23.7.12

MAGUIRE'S PTC TRIUMPH

With his unshaven appearance and iron determination, Stephen Maguire looked mean and moody for the final of UK PTC1 in Gloucester last night.

He was not, in fact, magnificent as well throughout the whole match, which grew increasingly edgy as it progressed, but he held his nerve to beat Jack Lisowski 4-3 on the final black to win the title.

Lisowski, who hung on with two good clearances along the way, was set to win but, needing green and brown in addition, missed the yellow from its spot.

This was pressure. He was within touching distance of his first professional title. Nerves overcame him.

He is in good company. He isn’t the first to have done this and he certainly won’t be the last.

Ronnie O’Sullivan said recently: “The only players I played who never choked were Stephen Hendry and John Higgins.”

In fact, even they, at times, missed pressure balls. Higgins did so against Mark Williams in the 2000 World Championship semi-finals. Hendry lost 9-8 from 8-4 up to Williams in the 2001 UK Championship semi-finals.

Lisowski will have been gutted last night and most probably gutted this morning. Hopefully in a couple of days he will be able to take the positives.

After all, he beat Judd Trump and Williams – ranked second and third in the world – in successive matches.

He displayed great guts, a positive attitude and self belief right up until that last scoring visit in which he missed the yellow against Maguire.

Lisowski is a fine prospect and exactly the sort of player snooker needs: attacking, exciting and articulate.

He enjoyed a good debut season in 2010/11, which culminated in him being named Rookie of the Year at the World Snooker awards.

Last season was not so good. He found himself becoming too caught up in his ranking position.

I’m told he also pegged his practice routine too much to that of Trump. This is understandable but the two players are at different stages of their careers and need different things. Trump is already a top player; Lisowski is still playing qualifiers.

This season he is doing things differently. He is already seeing the benefits. He is only 21 and there is plenty of time for him to recover.

As for Maguire, it was at Gloucester last year where I interviewed him about the PTCs.

He wasn’t a fan, saying: “I feel like a bit of a prostitute, turning up for these events because I have to.”

Last night, his quotes were less negative: “I think everyone has realised now that the ranking points from the PTC events are important. Plus £10,000 is a lot of money to be won in a weekend. It’s easy to be up for it on the final day.”

The point is, whatever job you do you will find aspects of it that you don’t enjoy. You have a choice to either complain about it or look for the positives.

Maguire has done that. He has now qualified for the Grand Finals, which could have a top prize as high as £100,000.

He hasn’t won a full ranking event since the 2008 China Open. He came very close last year, losing tight finals to O’Sullivan at the German Masters and Peter Ebdon at the China Open.

Law of averages suggests Maguire will land a big title soon. He’s playing well enough, but the problem is that so are plenty of others.

The circuit moves on this week to Sheffield at the Shanghai Masters qualifiers, which start tomorrow.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

really enjoyed the final live on worldsnookertv..plus the venue lookd good.i think its a good move to have all ptcs there. i hope they arent scraped as its great as a fan having regular snooker and seeing different winners like in last two years stuart bingham has won a title along with mark allan and barry hawkins, then mark davis won 6 reds and ptcs are having diffrerent winners its exciting,,

Anonymous said...

I also watched it on livesport.tv

All the time I thought it was Steve Davis commentating because, well, it sounded like him and also the knowledgeable analysis of what was going on at the table.

But then as the commentator signed off I thought I heard your name instead.

So was that you?

Anton, Sweden

Dave H said...

It was me, thank you.

I suspect that is the only time I will ever be compared to Sir Steve, at least favourably.

Anonymous said...

if I'd known Dave was commentating I would have forked out the £3 or whatever it is to watch :)

Dzierzgul said...

Wasn't that Williams v. Hendry match a quarter-final? I'm pretty sure Williams did not make it to the final that year.

Anonymous said...

Hope Maguire can keep up this form, he's fantastic to watch and can beat anyone.

JAMIE O'REILLY said...

Hi David. Well done to Stephen Maguire, on his PTC triumph.

Anonymous said...

what a great tournament with players who want to be there.

none of this it isnt worth my time...or, i wont sign the contract cos im special.

bravo to those who played