A Pinch Of Selt

Matt is watching The Nugget in the jungle and looking forward to a trip to York…

Hi everyone

The new series of I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here has just started on ITV and I would never normally watch it, but this time I’ll be watching or recording every episode to see how Steve Davis gets on. The Nugget has such a witty and dry sense of humour that I’m sure people will love him. He will be great value and I’m sure he’ll be there right until the end. He is no spring chicken so he might have taken a while to get over the jet lag and he could suffer in the heat. But he is very fit so I expect him to deal with that. He is very shrewd and intelligent so he will handle all of the tasks. The only thing that surprises me about his decision to go into the jungle is that he is not guaranteed to keep his place on the tour and missing a few tournaments including the williamhill.com UK Championship could make the difference. Maybe if he gets relegated he’ll try to butter Barry and Jason up for a wild card!

I played in the International Championship in Chengdu recently, but lost to Martin Gould. Ding Junhui won the tournament and it’s great to watch him play so well. His cue ball control is phenomenal. He is the most ‘special’ player to come through since Ronnie O’Sullivan, John Higgins and Mark Williams. I know Stephen Hendry rates him very highly, and he doesn’t say that about many players. Ding has won the last three ranking events and nine in total. He’s only 26 so he’s got at least another ten years at the top – he could win 30 ranking events in his career. I don’t think anyone will beat Hendry’s record of 36, but Ding is good enough to go past everyone else.

In 2007 he was heavily beaten by Ronnie in the final of the Masters and I think it took him a long time to recover from that, but now he is showing his true class. I don’t know him well but it’s obvious that he’s a very nice and friendly kid. I think Neil Robertson will want to rise to the challenge and of course Ronnie is such a force, then you’ve got Mark Allen who has won a couple of titles recently. The UK is going to be fascinating and I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve got Scott Donaldson in the first round and I’m hoping to find some form in York.

I am still working hard on my fitness and diet and getting towards my target. Peter Ebdon is trying to convert me to veganism, and I like the concept but I couldn’t do it because I enjoy meat too much.

All the best until next time,
Matt