'It's horrible to play' – Judd Trump joins criticism of British Open conditions
09/26/2024 10:06 AM
Judd Trump is into the last 16 of the British Open but he says it is ‘horrible to play’ in the conditions in Cheltenham which he feels are hindering the players.
The world number one made breaks of 73 and 54 on his way to a 4-2 win over Mark Davis on Thursday afternoon, setting up a clash with Stephen Maguire later the same day.
It wasn’t vintage Trump and he says hitting top form is extremely difficult under the playing conditions this week.
There was an odd situation which saw the white ball move without being touched and Trump feels there is too much play on the same table, wearing out the cloth.
‘It’s tough, the conditions are not great so you’ve just got to win any way possible,’ Trump told ITV4. ‘It’s never going to be pretty it’s just about getting over the line and trying to stay as mentally strong as possible.
‘It happened twice. I think the white came to a stop and then decided to move on its own. I don’t know what it is, I think there’s a lot more play on the tables than there used to be. There’s five or six games a day on the table and its too much. It’s difficult because the spectators and everyone are expecting a good game and we want to give them a good game but the table is not really up for it.
‘It’s horrible to play because you want to go out there and be able to play your best and when you’re not given the conditions to do that it’s disappointing for, not just me, but the fans watching. There’s just too much play on the tables nowadays, there’s too many games. In a lot of the tournaments there’s just two games a day and the tables play a lot better.
‘It’s disappointing not to be able to play my absolute best here, but I’m still in the tournament and hopefully at some point I can scrape through and find some form.’
Seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry feels Trump has a point and there should be new cloth on the tables more regularly throughout a tournament.
‘I think the tables should have been re-covered before they have been, I think they get re-covered for the semis,’ said the Scot. ‘There’s been a lot of traffic, a lot of matches in this tournament every day and I think possibly they should have been re-covered already.’
It has since been confirmed that the tables will be re-covered overnight ahead of the quarter-finals on Friday.
Trump is not the first to hit out at playing conditions this week, with Mark Allen saying the tables should be burned.
‘The conditions out there are absolutely embarrassing,' Allen told ITV after beating Gary Wilson in his first game. 'It's some of the worst weather outside and they've left the massive transport doors open. It's so cold, it's so humid, out there. The table needs to be burned.’
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