England are taking the World Cup by storm.
I bet that’s a top line you never thought you’d read. To clarify: we’re talking about snooker, of course. Not football.
Judd Trump and Barry Hawkins have been the standout performers in the baize event in Wuxi this week. En route to winning the first of their four group matches, they’ve won 18 of their 20 frames and sit pretty as the bookmakers’ runaway favourites.
In the build-up to the competition, Judd tweeted: “Time now to get ready for the World Cup next week in China. Me and @TheHawk147 gonna take it down,” and he’s certainly been right.
They’ve been ruthless in their victories against Switzerland (5-0), Malta (4-1), Iran (4-1) and Pakistan (5-0) so far and have delivered the kind of performances which suggest they have exactly what it takes to lift the title at the end of the week.
Don’t get carried away
It’s true that the most difficult tests in this tournament are definitely ahead of them but, as the old adage goes, you can only beat what’s in front of you and there’s no doubt they will be growing in confidence as they rack up the points in the group stages.
England face a final group game against Australia on Friday, before emerging through to the quarter-finals. The last-eight ties will be played on Saturday before the semi-finals and final on Sunday.
The group matches have been played across five frames with each player contesting a singles frame match against each player on the opposing team plus a doubles frame in the middle. The matches will move up to seven frames for the knockout stages.
This fine performance from England comes even with the absence of world number one Mark Selby. Trump and Hawkins are both devastating scorers and are the kind of players who are almost impossible to stop when they find their rhythm.
Seeing this job through to the end will obviously require a different kind of quality from this pair, but they certainly look and sound in the mood to lift the trophy.
Looking around at the draw, Wales, Northern Ireland and China A look the most likely other challengers.
But what a time to be alive? England genuinely look like landing a World Cup win. Enjoy it!
