ALEXANDER THE GREAT: 40 YEARS ON

Snooker's emergence from folk sport to frontline television entertainment can be traced chiefly to two component parts: colour television and Alex Higgins.

It was colour TV that gave the game its exposure; it was Higgins who became its first bona fide star.

A hero to many, an anti-hero to many more, he created interest and headlines with his wayward life and intoxicating playing-style. He was the sort of figure every sport needs: a combustible cocktail of talent and temper, brilliance and self-destruction.

40 years ago, Higgins won his first world title at the age of 22. The Crucible this was not. In the age before the professional circuit exploded on TV the World Championship passed by largely under the radar.

When Clive Everton wrote to the sports editor of the Daily Telegraph to see if he wanted any coverage he received the sniffy reply: "only if it's played in London."

Pot Black on BBC2 had begun to make household names of the players but as a sport snooker still had a long way to go to earn acceptance.

The 1972 World Championship was not played in London but Birmingham, at the Selly Park British Legion.

The championship had ground on for the best part of a year before producing its two finalists: Higgins and John Spencer, thedefending champion.

Trotting out the facts of the environment in which this historic match was played makes it look like something out of an episode of Life on Mars, but they are still true and a reminder that the circuit was not always cash rich, that the top players were not always so lucky.

The unexpectedly large crowd were packed in on seats placed on stacked beer crates, or watched hanging from any available vantage point in a scene which would give modern day health and safety jobsworths a heart attack.

With a miners’ strike and power cuts afflicting Britain, the conventional lighting gave out on the second evening, as did the heating. The players agreed to continue under much duller lighting provided by a mobile generator.

The final was played over six days. On the fifth, Spencer got stuck in a lift in his hotel for 25 minutes due to a power cut. The session was delayed for ten minutes until he turned up.

It was this session which turned the final Higgins's way. The players had kept pace until he won all six frames played that evening. He won the match 37-31. The first prize was a mere £480.

By the time Higgins won his second world title a decade later the sport had been transformed. His epic semi-final against Jimmy White and final victory over Ray Reardon were the talk of the nation. His tearful celebration with wife and baby daughter remain iconic sporting images.

It was the final proof that Higgins had unwittingly helped to pull snooker from the back room to the living room. He won £25,000 as sponsors began to throw money at the game.

He of course will not be at the Crucible this year to mark these two anniversaries. Higgins died in pitiful circumstances in 2010, the Hurricane long since a sad shadow of the man who created so much excitement and controversy.

But as long as people talk about snooker they will talk about Alex Higgins.

It's an irony he may have enjoyed that snooker's long road to respectability was given such momentum by a man who sought no such thing.

THE FORGOTTEN FINAL

We’re living in a golden age for snooker, but as with most previous golden ages most people won’t realise until it’s over.

The access to watching snooker tournaments now is greater than it’s ever been. You only have to go back a decade to a time where events outside the UK never made the TV back home and fans had to follow Teletext scores instead of instant live scoring.

Yes, there really was a time before Eurosport’s blanket coverage, before live streaming, before Twitter, where people go to fulminate if they miss so much as a break-off shot, before blogs and forums and the endless chatter that surrounds modern sport.

The more you give people, the more complacent they become. History, though, tells us how lucky we are.

Let me take you back, way back, to a distant place known as 2003. You may have read about it.

The 2002/03 season had begun in acrimony and rancour. So far, this does not distinguish it in any way from any other season.

The players, egged on by their associates, rejected the Altium offer to bankroll the circuit and handed control instead to a couple of chancers on a ten-year contract.

This contract would be torn up after less than a year due to their failure to deliver but it included a guarantee of eight ranking tournaments.

With money tight (it tends to be when you turn it down) and tobacco sponsorship about to exit ashtray-right, putting on new events was going to be difficult.

However, the WPBSA encouraged the organiser of the Irish Masters to turn his event into a ranking tournament and they then struck on the bright idea of staging the European Open not, as was traditional, on the continent but in a hotel in Torquay.

Believe me, any Fawlty Towers references you can think of were trotted out with great regularity back then.

The kicker was that there would be no TV coverage at all. There was to be no web streaming either.

So the tournament unfolded in almost complete anonymity, which was a great shame because it produced one of the sport’s best finals that decade and with it one of Ronnie O’Sullivan’s best performances full stop.

O’Sullivan was in a happy place generally at this point and had just got back into running, which gave him an outlet outside of snooker. He seemed relaxed in Torquay, perhaps because there were no demands from TV, and played some brilliant snooker to reach the final.

And the final was a classic. His opponent was Stephen Hendry, who had just returned to form by winning the Welsh Open in fine style.

A marker was laid down as to the standard in the opening frame, which O’Sullivan won with a 140 total clearance. He made another century, 126, and three half centuries to arrive at the interval leading 5-2. Hendry, for his part, had made a break of 101.

He also made 88 in the first frame of the final session before O’Sullivan delivered another total clearance, a 142 total clearance.

Hendry, always so dangerous in adversity, fought back as he so often had before, a 117 the highlight as he reduced his arrears to 6-5.

But with two more big breaks, O’Sullivan emerged victorious at 9-6.

And he was satisfied, not just to win the title but to do it so well against Hendry, an old foe and the player he most looked up to.

Very few people watched this match. Two of them were Ray Reardon and Tony Knowles, who afterwards made comments to a local newspaper to the effect that there wasn’t enough safety play.

When you can pot everything, safety isn’t quite as necessary. It was indicative of how snooker had changed, for the better most, if not Reardon and Knowles, would argue.

Feeling good and with his game back in shape, O’Sullivan went on to win another excellent final, beating John Higgins 10-9 at the Irish Masters.

What a shame hardly anyone saw what O’Sullivan still regards as one of his finest triumphs.

It would be different today. One of the most significant of all Barry Hearn’s innovations could turn out to be liveworldsnooker.tv. It already shows PTCs and qualifiers exclusively and were there occasions where no broadcaster could be found for a future event, could be the place to watch it.

It doesn’t hurt to remember that it wasn’t always like this.

MARK OF A CHAMPION

Mark Allen’s emphatic capture of the Haikou World Open title today is the fulfilment of a snooker talent who arrived on the professional scene already a winner.

Allen won just about everything possible as an amateur: the Northern Ireland title in all age divisions, the European juniors, the European amateur championship and the IBSF world amateur crown.

So he was used to winning before turning pro and this was evident again when he was selected as a wildcard for the 2005 Northern Ireland Trophy.

In his television debut against the great Steve Davis he did not freeze. Far from it, he played superbly and beat the six times world champion. The following day he beat John Higgins.

Very quickly Allen joined the top 16. He started making semi-finals – including at the 2009 Wordl Championship and 2011 Masters – and this season reached his first final at the UK Championship, where he contested a thrilling tussle with Judd Trump.

He was 3-0 down to Trump in the last 16 earlier this week but never stopped believing he could win, the same attributes that saw him come from 5-2 in arrears to beat Mark Selby 6-5 in the semi-finals.

Today he was unstoppable. To beat a resurgent Stephen Lee 10-1 is some achievement.

It’s a case of what a difference a year makes for the Antrim man. Last year, he went to the airport to fly to Hainan Island for an invitation event but was overcome by panic and could not get on the plane.

He subsequently received treatment for depression. Things picked up in his personal life and he is now engaged to his girlfriend, Kyla.

Allen has repeatedly stated that he doesn’t like travelling but in fact this is his second final far from home this season after he partnered Gerard Greene to the runners-up spot for Northern Ireland in the World Cup. His first professional title also came in China, the 2009 Jiangsu Classic.

He’s not endeared himself to everyone in the sport but, like his legendary compatriot Alex Higgins, doesn’t seem to care.

Maybe after the controversy earlier in the week he fired himself up with an ‘I’ll show them’ attitude.

Well, he showed us what we already know: that he’s a brilliant player possessed of steely resolve with the ability to beat anyone in the game.
Now that he has won his first ranking title there is no reason why more shouldn’t follow.

ALLEN V LEE

The manner of Mark Allen’s comeback against Mark Selby yesterday was a textbook example of a player who never stopped believing he could win a match he seemed certain to lose.

After Selby won the lengthy seventh frame to lead 5-2 all logic dictated his eventual victory but Allen had other ideas.

The 26 year-old from Antrim is cut from the same snooker cloth as his fellow Northern Irishmen Alex Higgins and Dennis Taylor when it comes to determination and will to win.

Like these two former world champions, Allen is blessed with a stubborn streak which means he never stops trying.

He played superbly to close out victory in what was one of the best performances of his professional career.

Allen has of course made the headlines off table this week. The last time he was involved in such controversy was at the UK Championship where he also made the final.

Perhaps he needs this aggro to get him fired up. It’s a me-against-the-world attitude which has served him pretty well thus far.

Ultimately, though, a snooker player is judged by what he does on the table. If Allen wins the World Open title today then every credit to him. He is a fine talent and we have long been waiting for him to land a ranking crown.

Stephen Lee has come back into form after a few years in the wilderness. The Barry Hearn revolution, with its increase in playing opportunities, has allowed Lee to rediscover his touch.

And he is back playing the sort of snooker that made him a mainstay of the business end of tournaments a decade ago.

On the balance of what we’ve seen this week Allen will probably start favourite, but Lee has won four ranking titles and knows what it takes to prevail in these major finals.

THE MILKMAN DELIVERS

Robert Milkins turns 36 next Tuesday. He is due to become a father for the second time on Monday.

And it's shaping up to be a really memorable week for the Gloucester man as he appears in the second ranking event semi-final of his career at the Haikou World Open today.

His first was seven years ago at the Irish Masters. My memory of that was that he was 8-5 up to Matthew Stevens, who potted a ridiculously good green to deny him victory in frame 14 and went on to win 9-8.

Having come so close to a major final, perhaps Rob's confidence got knocked a little but it has clearly returned this week.

He made sure to credit Terry Griffiths, director of coaching at the South West Snooker Academy, for helping him not just with his game but also his mind.

Clarity of thought in snooker is so important: blocking out the doubts and distractions and just playing the balls.

Milkins did this with great aplomb yesterday in defeating John Higgins, who himself played well.

It was one of Milkins's best ever wins and he has every reason to believe he can beat Stephen Lee today and reach the final. 

GLEE FOR LEE

Stephen Lee is clearly playing very well again. He made three centuries yesterday in beating Neil Robertson, who himself made two.

Back in the top 16, all that is missing now for Lee is another major title. His last came at the Welsh Open six years ago.

Lee turned professional in the golden snooker summer of 1992 alongside his fellow junior prospects Ronnie O'Sullivan, Mark Williams and John Higgins.

His career hasn't quite hit the heights that they have achieved but he has done better than most.

Four world ranking titles is a perfectly respectable tally given the quality of opposition he has faced.

When he won his first, the 1998 Grand Prix, it was clear just how good a cueist he is. Lee made two centuries and eight half century breaks in beating Marco Fu 9-2. This remains one of the best performances I've ever seen in a final.

He may not resemble an athlete but is a great competitor and the proliferation in playing opportunities has clearly helped him rediscover something approaching his best form.

A semi-finalist at the German Masters, he could have reached the same stage of the Welsh Open but for a ghastly mobile phone ring putting him off in the decider against Ding Junhui.

Today he faces Graeme Dott, who swam through glue to beat Marcus Campbell yesterday.

I know I appear to have jinxed a number of players on here this week but Lee has the game and the belief back again, and this makes him very dangerous.

COPE ON THE MARCH

John Higgins beat Jamie Cope in the final of the Hainan Classic last season, which opened the door for the World Open in Haikou.


Higgins was on a roll 11 months ago when he won the title but is yet to regain that focus. We keep saying it could come this week but it's yet to really happen.


Cope has been AWOL for a while, not helped by a condition that means he has tremors when he plays. It would be nice to see him restore some confidence and obviously a win over the world champion would go a long way towards doing that.


Conditions don't seem great at the World Open. Nothing can be done about the humidity but the table on which Neil Robertson played Stephen Hendry did not inspire confidence. It didn't seem level, probably the fault of the creaky floor. This didn't help the standard.


Judd Trump's match with Mark Allen should be entertaining as these two players are both great to watch when they hit their strides - as we saw in their wonderful UK Championship final earlier this season.


Allen is in the headlines again for his crass Twitter comments yesterday about, well, pretty much everything.


Allen - as he is constantly reminding everyone - has the right to hold whatever opinion he likes but his comments always seem to be tinged with an air of nastiness.


I don't think he is really like this but he is clearly frustrated by the life of a professional snooker player. However, it isn't snooker's - or China's - fault if he is unhappy.


It's entirely Allen's right if he wants to spend all his time holed up in his hotel room watching 24 on DVD but he won't discover what China has to offer unless he steps outside.


And the blunt truth is this: nobody is forcing him to play snooker. There would be plenty of others willing to take his place if he packed it in.


One thing I will credit him with: he's one of the few players getting snooker in the newspapers. Jason Ferguson, the WPBSA chairman, was unsurprisingly unimpressed, though, as he told today's Daily Mirror.

LEAP OF FAITH

Stephen Hendry beat Neil Robertson at the Welsh Open, his best result against a top 16 player for some time, but Hendry then fell cheaply to a 4-0 defeat to Mark Allen.

Such inconsistency has plagued him of late but I have been impressed by his attitude at the qualifiers.

Since dropping out of the top 16 last year Hendry has only once failed to qualify for a tournament (the German Masters).

The ultimate seen-it-all, done-it-all player, he could be forgiven for feeling thoroughly fed up in having to pitch up at the soulless qualifying environment after years in the big arenas.

In fact, Hendry has just got on with it and has got the results he has been looking for even if the performances haven't been vintage.

In this leap year it has been a leap into the unknown for Hendry but he has kept the faith. He still believes. This is half the battle in this game.

Robertson has lost early in his two events since winning the Masters and had a very poor record in China until he reached the Shanghai Masters semi-finals earlier this season. Frankly, though, he didn't do much wrong against an inspired Hendry in Newport.

The big shock yesterday was Ding Junhui's 5-1 defeat to Jin Long.

I wonder if Ding feels under more pressure when playing a fellow Chinese, as if he feels he is top dog and has to try harder to prove it.

Who knows? Snooker players are bedevilled by doubts and neuroses. This makes them no different to anyone else, the only difference being the rest of us don't have them so publically exposed.

Ding is the standard bearer of the Chinese snooker revolution but one day there will be a coup and he will be replaced.

Perhaps it will be by Lu Ning, the 18 year-old who beat Nigel Bond in the wildcard round and who now plays Mark Selby today.

What many people don't realise is the extent of the demands on Ding when he returns to China.

He is earning a good living as a snooker player and personal appearances, media interviews and dates for sponsors are all part of that...but his time is rarely his own in a way UK players don't have to deal with.

Finally some good news. Following my rant about scheduling on Sunday the China Open format reveals there will indeed be two first round matches played on the opening day in Beijing, the day traditionally set aside for wildcards.

I'm not saying I had anything to do with this but it is good news for the tournament: launching with top players and providing broadcasters with matches of interest.