By Dan Warren
BBC Sport at the Crucible |
A bad atmosphere has dogged several of the matches at the Crucible this year - so praise be for the good humour of Anthony Hamilton.
Hamilton was little more than a spectator as Rocket Ronnie O'Sullivan produced a near-flawless display on Tuesday to win with a session to spare..
But Hamilton, Nottingham's Robin Hood of snooker, looked more like one of the merry men as he sat down and occasionally chuckled good-humouredly through his beard, safe in the knowledge that there was, frankly, little he could do.
Of course, he may have been bottling up his rage, and it may all explode horribly sometime in the future. But let's hope not.
Hamilton adopted the "might as well laugh, or I'd cry" approach, as he talked about his brilliant opponent.
The Nottingham star remarked that his ambidextrous opponent was probably not as good playing with his left hand as his right.
"He'd probably only make the top 64 if he just played left-handed," quipped Hamilton.
"Me? Left-handed I'd probably make the top 64 million!"
Modest indeed.
Some think this tournament's all about the snooker and the players - well they're idiots and they're wrong.
Behind the scenes, there's a whole bunch of people tirelessly taking advantage of the hospitality and occasionally scribbling a few words about the game - namely us, the journalists.
It's a sad day when one of our own moves on, as the poignant scenes on Tuesday proved.
One of our tabloid brethren bowed out after 74 years (or so) of covering the tournament, and received a moving, expletive-ridden speech from Steve Davis, who expressed his "sorrow".
And, in a tribute to this honourable scribe's journalistic integrity, one wag scribbled in his retirement card: "He's the man all the players read - to find out what they never said."
MMIX
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