Peak District Camping and the World Snooker Championship (Day 2)
I had a decent sleep the previous night. I was starving when I got back from the pub and knocked myself up a couple of burgers. I made short work of my beers and watched some nostalgia films on my i Phone as the snooker finished early. I watched the 1976 remake of King Kong starring Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange. It's by no means a classic but I used to love it when I was younger. Back in 1998, when I was five, my Mam taped BBC's Monster Night special. It was a strange old affair. The show was presented by the comedian Bill Bailey, who was joined by Chris Moyles, Phil Jupitus and Paul Ross. In between their bits they showed films including the aforementioned King Kong and the 1991 Japanese film Godzilla vs King Ghidora. There were some strange segments like 90s comedy duo Lee and Herring's Reasonably Scary Monsters, a Goggle-box-esk programme within a programme. Lee and Herring watch Carol Vorderman present a programme in which she counts down the world's 9 scariest monsters, with some bizarre contributions from people as varied as the cricketer Mike Gatting, wildlife presenter Chris Packham and Ian Beale from Eastenders. That VHS tape seems to have gone missing and I have tried to no avail to find the whole thing online, but there are only snippets of different segments on Youtube.
With a busy schedule planned, I awoke early the next day. The weather was really warm and unlike the previous day, the visibility was perfect. It was a very short drive from the campsite to the road that runs beneath Stanedge Edge with some parking beside the road. The car park was ticketed, but the machine wasn't accepting card payments. I've been burned by this situation before so I went through the hassle of downloading the app to make the payment then set off on the walk. After bending left in the road I walked up the steep incline, then made my way to the first of four hills, Higger Tor. It was a short walk up to the plateau on the summit, which was sprinkled with grit stone formations. The highest of which required a bit of maneuvering to summit. It was beautiful and the views all around were grand, a far cry from the previous day.
I then made my way toward Stanedge Edge. On the way up to white stone moss there are high grit stone escapements. It's summit had even more rock formations than Higger Tor. I paid a quick visit to the trig point, then had a few minute's rest. The walk along Stanedge Edge was the high point of this brilliant walk. As much as I love my local Bowland Fells, they don't hold this kind of drama. From the precipitous edge, I peered across to the cliffs of grit stone, with layers of stacked rock forming an impenetrable buffer against the world below. Well not quite. There were plenty of rock climbers around scaling Stanedge.
After a couple of miles, I veered right away from the edge to visit my third hill of the day, Stanedge pole. True to its name, there is a large wooden poll encased in metal. It protrudes out of an iron foundation that has directional information. Although the pole itself has been restored, a boundary marker has stood here for centuries on the Yorkshire/Derbyshire boundary line. I then made by way back to the cliff edges and made my way to the final hill of the day, High Neb.
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I made it back down in good time. Rather than set off straight for Sheffield I decided to have something to eat. I got out my ultra-light camping chair (just a cheapie from Aldi's special buy section ) and had a coffee and a pot noodle. The final of the snooker takes place over the course of two days, finishing on the bank holiday monday. The first session of the day was due to start at 1pm and it was getting toward that time by this point. My ticket was for the evening 7pm session.
I set off for Sheffield, making a brief stop at a supermarket for some last minute bits. I was parking in a multi-story car park just next to the Travelodge hotel I was staying in. I got checked in, had a quick shower and smartened myself off before hitting the town. I was quite hungry by this point, but wanted to stay within budget so I made my way to the nearest Spoons. Cheap and Cheerful, I got myself a pizza and a nice pint of Leffe. I then made my way to the heart of the city. I stopped in the Winter Gardens. This is where they do a lot of the television broadcasts throughout the course of the championship, where the brilliant Hazel Irvine interviews the pundits. These usually include the stars of yore, like the "Nugget" Steve Davis and John Parrot. There was no broadcast happening when I arrived, but the theme was very much around the snooker. There was a snooker table there and I was a little surprised to see the former professional Nigel Bond playing against a member of the public. Bond was a professional for over thirty years, retiring just a couple of years back. The guy he was playing had a European accent. He must have been good as he beat Nigel.
My next stop was The Graduate pub. The reason for visiting is that this place is known as a haunt for those involved in the snooker. As it happens, I didn't see any snooker players in there. But they did have "Judd Juice," IPA on tap, named after Judd Trump, one of the top players of the current game who was unexpectedly knocked out by semi-finalist Jak Jones. It was a half-decent pint. After coming out of The Graduate it was a really short walk to Tudor Square with the Crucible Theatre in front of me.
During this year's world championships there was, as there seems to be every year, a lot of chatter around whether the World Championship should move away from the Crucible. Snooker chairman Barry Hearn had hit the airwaves in the previous week saying unless Sheffield council stumped up the money for a bigger venue, the chances are that it would leave, perhaps to Saudi or China. It has been at the Crucible since the 70s and is considered the mecca of snooker my most fans. It is not hard to see why. Theatres are, in a sense, perfect for snooker, as the cramped and hushed nature of the venue creates a more theatrical drama than you get with other sports. I'm not saying it is better than other sports in this respect, just quite unique. In most sports it is the roaring of the crowd that gets the excitement going. But the hushed voices, gasps and occasional outbursts of applause in snooker that create a different tone.
I don't want snooker to leave the Crucible, but I do appreciate that the venue's capacity is on the small side. But to leave Sheffield? I was amazed as I sat in Tudor Square to see the extent to which the city embraces and promotes the tournament. There was a big screen in the square with a pop-up bar and seating area outside. You just don't get this kind of interest in a sport like snooker anywhere else and I am not sure you would if the world championship was moved somewhere else, with the possible exception of China. Definitely not in Saudi, where there is little interest in the sport among the general public.
I had a little bit more time to kill. I stopped for one more drink at the Head of Steam. As I sat outside, I saw some notables enter the arena. Paul Collier, the referee for the evening's proceedings. Ken Doherty and John Parrot, both former world champions, now pundits for the BBC and in the case of Doherty, ITV. The score prior to the evening session was 7-1. Jones, who had been solid throughout the tournament, suffered his first real bad session and reflecting back, it was probably this session that cost him the match.
When you first walk into the Crucible building, you wouldn't automatically think that this place hosts one of UK sport's biggest tournament. It is noticeably small. But once you go into the seating area of the theatre, you are hit my the intimate nature of the venue. The Crucible is also unique in that the players are seated right next to each other. In here, the main draw back of the Crucible according to the money men, its size, becomes its strength. Despite being seated at the back, the table itself seemed so close. I was lucky, as this session turned out to be the best of the final. It was a close one. It was edged by Jak Jones, but because of the enormity of the lead he opened up in the first session, Kyren was still well in control of the match. The session finished on the highest note possible. Kyren, needing a snooker, manages to get it and we end up with a black ball finish. For non-snooker fans, this basically means the player who pots the black wins. It was pure drama. Jones had a fairly easy chance to get the black but over hits it; perhaps the pressure has finally gotten to him. In the end, it is Kyren Wilson who wins the final frame.
It was a brilliant weekend, combining hiking with the snooker. I had another big one coming up. It was supposed to be my cycling trip at the end of May. In the end, I decided I hadn't done sufficient training for this. I did a few long rides in training, including a 65 miler there and back from my home in Langho to Blackpool. But I didn't sustain the regular training following this and would have been going into the trip way underprepared. I didn't beat myself up about it. I just struggled finding the time to do the training with a baby at home and other responsibilities. Maybe next year. But the campsites had already been booked, so I decided to go ahead with the camp, but to hike instead of cycle. Read about it next time.
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