help himself with such basic, no brainer stuff, then there's surely no hope for him at all.

Watching that interview, it didn't give me the impression of someone who can't be bothered. It was a mixture of genuine humility and a sense of being generally rudderless.

Surely he's decent material to work with for some ex-player that fancies themselves as a coach to come in and fill a Griffiths/Reardon type role. The problems seem to be all in his mind (and in his fridge). His actual game is clearly there, he had the tournament favourite on the ropes after all.

(I noticed the BBC compilation of the best shots from the match was mainly Maguire!)

I ended up finding heaps of Maguire's other losing post match interviews.

He needed the head doctor 10+ years ago.

Some people in life just coast though, and simply can't push themselves.

He is far from alone in not reaching his 'potential' but although a lot of pros have the physical capabilities they just don't have the mental strength.

He did play some great shots but they were followed by stinkers more often than not. Don’t know if you watched his final qualifier, he was a bit lucky in that. Lost his head playing a guy ranked 30 places below him and a fluke got him out of jail. Think it’s too late for him personally.

I tried to use the new chalk but in consistency it's like the old blue cheap shyte you'd get on the pool table in a bad pub so I always felt I was going to miscue at any moment. Didn't have any kicks but didn't like it much, I tend to use a lot of side and screw around the table so the likelihood of miscueing affected my approach to the job.

Yeah have heard that jed so its not perfect by any means.

I would rarely just roll a ball in gj so I get few kicks anyway.

Same here jed, whacking in the long ones was my speciality on the table, alas in my case it was also why i was pretty rubbish at the game.

I was lucky in that I learnt to play by playing my old man, who never took a pot on when there was a safety shot available, so my safety game was always decent even before I could string a few pots together.

You couldnt do that kind of stuff down at my 2 table club where you only got one frame at a time for 50p (nearly bought a packet of 10 **** in those days) and where any attempt at a safety shot was met with groans and contempt from those waiting for a frame. Outside of the few competitions i played, i doubt i ever played a safety shot in my life. Golf is the same, whack it long (and occasionally straight) off the tee and lose interest after that!

***** = another name for cigarettes!!