PartyCasino.com Premier League Snooker 2009: Week Four News

Week four of the 2009 Premier League competition sees young Judd Trump looking to gain his second win of the event against Marco Fu in the first match, while defending champion Ronnie O’Sullivan takes on Neil Robertson in a mouthwatering second. Click below for reports from Colchester…

Judd Trump 4-2 Marco Fu

19-100(100), 82(82)-0, 25-75(47), 61(27,29)-63(29,34), 6-120(120), 81(81)-0

Just as against Stephen Hendry in his last Premier League outing, Judd might not have played at his very best but some terrific pots and a couple of century breaks were enough to secure victory against Marco Fu and take him to the top of the table.

In the very early stages of the match it looked to be Marco Fu who was in command while Judd struggled to find his range with the long pots. A missed red when cueing from the cushion gave the 20-year old a much easier opener however and following a couple of shots that were described as ‘world class’ by Neal Foulds, went on to make a break of 100 to go into the lead.

Marco replied well with a break of 82 in frame two before Judd eventually regained the lead following a lengthy third frame. The decisive frame however proved to be the fourth which despite a kick on the final blue leaving him with a very tricky pink, Judd managed to steal on the black with a clearance of 34.

Not only did this secure him at least a point from the evening, but it also allowed him to relax a little and this showed during the next frame when he knocked in his second century of the match, this time of 120.   He looked like doing it again in the next frame as he moved on to 49 but full credit to Marco who returned to the table and made a very professional clearance of 81 to at least get one frame back.

So it is another excellent result for Judd who must be learning so much playing in this competition against top players such as Marco. It is apparent that he is very comfortable with the shot clock, indeed his average shot time was just 18 seconds tonight, well within the 25 second limit.

Marco however does not look to be at ease yet as he averaged 22 seconds a shot and now has just one point on the board from his first three matches. His next match will be in Grimsby later this month when he takes on Shaun Murphy, while Judd will have to wait until November 5th and a date with Ronnie O’Sullivan.

Ronnie O’Sullivan 3-3 Neil Robertson

75(52)-48(45), 6-84(77), 113(112)-14, 86(43)-42(28), 0-117(91), 4-72(37)
In this evening’s second match Australian Neil Robertson managed to recover from 3-1 down to secure what could be a valuable point against Ronnie O’Sullivan.
Neil should really have taken the opener but as against Hendry last week, he could not quite get over the line and O’Sullivan eventually managed to steal it to go into an early lead. Although the second frame went the way of the Australian, Ronnie looked to be in good shape and thanks in part to the only century of the match eventualy moved into a 3-1 lead.
Staring down the barrel of another heavy defeat however, Neil bounced back well with 91 in frame five to give himself hope and clinched a more scrappy sixth to secure a priceless point.
Next up for Neil will be a tie with John Higgins at the Guild Hall while Ronnie meets Shaun Murphy in Aberdeen.