Index 2023

INDEX 2023

So, good riddance 2023, you utter shitfest of a year. Whether or not life actually does begin at 40, as the cliché would suggest, it has certainly changed a lot for me in the last 12 months. RIP Dad, I miss you every day and I will always love you.

Nevertheless, it would be churlish not to admit that there have still been some highlights. My lovely niece Maya is growing up fast, always makes me smile and usually makes me laugh like a gargling drain with her antics.

I also loved my trip to Greece (except for the bit when my phone got stolen), my latest Glastonbury Festival renewal (where the Foo Fighters especially were truly epic), yet another visit to Prague (where me and my friends got to have a go at being Pilsner Urquell tapsters), a raucous weekend in Ibiza (except for the bit when my phone got stolen), and I also bimbled around a bit of Germany which I had never previously seen.

Of course, that trip to Germany derived from a serious prolonged upturn in form from my beloved Newcastle United who finished last season in the top four for the first time in 20 years.

But, to be quite honest, even Newcastle United let me down this year in the biggest games of the calendar year at Wembley in February in the Carabao Cup Final - even if the crowd in Trafalgar Square on the night before was epic - and then again against AC Milan at St James Park this month.

There have been various other weekends away in the UK which have captured the imagination: the snooker in Sheffield in April, Nottingham in May to see Team GB regain their place at the top table in international ice hockey, York for Hallowe'en, and another visit to Lindisfarne Festival in September.

Unfortunately, though, I finished the year still partly recovering from a hairline fracture to my ankle sustained at Lindisfarne after the injury suffered several setbacks, although some of them were admittedly self-inflicted.

Additionally, I have spent much of the run-up to Christmas battling an acute bout of the lurgy which has hung around for the last seven weeks and, at times, made me sound like a 40-a-day smoker.

It basically made an already exhausting year just that little bit more difficult to get through - and, despite numerous undoubted highlights, I am afraid this is a year which, for quite some time, I have been desperate to consign to the archives.

For what it's worth, this blog still gets updated with the occasional updates - and, hopefully, 2024 will provide opportunities for some write-ups on a brighter note.

An index of the posts made in 2023 can be found below:

CRICKET
Ashes 2023
16.06  Baz-ball faces its biggest Test of all in Ashes
11.07  Ashes alive after England win Headingley nail-biter
01.08  Broad signs off in style as Ashes series ends drawn
World Cup
05.10  Preview: Confident India hold all the cards
14.11  Not defending anything
19.11  Australia tear down India's cloak of invincibility

FOOTBALL
Season 2022/23
04.05  Haaland breaks goal record to send Man City back top
13.06  Manchester City complete incredible Treble
Season 2023/24
15.08  Manchester City go for four in a row
04.12  Another chance for England at Euro 2024

RUGBY UNION
World Cup
08.09  Preview: C'est le moment... peut-être
04.11  Back-to-back Boks outlast All Blacks

SNOOKER
World Championships
14.04  Snooker finds itself in a terrible fix
01.05  Belgian Bullet slays maximum man Selby

POLITICS
By elections
24.07  Another messy night

PERSONAL
Glastonbury 2023
30.06  There goes My Hero

So, take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind

Down the foggy ruins of time

Far past the frozen leaves

The haunted frightened trees

Out to the windy beach

Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow

Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky

With one hand waving free

Silhouetted by the sea

Circled by the circus sands

With all memory and fate

Driven deep beneath the waves

Let me forget about today until tomorrow

Bob Dylan - Mr. Tambourine Man (1965)

Belgian Bullet Brecel slays maximum man Selby

WORLD SNOOKER CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL

THE CRUCIBLE • 30-APR-01-MAY

[9]

LUCA BRECEL

18-15

MARK SELBY

[2]

1	6-2	• 77-0 (77), 79-39, 90-28 (90), 38-94 (54), 90-23 (67), 71-55, 9-66 (62), 70-6 (70)
2	3-6	• 0-134 (134), 126-14 (99), 12-96 (96), 50-67, 72-4 (72), 67-19 (67), 1-76 (61), 0-147 (147)  48-71
3	6-2	• 113-24 (113), 73-0, 101-35 (101), 141-0 (141), 35-86 (63), 56-78 (MS 54), 119-0 (119),  60-40
4	3-5	• 67-0 (67), 20-78 (78), 36-50, 0-122 (122), 0-81 (50), 0-95 (52), 66-2 (51), 112-0 (112)

LUCA BRECEL withstood a valiant Mark Selby comeback to become the first ever player from mainland Europe to win the World Snooker Championship.

The Belgian Bullet aptly completed his 18-15 victory with a century - but only after Selby had taken five frames on the spin in the final session to move just one behind at 16-15.

Earlier, Selby had made Crucible history with the first ever 147 break in a World Championship Final - and only the 14th ever at the venue.

That total also includes the contribution from Kyren Wilson who made a maximum in his first round match against Ryan Day to take a share of the £55,000 prize.

Surprisingly, though, the Final was played on Brecel's terms for the most part.

The 28-year-old from Dilsen-Stokkem played fluently from the first break-off and led 6-2 at the end of the opening session with runs of 77, 90, 67 and 70.

But, in a sign of things to come, Selby opened the Sunday evening session with a 134 total clearance for the first ton of the contest.

At first, the players merely traded frames and Brecel retained his four-frame advantage at 9-5 with three left before close of play to guarantee himself an overnight lead.

Gradually, though, Selby began to exert his authority with a 61 break to close back to 9-6 - and then, in the 16th frame, came history.

The possibility of a maximum quickly became apparent after Brecel's missed long red to the corner left the four-time champion with plenty of options and the black clear in both corner pockets.

Only one red down the left cushion appeared to be problematic - but, having left it until last, good positioning allowed Selby to get in behind it and roll it in.

From there, the 147 was never in much doubt and Selby himself admitted he felt surprisingly calm about it.

Brecel, for his part, congratulated his opponent graciously with a hug but the Belgian also appeared to have lost some focus.

In the 17th frame, his shot choice, while in keeping with his positive approach, was overly reckless - and Selby took advantage to reduce his deficit to 9-8.

Most observers rapidly made the 39-year-old favourite to complete the comeback on the final day.

After all, the Jester from Leicester previously had won three of his four world titles despite trailing overnight. Yes, Brecel really had appeared to have blown his chance.

Instead, though, a restful night brought the best out of the Bullet as, this time in the opening frame of the session, he shot out of the starting blocks with a century for his first of the match.

Brecel added another frame before back-to-back tons, including a 141 total clearance, stretched his lead out to five for the first time at 13-8.

Selby responded after the interval and won a couple of tighter frames to make it 13-10 - but the Belgian had still yet another century up his sleeve and closed out a thrilling session at 15-10 up.

The final chapter of the 17-day tournament therefore began with Brecel needing just three more frames for the title - and a 67 break in the opener soon reduced that to two.

But Selby was never going to be beaten without a fight - and, following a 78 break in frame 27, he unsurprisingly also took the scrappiest of the match despite needing several visits.

In fairness to Brecel, the Jester then did largely keep his opponent off the table for the next three frames, scoring 298 unanswered points to close the gap to one.

These were ominous signs for Brecel - and, at that late stage, Selby had probably again become favourite.

Indeed, the Jester was also first to get a chance in frame 32 before shocking the Crucible audience by missing a black off the spot.

And, while Brecel could not quite get over the line in a single visit, Selby soon missed a brown to the middle to offer the Belgian an easy restart.

One frame to go - and, with four chances to get it, the weight of pressure suddenly seemed to shift completely away from Brecel's shoulders.

For once, the Bullet kept it pretty simple to land his fifth ton of the day - and, with it, the biggest prize of them all.

Certainly, Brecel is exactly the sort of world champion which snooker needs right now following a difficult few months for the game as a whole.

His relaxed demeanour and down-to-earth nature give him obvious appeal to supporters who have been amused by stories of his off-table partying antics between matches.

On the table, nothing at times seemed safe with the unflustered Brecel regularly attempting doubles, occasional trebles and once even making a quadruple to keep a break going.

But, despite his still relatively young age, the Bullet has actually been a slow burner - and, in fact, he remains the youngest ever Crucible debutant from when he made his bow in 2012 aged 17.

Incredibly, until this year, Brecel had failed to win a single match at the venue in five attempts - though it would be fair to suggest he has now dealt with that particular bugbear over the past fortnight.

Nevertheless, as Brecel himself pointed out, it would have been all so different if he had lost yet again in his first round match against Ricky Walden.

After all, that encounter went all the way to a decider - and, with Brecel then going on to make two brilliant comebacks in his quarter final and semi final matches, he has played the biggest part in this edition of the World Snooker Championship becoming one of the more memorable of recent years.

True, there were not as many centuries this year as there were in 2021 or 2022 - but, in addition to the two maximums, there were four other breaks of 140+.

Remarkably, two of those were just the fifth and sixth 146s ever to be made in Crucible history.

Even more remarkably, the contributions both came from same player, Neil Robertson, in the same mini-session of four frames as he closed out his first round match against debutant Wu Yize.

For sure, the Thunder from Down Under was the highlight of my first ever visit to hallowed Sheffield venue.

Robertson surprisingly could not continue his form and he bowed out in the second round against another debutant Jak Jones.

Shaun Murphy came off the back of a strong season but did not even make it to the Last 16 after losing to Si Jiahui - while Judd Trump was another first round faller, defeated by Anthony McGill.

By contrast, defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan breezed through to the quarter finals, winning a grudge Last 16 match against Hossein Vafaei with a session to spare.

The Rocket then looked to be making light work of Brecel in the last eight - but he promptly collapsed from 10-6 up and lost 13-10 to the eventual champion.

At least Mark Allen made good on his promising season to reach his first Crucible semi final for 14 years.

In a torturous encounter against Selby, though, the Pistol was silenced as his more experienced opponent bogged the match down with a series of lengthy frames.

The semi final eventually finished 17-15 to Selby after more than 13 hours of play which continued in the final session until just before 1am on Sunday morning.

Conversely, the other semi final between Brecel and Si was simply a joy to watch with both players willing to throw caution to the wind in pursuit of victory.

Coincidentally, that match also ended 17-15 in Brecel's favour after the Belgian made a record-breaking comeback from 14-5 down by winning 11 frames on the bounce.

But the similarities between the two semi finals began and ended with the final score.

Ultimately, though, it was Brecel who made the biggest impression of all at this World Championship - and there can be no doubt either that he will have celebrated this one long and hard into the night.

CENTURIES  90
147 Kyren Wilson, Mark Selby
146 Neil Robertson (2)
143 Ali Carter
141 Luca Brecel
138 Neil Robertson, Jak Jones

137 John Higgins, Mark Allen

136 John Higgins

134 Ding Junhui, Stuart Bingham, John Higgins, Mark Selby
133 Pang Junxu, Kyren Wilson

132 Si Jiahui
131 Gary Wilson, Mark Selby, Shaun Murphy

130 Noppon Saengkham, Anthony McGill

128 John Higgins, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Luca Brecel
126 Mark Allen

125 Si Jiahui

124 John Higgins, Anthony McGill, Jak Jones

123 Matthew Selt, Neil Robertson, Mark Selby
122 Fan Zhengyi, Hossein Vafaei, Jak Jones, Si Jiahui, Mark Selby
121 David Gilbert

120 Kyren Wilson, Si Jiahui, Shaun Murphy

119 Anthony McGill, Jack Lisowski, Luca Brecel
118 Mark Williams
117 Hossen Vafaei, Luca Brecel

116 Ronnie O'Sullivan

114 John Higgins

113 Mark Williams, Luca Brecel (2)

112 Anthony McGill, Mark Selby (2), Luca Brecel (2)

110 Fan Zhengyi, Mark Selby, Anthony McGill

109 Gary Wilson, Mark Selby
108 Stuart Bingham, Kyren Wilson, Luca Brecel
107 Wu Yize (2), Ronnie O'Sullivan

106 Si Jiahui

105 Si Jiahui

103 Luca Brecel, Stuart Bingham, Si Jiahui, Mark Selby (2)

102 Jack Lisowski, Kyren Wilson, Shaun Murphy, Ronnie O'Sullivan, John Higgins, Si Jiahui

101 Mark Allen, Luca Brecel
100 Neil Robertson, Jak Jones (2), Luca Brecel, Mark Selby