STEVENS BACK WHERE HE BELONGS

So Matthew Stevens will be in next season's Premier League after his 3-1 defeat of Shaun Murphy in the Championship league final last night.

It marks the latest step in what has been an excellent few weeks for the Welshman: a Welsh Open quarter-final, last gasp win over Fergal O'Brien in World Championship qualifying and semi-final spot in the PTC Grand Finals.

Stevens dropped out of the top 16 in 2007 but will be back for the next seedings cut-off point. Good. It's where a player of his ability and class should be.

He was one of the young stars, along with Paul Hunter and Graeme Dott, who turned pro in the wake of O'Sullivan/Higgins/Williams in the mid 1990s and became leading players.

Stevens, like Jimmy White, is unfairly talked about in the main for what he hasn't won rather than what he has.

It is fact, of course, that he has lost two close world finals, both of which he could have won, as well as three close Crucible semi-finals.

However, little is made of the close Masters and UK Championship finals he won.

If you read Snooker Scene's interview with him at the start of the season you will know he made a concerted effort this year to apply himself.

Like Stephen Lee, another player of proven quality, he has found the changes in snooker to have helped him rediscover his form.

Put simply: he is playing so often that he has been able to sustain this form for a lengthy enough period to achieve meaningful results.

I'm glad he's doing well again, not just because I enjoy watching him play but because he is a nice guy who has taken a couple of serious off table knocks.

Matthew's father, Morrell, died in 2001. He was his biggest supporter, travelling everywhere with him.

“It took me at least two years to come to terms with him dying,” Stevens told Snooker Scene.

“I couldn’t face up to it. I didn’t want to practise and I was just going out drinking all the time, trying to block it out.

“The last thing I wanted to do was play snooker. He used to go to every tournament with me and it just didn’t feel the same. It still doesn’t.”

Then, in 2006, his best friend, Hunter, lost his long, painful battle with cancer, another devastating blow which must have had an effect on his game.

And what of the various close defeats? Have they formed an edge of uncertainty that has made winning further close games more difficult?

“It’s hard not to think what could have been," Stevens said. "I’ve lost so many close matches at the World Championship and I do find myself replaying certain shots in my mind.

“I remember missing a black off the spot when I was well ahead against Mark and he was brilliant after that. I thought I played well against Shaun but he was inspired.

“It’s tough to take but you can’t change anything. That’s how sport is.”

Indeed it is and the future is suddenly much sunnier.

Stevens is off to China tomorrow. His only problem is that he has been playing so much that he has been unable to obtain a visa and so has had to drive to Manchester to get one today.

Like most other things he has taken this in his stride. He is just happy to be back where he belongs.