DAY SEVEN

JUDD TRUMP V NEIL ROBERTSON
A repeat of their enthralling UK Championship semi-final, which Trump edged 9-7. He remarked afterwards that Robertson had been slow but it is naive to expect everyone to play the same game as him.

Actually, this is the worst mistake you can make playing Trump.

In the form he is in and with the confidence his success has brought it is going to be very hard to out-pot Trump, as Ronnie O'Sullivan discovered.

Robertson should instead play to his own strengths. He is a fine tactician but also a heavy scorer, a little like John Higgins.

Frustrate Trump if you can because, if you can't, he will take you apart.

That said, the fact Robertson has had to play in a new tip overnight doesn't add weight to the Australian's cause.

Prediction: Trump to win 6-4


JOHN HIGGINS V SHAUN MURPHY
Higgins has got it together for the first time in a big event this season. As professional snooker continues to evolve there are question marks over the three great players of the last 15 years, all 36, but Higgins remains a formidable match player.

Murphy has not been flawless in reaching his first masters semi-final but has at times been superb.

Martin Gould failed to press home his early advantage against him in the first round and Mark Selby made two key errors last night: a bungled safety on the black in frame two and a missed yellow in the sixth.

Murphy is exuding an air of great confidence. He is hitting the ball sweetly and scoring well when in.

The last player to complete the triple crown of world, UK and Masters titles was O'Sullivan by winning at the Crucible in 2001. Murphy has already won two and is closing in on a third.

Prediction: Murphy to win 6-3

TO ERR IS HUMAN...

Jan Verhaas made a *ghastly error when he stopped play in the John Higgins-Graeme Dott match last night to correct an error that had not, in fact, been made.

Verhaas had a brain freeze and believed that a foul in which Higgins had caught the brown and then hit the blue should have been worth five rather than four.

He eventually realised and play resumed but Dott, who had been waiting to play his shot, immediately missed.

Dott lost this frame and the match, but it would take a ludicrous stretch of the imagination to blame Verhaas for Dott’s eventual defeat.

The fact is this: Jan is only human and, like the rest of us human beings, is capable of making mistakes.

We all make them. I do, you do, referees do. We wouldn’t be human if we didn’t.

In some jobs it is more serious than others. If Jan were a heart surgeon he would probably be feeling worse this morning than for briefly losing the plot in a snooker match.

Referees are unsung heroes (and heroines). They have to retain concentration for long periods of time and are usually only noticed if they get something wrong.

They are also not paid fortunes – far from it – and have to not only ensure the match is played within the rules but also keep the audience in check and deal with the unexpected.

Snooker has been fortunate to have had many top referees over the years. They have all, at one time or another, done something inexplicable in a match.

Jan is one of the best refs and has been for many years. A cheerful Dutchman, he is a popular figure on the snooker circuit. Friendly, courteous and well liked, he is rightly regarded as a safe pair of white gloves.

He will be embarrassed I’m sure by his mistake but when he walks out at the Ally Pally today he will do so as an official trusted by the players and respected by the game at large.

*EDIT: further investigation of the actual footage reveals that Verhaas's call was, in fact, correct. It should have been five away, not four so his mistake was actually in changing his mind.

DAY SIX

It’s getting a bit repetitive to keep saying how impressive Judd Trump is but it doesn’t mean it isn’t true.

He demolished Ronnie O’Sullivan yesterday, as O’Sullivan was the first to admit. It was another big performance on the big stage by the 22 year-old.

It seems absurd now to think that just a year ago people were questioning his talent and his ability to deliver.

Today’s two matches again feature proven winners...

MARK WILLIAMS V NEIL ROBERTSON
These two let me down in my first round predictions by winning. Williams probably should have won more easily against Stephen Maguire but got the job done in the end. Robertson was superb against Mark Allen, whose claim to have ‘lost interest’ was surely a reaction to losing. He actually competed very well.

Williams has always been able to win matches in tournaments where he hasn’t been playing at his best. He has been there, done it, worn the t-shirt and tweeted about it afterwards.

Robertson is yet to reach the Masters semi-finals but against Allen once again proved how strong he is under pressure.

These two left-handed winners of the World Championship invariably come good when the stakes are high. The standard is likely to be, too, but I just feel the Australian will shade it based on what I saw in the first round.

Prediction: Robertson to win 6-4


MARK SELBY V SHAUN MURPHY
Another tough one to call between two good friends. Murphy was brilliant against Martin Gould but Selby’s performance against Stephen Lee was hard to judge.

Lee was poor early on but when he started to come back Selby began to get a little edgy. However, he has won this tournament twice and that has to count for something.

He will also most likely raise his game against Murphy, a player he likes, respects and knows is playing well.

A close encounter is on the cards and Selby has won so many of these in the Masters that he would be favourite if it went all the way.

Prediction: Selby to win 6-5

DAY FIVE

JUDD TRUMP V RONNIE O’SULLIVAN
This is a match to be savoured if their last two encounters are anything to go by. Trump beat O’Sullivan 6-5 in the recent UK Championship and 4-3 in the PTC final in Antwerp.

It’s a match which deserves an evening slot to reach the widest possible audience, but will be played this afternoon as this is when the BBC has its main live programme (Hairy Bikers permitting).

Trump is at ease with the big stage and playing the best snooker of his life but O’Sullivan proved against Ding Junhui that he is still a threat in these major tournaments, regardless of his world ranking.

The Masters has been a happy hunting ground for him: four titles and nine finals. 50 centuries in 19 appearances.

This is some record and O’Sullivan will be fully motivated to remind everyone that he is still a force.

Prediction: O’Sullivan to win 6-4.


JOHN HIGGINS V GRAEME DOTT
For some reason Dott is straight back on having played last night (I think it’s been three weeks since Mark Williams’s first round match). He won’t care. Dott proved once again against Ali Carter that he has the nerve to hold firm in these big events.

He has never been past the Masters quarter-finals but beat Higgins 6-4 in the first round last season.

Higgins looked pretty good I thought against Matthew Stevens, although the Welshman wasn’t really at the races.

The reigning world champion admitted to feeling overawed at Wembley but the Ally Pally feels like a more standard venue and this may be the time this season where Higgins starts to come good.

Prediction: Higgins to win 6-4.

DAY FOUR

MARK SELBY V STEPHEN LEE
Selby's record in the Masters is superb: two titles plus one runners-up spot in four appearances.

But he fell at the first fence to Mark King last year and went off the boil at the UK Championship against Marco Fu after a fine start in whitewashing Ryan Day.

Selby, though, has to be favourite today. His consistency has been rewarded by top spot in the world rankings and though Lee has made a creditable return to the top 16, the Trowbridge man has not done so with many extended runs in tournaments.

Lee's last match at the Masters was his 10-3 defeat to Selby in the final four years ago. He remains a fine cueist but this will be a test.

Prediction: Selby to win 6-3


GRAEME DOTT V ALI CARTER
Carter has been in the doldrums of late, unhappy with his snooker but talking of retirement.

The tenacious Dott is probably not the player he would have chosen to play in this scenario. The Glaswegian beat him at last year's World Championship, at one point underlining his poise under pressure by winning three successive frames on the black.

Dott is the sort of player who recognises the key psychological points in a match and invariably takes advantage of them. Carter can get frustrated and this is not the best recipe for an Essex victory.

Prediction: Dott to win 6-4

DAY THREE

Yesterday in a nutshell: Judd Trump turned it on when he had to; Shaun Murphy was superb against Martin Gould.

And so to today...

JOHN HIGGINS V MATTHEW STEVENS
Higgins regards this as his bogey tournament, despite winning the Masters twice and reaching two other finals.

It does seem to be an all or nothing event for him. From the other 13 times he has played in the Masters and not reached the final he has lost nine times in the opening round.

Higgins has yet to really hit his stride this season. We all know he can, and indeed that he probably will, but it isn't bound to happen today.

Stevens was Masters champion in 2000 but has only won one match in the event since. He is playing in the tournament for the first time since 2007.

The Welshman has done well to get back in the top 16 but is lacking wins over the top players of late.

I think it'll be a close match and, if it is, that Higgins will win.

Prediction: Higgins to win 6-4


NEIL ROBERTSON V MARK ALLEN
This could be a classic. Allen is riding high after reaching his first major final at last month's UK Championship. Robertson has emerged as a fiercely competitive big occasion player.

It's a clash of styles: Allen is fast and attacking; Robertson is attacking but has slowed down and is now as dogged and determined as his late compatriot Eddie Charlton.

They played in the quarter-finals last year and Allen won 6-4. He will be full of confidence after his York exploits and is yet to lose his first match at the Masters in three previous appearances.

His strength is his scoring power but he is also great in adversity, a trait he shares with fellow Northern Irishmen Alex Higgins, Dennis Taylor and Joe Swail.

Robertson took a good break over Christmas, visiting Norway from where his partner hails. When he came back to Cambridge he was unable to practise with Joe Perry as he was in Germany for the PTC.

Robertson had two days of Championship League snooker last week. He was clearly rusty at first but soon hit his stride.

I don't see either player running away with it.

Prediction: Allen to win 6-5

DAY TWO

It was a great start to the BGC Masters yesterday: a packed house for an absorbing contest between Ronnie O'Sullivan and Ding Junhui.

O'Sullivan's long potting was at times sensational and he responded well after Ding launched his fightback.

Afterwards, there were nice scenes in the BBC studio as Ronnie's son, Ronnie junior, joined his dad for some post match analysis.

O'Sullivan spoke thoughtfully about the future of his career, explaining that he still wanted to play but not to the extent that it becomes an endless slog which he doesn't enjoy.

I thought this made perfect sense. Snooker players tend to be more persuasive when they are speaking cogently and politely rather than indulging in boorish swearing or crass metaphors.

The evening match was a more protracted affair but still dramatic. Mark Williams was coasting at 4-0 up against Stephen Maguire but failed to clinch what seemed a likely comfortable victory and Maguire dug in well to put him under all sorts before the Welshman came through 6-4.

And so to today...

JUDD TRUMP V STUART BINGHAM
There's no real logical reason not to back Trump. He is riding the crest of a wave of confidence and success. He's a big occasion player, cueing superbly - as he proved once again at the Championship League last week - and, perhaps most importantly, hasn't let it all go to his head.

After his talent, the most impressive thing about Judd is his composure. He remains a quiet lad who enjoys what he does and despite receiving bags of publicity, hasn't started believing it all.

Bingham of course beat him 5-1 at this season's Shanghai Masters and is a fine break-builder no doubt relishing his third Masters appearance and first as a member of the top 16.

But he knows this is a very tough draw, although Trump did start his UK Championship campaign slowly before getting better as the event wore on.

Prediction: Trump to win 6-2


SHAUN MURPHY V MARTIN GOULD
Gould becomes the 82nd player to compete in the Masters since it was first staged in 1975. What a proud moment for the Londoner, who loves playing snooker and has improved rapidly over the last few years.

He's never beaten Murphy but Murphy has never done well in the Masters, failing to make it past the quarter-finals in seven previous appearances.

But as with most things there are historical parallels. Dennis Taylor had won only one match in the tournament before he won the title in 1987. Murphy is always going to be a threat in any tournament and had four solid days hard match practice in the Championship League last week.

Prediction: Murphy to win 6-3

THE MASTERS: DAY ONE

So the BGC Masters is here at its new home, the Alexandra Palace in London.

The top 16 are fighting for one of snooker’s most sought after trophies. Let’s have a look at today’s two matches…

DING JUNHUI V RONNIE O’SULLIVAN
Their last Masters meeting ended with O’Sullivan sportingly consoling a tearful Ding following a 10-3 rout which included some sensational snooker.

O’Sullivan has struggled for form, motivation and results of late but he has a fine record in this tournament: nine finals and four titles.

Ding I thought was superb last year. He has matured as a player and a person since that Wembley horror show five years ago and was assured in winning the title 12 months ago.

He is yet to really set the baize alight this season but is a class act, capable of turning it on with the best of them.

In most tournaments I would fancy him to come through but this is O’Sullivan’s territory. He usually gets himself up for the Masters and tends to revel in the great atmosphere the packed house is bound to provide.

Prediction: O’Sullivan to win 6-4


MARK WILLIAMS V STEPHEN MAGUIRE
Williams won the title in 1998 and 2003 and has recently returned to the top of the game after a spell in the doldrums.

Maguire has been consistent since winning the 2008 China Open but it wasn’t until last week at PTC12 that he won another televised title.

This is not the reason I am plumping for a Scottish win. Maguire has a good record against Williams; he always seems to play well against him.

I recall they once played in the Welsh Open and Maguire produced a masterclass in foot-on-the-throat snooker, not eye-catching centuries but 50-odd followed by a good safety, keeping the Welshman on the back foot.

I would never write Mark off. He’s one of the all time greats but he is experimenting with a new cue, and that could be a factor either in his favour or not.

Either way, Maguire is full of confidence right now.

Prediction: Maguire to win 6-3

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE MASTERS: PART TWO

The 1995 Masters marked the 21st staging of the tournament but the final was contested by two players not born when the event began.

Ronnie O’Sullivan and John Higgins, both 19, were two outstanding juniors from different ends of the UK who along with Mark Williams had emerged as players most likely to threaten Stephen Hendry’s dominance of the game.

More than a decade later they would serve up one of the most dramatic of all the Masters finals but in 1995 O’Sullivan cruised to victory, 9-3.

He was in the final again the following year but lost 10-5 to Hendry, who thus secured a sixth and final Masters title.

Steve Davis suffered from flu prior to the 1997 event. He felt rotten and turned up at Wembley not expecting very much but battled past Alan McManus and Peter Ebdon before a 6-1 defeat of Ken Doherty sent him through to the final nine years after his second capture of the trophy.

He faced O’Sullivan, a red hot favourite in a final interrupted early on by a female streaker. It was O’Sullivna who appeared to be streaking away with the match, building an 8-4 lead before it all turned round.

For so many years the villain of the piece in his own backyard, Davis found the crowd increasingly warming to him as he mounted an unlikely comeback and secured one of the most satisfying wins of his career, coming as it did long after his peak. His 10-8 victory was his last major success in a final.

As if the drama of this finish was not enough, Williams and Hendry managed to supersede it a year later. 23 years after John Spencer had edged ray Reardon on a re-spotted black, the tournament once again came down to an extra ball.

Hendry had led 9-6 but Williams rallied to equalise. Hendry had first poke at the additional black, a tricky pot to the left middle which stayed out, leaving Williams a much easier black for victory.

The WPBSA sent his £145,000 winner’s cheque to a different Mark Williams, a Londoner who was also a member. Thankfully, he returned it uncashed.

Ken Doherty featured in the next two finals. He lost 10-8 to Higgins in 1999 but the disappointment of this defeat was nothing compared to what happened a year later against Matthew Stevens.

He was well behind in the match but had a chance to emulate Kirk Stevens by making a 147 at Wembley. Doherty, though, felt his whole body shaking as he approached the final black and it stayed out, denying him the keys to a sports car worth £90,000. It is a shot which still haunts him.

Stevens went on to win 10-8 and a year later was replaced as champion by his great friend Paul Hunter, who breathed new life into the tournament with a series of remarkable recoveries in finals.

He was 6-2 down to Fergal O’Brien in 2001 when he returned to the tournament hotel and, as he put it, ‘put plan B into operation’ with his girlfriend, Lyndsey.

Hunter played great stuff in that final session, a brand of fearless snooker which made him an instant star. He won 10-9 and a year later rallied from 5-0 down to beat Williams also in a decider.

Williams beat Hendry 10-4 to land the final Masters to be sponsored by Benson and Hedges in 2003 but Hunter was back on the comeback trail in 2004, roaring back from 7-2 adrift to edge O’Sullivan 10-9.

Three finals, three comebacks, three deciding frame victories. Hunter gave the crowd their money’s worth, injected drama and style into the tournament and did it all with the grace for which he was renowned. How the game still misses him.

A decade on from their first Wembley final, O’Sullivan beat Higgins again, this time 10-3, to win the 2005 title before their epic 2006 battle.

This was the last match played at the Conference Centre before it made way for a redevelopment but it was a fitting finale: two great players at the top of their games and the final going its full distance.

O’Sullivan led 60-0 in the decider before Higgins produced one of the great pressure clearances, 64 to win it on the black.

2007 brought yet another Masters final for O’Sullivan, this time at Wembley Arena. It was a performance Davis would describe as ‘unplayable,’ an awesome display of snooker which demoralised Ding Junhui, who had begun the event with a 147 and would end it walking off the stage in tears, trying to concede at 9-3 down.

Mark Selby’s run to the 2007 world final helped him secure a top 16 place and therefore a Masters berth. His debut was sensational, three deciding frame finishes before a 10-3 defeat of Stephen Lee in the final, Selby thus becoming the first player since Hendry 19 years earlier to win the title on his debut.

He lost 10-8 to O’Sullivan the following year but then edged him 10-9 in yet another Wembley thriller to regain the title in 2010.

Last year the final featured two Asian players as China’s Ding Junhui beat Marco Fu of Hong Kong 10-4. For Ding it was an exorcising of the demons of four years earlier and further proof of how he has become a big occasion player.

This season’s Masters, sponsored by BGC Partners, will be held at the Alexandra Palace in London. It marks a new chapter for a tournament with a rich history.

The Masters remains a test of the elite, a fascinating duel between the very best the green baize has to offer.

Here’s to more drama, more great snooker and many more fabulous memories…

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE MASTERS: PART ONE

My Masters history stuff has had to be curtailed due to other commitments (namely all the snooker happening) but this is the first part of a two-part look back at the players who have won the game’s oldest and most prestigious invitation tournament.

When I first began covering the Masters over a decade ago it was clear that the top players of the time regarded it as second only to the World Championship.

In the B&H years it was an event awash with money, and as it was only for the top 16 it felt like an achievement just to be playing in it.

Thankfully any thoughts of opening up into yet another ranking tournament were resisted, and the Masters has maintained its prestige through a long and distinguished history.

The first Masters was staged at the West Centre Hotel in Fulham in 1975 and contested by just ten players. The top prize was £2,000.

It provided a thrilling finish as John Spencer beat his great adversary Ray Reardon 9-8 on a re-spotted black, proving that the game’s best players could serve up drama to compete with the best that other sport has to offer. It was finals such as this which persuaded TV companies that the sport could pull in viewers, which it has certainly done in the 37 years since.

Reardon won the title the following year at its new home, the New London Theatre, but was beaten 7-6 by Doug Mountjoy in the 1977 final, a remarkable achievement by a player new on the pro scene.

Mountjoy had beaten two multi-world champions, John Pulman and Fred Davis, before a 5-3 semi-final defeat of crowd favourite Alex Higgins.

There was something about London that suited Higgins: the big city brashness which attracted loud and enthusiastic audiences, who took the Northern Irishman to their hearts.

They cheered him all the way to victory in 1978 and shared his disappointment in losing to Perrie Mans in the 1979 final.

The ‘78 event had been played under a best of seven format (by no means a modern innovation) but it went up to best of nines and moved to the Wembley Conference Centre the following year.

It was a cavernous arena and the players were reminded that they really were alone out there. It would be the scene of many dramatic battles over the next 27 years.

By 1979 there still had not been a century break in the Masters. Higgins in fact won the high break prize that year with his 132 but lost the final to Mans, who failed to make a 50 all week.

But Mans was a very talented potter, able to knock them in from anywhere and then battle it out in the safety stakes, and this unorthodox style had got him to the world final the previous year.

The Reardon-Spencer era was coming to an end, as a new breed of players swept in led by Steve Davis. But the Masters was one tournament the new king of snooker would fail to dominate.

It was perhaps because, as a Londoner, the hostile atmosphere among fans who should logically have been supporting him was hard to stomach, a typically British reaction against anyone ‘too’ good.

Davis did win the title in 1982 but had to wait six years for his second success and another nine for his third, long after his heyday was over. Needless to say, the crowd loved him by then because he was no longer winning regularly.

Higgins, the darling of the Wembley crowd, lost 9-5 to Terry Griffiths, the reigning world champion, in the 1980 final but won the title for a second time in 1981, beating Griffiths 9-6.

The first three time champion was Cliff Thorburn, winner in 1983, 1985 and 1986, a run of success broken by Jimmy White in a memorable 1984 tournament.

White’s semi-final against Kirk Stevens remains one of snooker’s most fondly remembered matches in terms of atmosphere and drama. Stevens, the man in the white suit, made one of the most stylish maximum breaks ever seen but was beaten 6-4. White would beat Griffiths 9-5 to win the title, his only Wembley triumph.

Higgins was in the final again in 1987, against Dennis Taylor, his compatriot and long time adversary, who had never done much in the Masters before.

Higgins led 8-5. Taylor left the arena and heard that the Higgins camp had already started opening the champagne. A great battler, as stubborn as they came, Taylor dug deep to pull off a dramatic late night 9-8 victory, his biggest since his famous world title triumph two years earlier.

Davis’s second title was also a first: a whitewash in a Masters final, 9-0 over Mike Hallett.

Stephen Hendry joined the top 16 at the start of the 1988/89 season and arrived at Wembley as an authentic title challenger. It was a step into the unknown, a large arena and big, noisy crowd, but it made no difference to Hendry. His self-belief was unshakable and he beat Davis in the semi-finals and John Parrott in the final to win one of snooker’s ‘big three’ titles for the first time.

And so the Hendry years began. A decade later he had won 18 ‘big three’ crowns, including five Masters titles.

He beat Parrott again in 1990 and 1992 but far more memorable was his 1991 success against Hallett, who led the first session 7-0 and had the pink at 8-2 for victory.

He missed, though, and Hendry clawed his way back to win 9-8, a remarkable comeback and further cementing of his reputation as the man to beat.

Hendry beat James Wattana to win in 1993 and arrived in the 1994 final having won 23 successive matches at Wembley.

His opponent was Alan McManus, a fellow Scot who had established himself as one of the hardest players in the game without quite winning the titles to support this status.

It was a closely fought affair and Hendry’s run finally ended with a 9-8 defeat.

It wasn’t the end of his spell of success – far from it – but at around this time a new generation of players were coming through.

The game was changing again and the Masters was set for a new era of thrilling finals and spellbinding snooker.

NEW SPONSOR FOR MASTERS

Barry Hearn has secured BGC Partners, a major money brokerage firm, as the new sponsor for the Masters, which gets underway at Alexandra Palace in London on Sunday.

Hearn was visibly buzzing when he imparted this news to the players at the Championship League at Crondon Park this week after doing the deal himself.

A company from the financial sector backing a major tournament in the UK marks a move away from recent reliance on the betting industry, which has been the main source of sponsorship income for the sport in recent times.

The bookies’ money is as welcome as anyone’s, not least because it is a vote of confidence in the integrity of snooker after several high profile match fix stories.

But by branching out into a different sector, it will hopefully prove snooker can appeal to a far wider range of industries.

Hearn and his team seem to have no problem obtaining sponsors. The challenge is to keep them beyond their initial year.

Hopefully BGC will see the benefits of their association with one of snooker’s oldest and most prestigious events.

It’s a new sponsor, new home and new start for the Masters...let’s hope the players put on a show worthy of snooker’s new era.

IT WAS 30 YEARS AGO TODAY...

Oldham Civic Centre seems an unlikely venue to play host to sporting history but 30 years ago today it staged a notable snooker first.

Steve Davis, who would dominate the decade, compiled snooker’s first officially ratified 147 break on January 11, 1982 during the Lada Classic.

His opponent was John Spencer, who had himself made a maximum in a televised tournament three years earlier. There were, however, two reasons why the break was not a TV first.

The most obvious was that the TV cameramen had decamped to McDonalds for a break of their own and so did not record it.

Also, the pockets were judged not to be of regulation size and so the 147 was ruled unofficial.

But Spencer himself knew the importance of what he was doing. After potting the pink, he staged a mock faint before getting back up to slot home the final black.

By 1982, Davis and his manager, Barry Hearn, were cleaning up on the table and through myriad off table activities.

Snooker was big TV business in Britain and Hearn exploited the many earning opportunities and began to open up new markets around the world.

Hearn said recently that he made so much money by 1982 that he was considering retirement, indeed briefly tried it until realising that a life of leisure is no match for the thrill of the business world.

So it was that Davis arrived in Oldham off the back of an exhausting overseas promotional trip and was so tired that he was said to be falling asleep at the venue between matches.

His maximum remains a great watch and by no means straight forward. The importance of the occasion is obvious from the commentary, not the solemn punditry of the mellifluous John Pulman but in the over-excited tones of David Taylor, not a regular ITV commentator but drafted in to help out.

To be fair, you could hardly blame him. This was an historic moment and there were to be further iconic 147s from Cliff Thorburn at the 1983 World Championship and Kirk Stevens at the 1984 Masters.

There were eight maximums recorded in the 1980s but the hike in standard, number of players and number of tournaments has seen them become much more common. There have been eight this season alone among the 85 on the official list.

And there have been many, many near misses, none more famous than when Ken Doherty missed the final black during the 2000 Masters final.

Davis is of course still going strong. He was an apt figure to construct snooker’s first official 147 and remains a player so many others still look up to.

It was a slice of history, of snooker magic, and despite the passing of 30 years, remains timeless.

Watch it here.

A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN

The Championship League returns today for its fifth staging with a Premier League place once again up for grabs at the end of the eight groups at Crondon Park golf club in Essex.

I can’t improve on pro Snooker Blog’s excellent preview of the event so will lazily link to it here.

However, a word on the competition as a whole. I’ve heard people question the point of it. Well, the point of it is that it makes money, and there is no reason to axe a profitable event. It’s not as if there aren’t plenty of other tournaments.

It makes money for the players, the organisers, the bookies, the production company, the referees, the venue, the commentators, the table fitters and anyone else I’ve forgotten.

Most top 16 players have once again entered. Why wouldn’t they? What else would they be doing the week before the Masters than practising for it?

Better to get good solid match practice against other top players and be paid for it.

John Higgins, Stephen Maguire and Graeme Dott have not entered but can of course all practice together.

The players are invited according to their rankings but can defer until a later group, as Mark Williams and Neil Robertson have by choosing to play in group 2 rather than 1.

The Championship League has a strange atmosphere because it has no atmosphere: there is no room for spectators and, as it’s set up to be bet on, there could be machinations if there was a crowd as streams are typically 10-15 second behind live action.

Also this week, the Hainan World Open qualifiers take place in Sheffield with 16 spots available for the 32-man final stages in February.

A long term deal to stage the tournament in China is expected to be announced today.

ON CUE FOR GERMANY

The final Players Tour Championship event at Furstenfeldbruck in Germany from Friday will decide the final 24 places for the grand finals in Galway in March.

For the first time, the field has been played down to 16 for the three day tournament and it’s an intriguing collection of cueists.

There are three members of the top 16 – Mark Allen, Stephen Maguire and Martin Gould – plus five players who have at one time been top 16 members – Stephen Hendry, Marco Fu, Ricky Walden, Joe Perry and David Gray.

In addition, two players – Andrew Higginson and Michael Holt – are PTC winners this season and another – Marcus Campbell – won one last season.

Of the remaining five players there’s Mike Dunn, a maximum maker this season, Kurt Maflin, a Londoner based in Norway, Xiao Guodong, one of a number of improving Chinese players, and two players who secured main tour spots this campaign through the Q School, Dave Gilbert and David Grace.

Allen would probably start favourite for the title. His run to the UK Championship final last month – and his performance in recovering against Judd Trump – must have left him full of confidence, not a commodity he was lacking in the first place.

All the PTCs are wide open but there is an additional factor in this one in that all matches will be played in front of the TV cameras, where the more experienced players tend to thrive.

The final stages carry big money and big ranking points so those players not already qualified will be busting a gut to do so.

And there is another subplot: if Walden wins the title he relegates Ronnie O’Sullivan from the top 16 at the seedings cut-off for the next three ranking events.

It’s live on Eurosport from 1pm (UK time) on Friday.

Here’s the last 16 draw:

Mike Dunn v Mark Allen
David Grace v Martin Gould
Ricky Walden v Xiao Guodong
Dave Gilbert v Joe Perry
Marcus Campbell v Michael Holt
Stephen Hendry v Marco Fu
Stephen Maguire v David Gray
Kurt Maflin v Andrew Higginson

HANDY ANDY

Some snooker players become household names, big stars outside of the sport. In the 1980s you didn’t even have to win anything to achieve this status in the UK.

Some players achieve notoriety for what they say or their activities off the table, even if they aren’t big tournament winners.

And others, the majority in fact, are the foot-soldiers of the professional circuit. They knuckle down, play, try their best and don’t make a fuss.

Many people assume they must be boring, presumably because they haven’t chinned anyone in a nightclub or sworn at someone on Twitter. But they’re not. Everyone is interesting if you look hard enough.

PTC12 this weekend offers the chance for a few of these bit part players to emerge from the wings and take their place in the spotlight

There are only three members of the top 16 in the 16-man draw, although there are also five other players who have at one time or another been part of this elite group.

But it’s an opportunity for a title for those not usually in that position.

One such is Andrew Higginson, in my experience one of the most decent and hard working players around.

Andrew of course won a PTC earlier this season but is still best known for his extraordinary run to the Welsh Open final five years ago.

For once the word ‘extraordinary’ is apt here. Higginson started out in the first qualifying round having pulled up very few trees in a decade on the main tour up to this point.

I remember interviewing him years and years ago at some anonymous qualifier or another. This was before blogs, before streaming, when these events passed off without anyone outside of those playing giving much of a damn about them.

He told me he had recently stopped practising at a snooker club in St. Helens. When I asked him why he replied, deadpan, “because it’s just burned down.” I’ve liked him ever since.

All those years of striving to do well and not really getting anywhere must have sapped his confidence but, for whatever reason, having qualified for Newport in 2007 he found the form of his life.

It was always in there and, that week, it exploded like a bottle of champagne shaken up by an F1 driver.

Higginson beat Marco Fu. He beat John Higgins. He beat Michael Judge. He was in the quarter-finals.

Most observers, no doubt myself among them, patronisingly assumed he had had a good tournament but that Ali Carter would prove a match too far.

Higginson beat him 5-1 and made a maximum in the process. He then defeated Stephen Maguire to reach the final.

What had seemed improbable was now a fairytale demanding only the perfect finish, and it almost came. Andrew fought back from 6-2 down at halfway to lead Neil Robertson 8-6 before the Aussie won the last three frames to win 9-8.

The Snooker Writers Association gave Higginson our Achievement of the Year award for all this and he survived a particularly boozy night in London at our annual dinner (another player ran up a large bill wrongly thinking it was a free bar, but that’s another story).

Since then Higginson has qualified for the Crucible, appeared on TV here and there and worked his way up to 19th in the latest world rankings.

This has not been as dramatic as his Welsh Open adventure but he is now firmly embedded in the top 32 and closing in on the top 16.

Good for him. He’s worked for it. And it rather proves what I’ve long suspected: most players are capable of great things, they just need a mixture of self belief, luck and inspiration to make it happen.

Higginson plays Kurt Maflin in the last 16 of the PTC in Furstenfeldbruck on Friday and whatever happens will be in group 1 of the Championship League next Monday. Later that week he has World Open qualifiers with the Shootout in Blackpool at the end of the month.

A busy time, then, which is how he likes it. Higginson is typical of most of snooker’s foot-soldiers: he loves the game, he wants to play it, he wants to win but losing isn’t everything.

Just as long as there is always another match, another tournament.

DOES BURNOUT EXIST?

The answer to my own question is almost certainly yes, it does, but with some qualifiers.

There’s been a lot more snooker of late and a lot more to come before the betfred.com World Championship in April.

You’ll hear talk of burnout and players too exhausted to seriously compete at the Crucible, but what is the actual evidence for this?

Last season John Higgins played in everything he could and was in such good form that he went all the way to a fourth world title.

Ronnie O’Sullivan opted out of quite a few events and was clearly rusty in the run-in to Sheffield.

OK, this is not the most scientific example. Higgins is a great player and could win the world title any year regardless of how much he has played. O’Sullivan was low on motivation and wanted out of the game for good.

However, if you are looking for a likely winner come May 7 surely a player who has been playing a great deal would be a better bet than someone who has been losing early?

Momentum is important in sport because it is linked to confidence. Mark Selby started the season with this very commodity. He won the Wuxi Classic and shortly afterwards the Paul Hunter Classic and then the Shanghai Masters.

But runs come to an end and Selby was a disappointment against Marco Fu at the recent UK Championship. The good news is that players experience peaks and troughs and I’m sure the world no.1 will get going again soon.

Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry were the dominant players of their respective eras and the more they played, the more they won. In Hendry’s case he won five successive ranking events during one particularly purple patch.

But when they weren’t playing in tournaments they were on the exhibition circuit making serious money and, in the case of Davis, conquering new horizons with his manager, Barry Hearn.

This month marks the 30th anniversary of Davis’s 147 at the 1982 Lada Classic, the first in professional competition.

He had in fact just returned from a round-the-world trip so tiring that he was falling asleep between matches.

Later that year he was signing copies of his book in a newsagent’s in Sheffield a few hours before playing Tony Knowles in the World Championship. We all know how that played out.

Hendry, like Davis, was no slouch but he was a young man and had the bloody-minded professionalism to grind it out, understanding that this was his time to cash in on his success. Not many players since have had that same attitude.

But it isn’t really the amount of snooker being played that could lead to burnout – the more you play, the tougher you should in theory be – it’s the travelling.

Flying back and forth to places like China does take a toll. I’m sure many people will feel this is part of sport and, frankly, tough if you don’t like it, but a long season of planes, trains and automobiles can be physically demanding, especially as the calendar isn’t structured like golf and tennis where events in a particular part of the world come one after another.

This year there will be two new ranking events in China, further increasing the air miles top players will rack up.

I know a few players who love all this, and they are the ones prospering, but there will come a time, particularly for older players, where the prospect of another flight, another hotel becomes irksome to the point where it will negatively affect mental attitude.

It’s easy to say they are only playing snooker but not true. They are also investing huge mental reserves into their profession and travelling here, there and everywhere to play.

So burnout is a risk but as more tournaments crop up, there will be more choice and players can better manage their schedules.

And I’d still back a player with momentum come the Crucible than those who have hardly played at all.

2012: THE BATTLES ON THE BAIZE

Happy new year everyone.

The great thing about a new year is that it’s a time for looking forward, not back and there is much to look forward to in 2012, indeed in January alone.

From Friday there will be 24 consecutive days of snooker to watch either on television or through internet streaming, a smorgasbord of green baize action with something for everyone.

It starts with PTC 12 in Germany after which the final 24 for the grand finals in Galway in March will be decided.

Then from January 9-12 the Championship League returns for its fifth year at one of snooker’s most unlikely venues, Crondon Park Golf Club in Essex.

There has been much more snooker to play recently but I’m not surprised that most top players have once again entered the Championship League. It’s regular match practice against top quality players and carries good financial reward.

The World Open (which will be best of nines this year, by the way) has its qualifiers from January 11-14. There will be commentary on the final two rounds on liveworldsnooker.tv and the betting sites that carry coverage.

The jewel in the crown this month is of course the Masters, at its new home of Alexandra Palace in London, from January 15-22.

This is one of snooker’s most prestigious titles, a tournament with a rich history and a huge first prize (£150,000).

The next two groups of Championship League are from January 23-26 and then the Sky Shootout, which I thought was a lot of fun last year, rounds things off in Blackpool from January 27-29.

So that’s a jam-packed month of snooker to kick off 2012 and there is plenty more where that came from in the run up to the Betfred.com World Championship in April.

This blog will remain pretty much as it has always been: a mix of news, opinion and historical reflections, a few interviews and thoughts about tournament action. If you have any other suggestions for content feel free to offer them.

It will be a busy year and that can only be good, although players will want to arrive at the Crucible three months from now match sharp but not exhausted.

Like any other year there will be drama aplenty: great matches, shocks, spellbinding breaks, stunning shot-making, nerve-wracking close finishes, twitch-ups, heartbreak, joy and glory.

People will say things in the heat of the moment that they later regret. There will be controversy. There will be arguments. There will be cock-ups. There will be complaints.

In short, there will be snooker, and lots of it.

The battles on the baize will be a rollercoaster of emotions for players, fans and everyone else associated with this great game.

So strap yourselves in and enjoy the ride.

AT YEAR'S END

It may be a packed calendar these days but even snooker stops for Christmas as another year draws to a close.

It has been a busy one in the snooker world with new tournaments, new champions and several familiar faces continuing to perform to the highest standards.

John Higgins maintained his golden form of the back end of last year as 2011 began, winning the Welsh Open, the Hainan Classic in China, the Scottish Professional Championship and the World Championship.

It was an emotional time for Higgins. His father’s death hit him hard and he needed the break when it came in May. That he has not been quite as intense since is not that great a surprise.

His old adversary, Mark Williams, won what was arguably the best tournament of the year, the German Masters, which proved that talk of a snooker boom in Germany was no myth.

The crowds turned out in huge numbers in Berlin and witnessed an engrossing final in which Williams outmanoeuvred Mark Selby 9-7. It allowed the Welshman to return to the world no.1 spot, a remarkable turnaround in fortunes having dropped out of the top 16.

His tenure as world no. l ended, though, when Selby overtook him. As if to rub it in, Selby edged Williams 10-9 in the Shanghai Masters final, a match which turned on a bizarre incident in which Selby’s hit-and-hope shot shifted the psychological momentum.

It was proof that sport, for all its skill, can be decided by the unexpected. This, of course, is why it remains so popular with the watching millions.

Williams also lost in a decider to Stuart Bingham at the new Australian Open in Bendigo, 9-8 from 8-5 up. This tournament was an example of the further international reach snooker is now enjoying.

There were many matches to savour this year and a general feeling that the standard of play has increased.

And yet the player who more than any other turned snooker into the attacking game it is today went backwards.

Stephen Hendry lost his place in the elite top 16 and will find it very difficult to regain it.

But 2011 will be mainly remembered as the year a new star was born on the big stage.

Snooker players and fans had been aware of Judd Trump’s audacious talent for years but he had yet to marshal it in any meaningful way.

That changed in Beijing when he combined his incredible potting game with some rock solid safety to win the China Open.

It was a foretaste of what was to come on the biggest stage of them all. In the pressure cooker of the Crucible, Trump was a revelation.

A hero for the Twitter generation, his progress to the World Championship final was a breath of fresh air for the sport.

He ultimately fell short as Higgins, burning with determination, secured his fourth world title. However, the Scot was right to identify Trump as the star of the tournament and a player around whom much of snooker’s future prosperity will be built.

Higgins, Williams and Ronnie O’Sullivan are all now 36. These three outstanding players of the last 15 years broke through during the last major shake-up of the circuit when the game went open 20 years ago.

Now that it is undergoing another transformation, Trump is poised to be its leading light. His UK Championship success earlier this month rounded off a terrific year, for him and snooker.

The players deserve great credit for bringing the sport to life. There is now a distinct group of characters at the top of the game, all fiercely talented, battling for titles. Such is the standard that you can play great in the first round and lose. Any title these days is hard earned.

Off table, Barry Hearn continues to innovate, like a one-man runaway train the players are trying to keep pace with.

There seems to be three categories of player now: those who want to play all the time, those who give the impression they hardly want to play at all and the majority who want to play regularly but preferably without going skint in the process.

There will be more money for PTCs next year, with at least two British PTCs being cut, but expenses are a serious issue and will remain so the more tournaments that are staged in far flung locations.

But this is the problem of starting if not quite from scratch then from a low base. Prize money on the circuit has almost doubled in two years. It will continue to increase but the age of guarantees is over. More than ever, snooker has become the survival of the fittest.

Anyone who believes things were better before Hearn’s arrival needs a serious reality check.

After years of understandable complaints about too few playing opportunities there is a rebuilding process underway but some people seem to believe everything should be perfect immediately.

If the sport had been run properly in the past there would be no need for Hearn to step in at all.

Consider the following from the last year: major tournaments in Germany, Thailand, Australia and Brazil, live internet streaming of every event, record ticket sales, increased viewing figures, more sponsorship revenue, more prize money, more TV events...if people can’t celebrate any or all of these then it says more about them than the current state of snooker.

In 2012 there will be further new events. Hearn and his team are in discussions with promoters in countries including Singapore and Canada. I understand China is likely to get two new ranking events, one with a six figure first prize.

The globalisation of snooker continues apace, years and years later than it could have, but happening all the same.

World Snooker recently revealed that their revenue from overseas television sales five years ago was just £50,000. Now it is £2.5m. This proves that the sport is becoming truly international, although it can only claim this with credibility when the circuit includes more players from outside the UK.

The sport is on a sound financial footing. More care needs to be taken with the structure of the calendar but there is now a momentum behind the circuit, regular snooker not just for players but TV viewers too.

It’s not all perfect. There remains concern about too much meddling with snooker’s traditional elements. The game itself is still the biggest asset the sport has, more than any player.

There is still much sneering in the media, when they bother to cover snooker at all.

There are still rows and controversies and cock-ups and problems...as there are in every other sport.

But there is much to look forward to in 2012, which may prove to be snooker’s busiest year yet.

All that remains for me this year is to wish all you blog readers a very happy and peaceful festive period.

Merry Christmas, happy new year and thank you for reading.

FIRST AMONG EQUALS?

Among the more intriguing suggestions from World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn has been his stated intention that all players should start tournaments in the same round.

This is a long term plan and one which will be controversial. It illustrates a divide in professional sport between what is considered ‘fair’ and the commercial realities which sustain the level of prize money available.

An example: the circuit is set to increase to 128 players. However, the Crucible can only take 32 players under its current format.

Therefore, if every player entered the World Championship in the same round we could be left with a field of unfamiliar names.

So what, you might argue. The best will come through, the others will fall by the wayside.

Well maybe. But when snooker is relying on revenue from broadcasters and sponsors, the importance of star names cannot be underestimated. These are the players which draw viewers, interest sponsors and persuade TV companies to screen tournaments.

Ever since a professional circuit was established there has been protection for higher ranked players, but they have earned this by starting at the bottom and rising up the rankings.

For many years the top 32 players in the world were exempt until the last 64 stage, where they usually had to win one, sometimes two, matches to reach the televised phase of ranking events.

This changed around a decade ago after pressure from broadcasters who found several top players were missing from line-ups of tournaments that they (the broadcasters) were effectively bankrolling.

So it was that the top 16 became exempt until the last 32. The knock-on effect of this has been a labyrinthine qualifying system which has arguably made it harder for players to come through, creating stagnation in the game.

Hearn’s argument is that players should not be seeded through to the final stages but earn their place. Top players would doubtless say they have already earned their place by securing such a high ranking.

However, although there is qualifying for Wimbledon, Federer and Nadal don’t get put through to the last 32, they start in the last 128 with everyone else.

The difference, though, is that Wimbledon is televised from this point. For the World Championship to be run along the same lines it would need to be played in a much bigger venue and have its matches dramatically shortened, neither of which would be popular with players or fans.

What has been interesting about the PTCs, certainly the televised ones, is that the top players invariably come through and win. I think this would still happen under Hearn’s radical plan, but many would also fall by the wayside.

This would help new faces emerge but could equally lead to a situation where the general viewer doesn’t really recognise anyone due to there being so many different faces on their TV screens.

A player’s perspective on all this will of course depend on where they are ranked. A top 16 player would, I suspect, be appalled by the prospect. Those further down the list would be more likely to relish it, although the idea of playing Judd Trump in the last 128 isn’t really one to punch the air about.

I think Hearn will find it difficult to persuade broadcasters of this shift, regardless of its merits.

If you are paying millions for the right to show a tournament you also have the right to expect the elements which draw in viewers and – like it or not – that includes star names.

But that is not to say the system cannot be altered to reflect these changing times. Perhaps a couple of ranking events should be played like this, preferably all at the venue with no need for qualifying at all.

FORD MOTORS TO PTC TITLE

Tom Ford won his second PTC title and the first on television with his 4-3 defeat of Martin Gould in the 11th tournament of the series in Sheffield last night.

It wasn’t a great final but it was a confidence boosting achievement by Ford, a player who has long threatened to break through in a big tournament.

In fact he has nurdled his way up into the top 32, a position he has consolidated with wins in the qualifiers and now has the PTC grand finals to look forward to.

Ford beat Judd Trump and Graeme Dott en route to the final and in the end he finished off well in the decider.

There were the usual online sneers and snipes at the event from people whose main contribution to the sport seems to be to run it down and look only for negatives.

Yes, it was a rather low key affair but it was never originally intended to be played in Sheffield. It was a fallback which ensured television coverage.

And Eurosport’s figures on Saturday were extremely high, which proves that there is a great appetite for any sort of snooker and that the more tournaments that are shown, the more this appetite remains.

Trump is bringing people to the sport, of that there is no doubt. Whenever he plays the figures go up.

But it also seems to be true that viewers want to watch snooker and that who is playing does not necessarily matter.

This has been one of the positives of the PTCs: it has illustrated the strength in depth which exists in the game.

Ford was not among the favourites at the start of play but he took his chance and well done to him.

MAXIMUM EFFORT

When Mike Dunn made his maximum break in the German Masters qualifiers a few weeks ago I wrote of how relatively rare this feat still is.

Dunn's was the 79th 147 on the official list. Yesterday Ding Junhui made the 84th.

It was his second in just three days and last night against Stephen Hendry he seemed determined to make another.

This was a risky strategy but it ultimately made no difference as Ding won 4-2. Perhaps he had just got the bug but he could only have split the £500 with himself.

There will be more maximums very soon, of that I have no doubt. The players are playing more often and are thus sharper. In the PTCs they tend to play a more open game.

But what is rarely said is how good the conditions are. These superfine cloths are conducive to heavy scoring.

With the old heavier balls and thicker cloths such feats of break-building would be more difficult, but the game has changed and is more attacking.

Standards rise in all sports. They have in snooker in that more players are now producing high quality stuff.

There have now been 42 maximums on television. This is still not all that many but, obviously, can only increase.

BACK TO SHEFFIELD

After the brilliant UK Championship this week’s PTC action is not so much after the lord mayor’s show as after the show that follows the lord mayor’s show.

It will difficult, for instance, for Judd Trump to get himself into the same frame of mind as he experienced in York.

But it is the chance for someone to earn a £10,000 Christmas bonus in Sheffield. That’s in PTC11 at the weekend. First today comes the reduction of the field for PTC12 down to the last 16, which will be played in Germany next month.

And there are of course rankings issues to be decided in both these events. The main intrigue surrounds Ronnie O’Sullivan, who can lose his top 16 place if a combination of Stephen Lee, Mark Davis and Ricky Walden do well.

O’Sullivan has himself done well in PTCs this season and, having already qualified for the grand finals, has not entered the last two, but this has turned out to be a big risk.

The new ranking system does not offer the old protections but O’Sullivan would have been in trouble under any system: from seven major tournaments last season he lost in three first rounds and didn’t play in two other events.

No objective person could argue that he isn’t good enough to be in the top 16 but it is only by playing – and winning matches – that any player will keep their place.

You can follow the various rankings machinations at this excellent rundown at Pro Snooker Blog, whose commitment to this cause is exemplary.

PTC11 is live on Eurosport from Saturday.

NAUGHTY BUT NICE

Judd Trump is the latest star to shine in snooker’s glittering firmament but for all the attention cuemen such as he attracts the test of a player is what they achieve on the table.

Trump’s performance today in winning the williamhill.com UK Championship was at times breathtaking. His shot-making, flair and courage under pressure mark him out as the standard bearer for the new era.

He has helped get people talking about snooker again. Who could fail to be entertained by the way he plays the game?

Nobody can say for sure who will win the World Championship. The example of Jimmy White tells us this.

What we can say is that Trump will go to the Crucible next spring as one of the big favourites to land the greatest prize of them all. That he is good enough to is not in doubt.

I first saw him play when he was ten. He won the English under 15 national title at Gateshead and needed the rest for every other shot.

The following day he lost in the English under 13 final and took it badly. This was a good early sign. Even at that age snooker clearly mattered. This was not just a hobby.

When he was 13 I saw him beat Mike Hallett 4-1 to win the spring Open at Pontin’s in Prestatyn.

I suspect he remains the only winner of this huge pro-am to celebrate by going on the swings.

I knew then that he was special. It wasn’t just his talent. There was something in his manner. He was dedicated and seemed to believe in himself. He wasn’t going to be the type to waste what he had.

Much of this is of course down to his family. His father Steve drove young Judd up and down the motorways of the UK every weekend to junior tournaments, in particular those organised by Malcolm Thorne in the East Midlands.

They enabled Trump to improve and get used to competition snooker. He formed friendships and rivalries with players he would encounter in time on the professional circuit.

I never doubted he would make an impact as a pro, but the year he has had has been beyond all expectations.

What has impressed me is the way he has developed his all round game. He has good tactical knowledge, as he displayed in winning the China Open, and is comfortable on the big stage, not shrinking from the limelight but embracing it.

Like most players he suffered some early setbacks on the main tour. The free flowing snooker he had always played was in short supply in the qualifiers, where hard-as-nails seasoned players kept him glued to the back cushion and frustrated him.

It was an apprenticeship all players must serve but led some to question whether he had been over-hyped.

In fact, Trump developed at his own pace. He enjoyed good practice facilities at Keynsham Snooker Centre and support from Derek Curnow but, like many of his age, wanted to reach out on his own.

He moved to Romford where he practises at The Grove and shares a house with Jack Lisowski.

He could not have chosen a better sparring partner than Jack, a level-headed young man dedicated to his snooker.

The image of the ‘playboys’ is mainly ironic. I’m sure they do enjoy themselves – as they should – but snooker clearly comes first.

But he has overcome his early shyness and developed into a confident talker, at ease with the media and their growing demands.

Judd seems to have good people around him. It will be hard not to let some of the attention and adoration go to his head, but in my experience a snooker club is a place where you will soon be given a reality check if you start believing your own publicity.

The tabloids will have their fun with him but the truth about Trump is that he is a nice young man, close to his family, who enjoys playing snooker.

And he is unbelievably good at it.

That Mark Allen could play as well as he did, making four centuries and still losing, shows how impressive a display it was.

With success comes negatives too. He will inevitably invite jealousy, carping about minor things, judgements from those who have never met him, hangers-on and those who want a piece of him for the wrong reasons. But the positives far outweigh all this. He is inspiring people who may have drifted away from snooker or never much been interested before.

The best part of it is this: if Trump’s professional career were a day it would still be morning.

There is still so much more to accomplish.

TRUMP V ALLEN FOR UK TITLE

Today’s williamhill.com UK Championship final pits two young, exciting, attacking players against each other in a fitting climax to a brilliant tournament.

Judd Trump has been joined in the final by Mark Allen, who displayed poise, purpose and great sportsmanship last night in beating Ricky Walden 9-7.

The irony of Allen’s comments about Barry Hearn is that he is exactly the sort of player Hearn is looking for to take the game forward.

He has terrific skill and like those other Northern Irish ranking event finalists – Alex Higgins, Dennis Taylor and Joe Swail – is a fighter.

He also has something about him as a person. I was impressed by his behaviour last night when he queried whether a red apparently moved by the referee had been pottable in its original position.

Allen was certainly used to winning before turning professional, which is one of the reasons he made such an immediate impact.

Allen captured the Northern Irish amateur title at every age level and went on to win the European junior title, European amateur championship and IBSF world amateur championship.

In his first match on TV he beat Steve Davis as a wildcard for the 2005 Northern Ireland Trophy. The next day he beat John Higgins.

He has always believed in himself and relishes competition but does not seem to enjoy the life of a professional.

I get the feeling Allen loves playing in big matches, it’s the slog of the circuit he dislikes.

He was reportedly unable to get on the plane to China last season for the Hainan Classic invitation tournament. This led to treatment for depression.

He seems happier now. Terry Griffiths is in his corner, which is a positive, and he has every reason to believe he can capture his first major title today.

Trump of course will be very difficult to beat. I don’t think he has played quite as well as he did at the Crucible but he has demonstrated fine battling qualities alongside his wonderful shot-making.

He really does seem to love everything about life as a pro. He also understands that being a snooker player is about more than just playing. Trump entertains. He interacts with fans on social media. He is a star.

He has had a fine year and it can end on a real high with him joining the list of greats on the UK Championship roll of honour.

This final could be a hard-hat area the way these two play; a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it parade of audacious potting and big breaks.

It promises to be a pulsating end to what has been a memorable week in York.

JUST 17

We were reminded last night as to why best of 17s have been so popular.

The standard of the Judd Trump-Neil Robertson semi-final wasn't always the highest but the drama quotient was off the scale.

Credit to Trump for his bottle in the last frame as he avoided a doubtlessly nervy decider. I'm not sure if this was naughty snooker but it was certainly entertaining, not least because the length of match allowed the drama to build through the day.

Today's semi-final pits Mark Allen against Ricky Walden.

Allen is appearing in his sixth ranking event semi and is still yet to win one. Walden is through to his first major semi-final since he won the 2008 Shanghai Masters.

It seems to me Ricky plays better against top players, possibly because he knows that he has to.

When he won in Shanghai he beat Stephen Hendry, Robertson, Steve Davis, Mark Selby and Ronnie O'Sullivan.

This week he has already done for Stephen Lee, Mark Williams and Shaun Murphy and has at times cued superbly.

Confidence is obviously a very important component in snooker. Walden has been in a PTC final, made a 147 and generally grafted out some encouraging results below the radar. He has brought these positives to York.

Allen won everything he could as an amateur and I've never been in any doubt that he will be a winner of major titles as a professional.

He possesses great talent but also great heart. He's a fighter and it's surely only a matter of time before he breaks his semi-final hoodoo.

I think this could be another close match. I hope so. We've seen a terrific tournament already and it deserves an exciting denouement.

BATTLE OF THE LEFTIES

Good news folks - the best of 17 UK Championship starts here!

And what a great first semi-final, pitting Neil Robertson against Judd Trump, a battle of the left-handers.

They met of course on the first day of last season's World Championship but that was an entirely different scenario. Robertson was under massive pressure as a first time defending champion and Trump was full of confidence after winning the China Open.

Trump should still be full of confidence after his three centuries yesterday against Stephen Maguire. This was his brand of 'naughty snooker' which I suppose is a bit like sexy football in that you know it when you see it.

Robertson looked very relaxed against Ding Junhui and is having a good, solid season of it so far.

He has the long potting prowess of Trump but is generally more measured. It may all come down to the extent to which young Trump pushes the boat out and how successful he is at this strategy.

He will surely be right to play his natural game and to his own strengths.

Robertson is a big occasion player. He has never lost a TV final from the eight played and this will feel like one: 17 frames in a one table setting against an exciting talent such as Trump.

The stage is set for a potential classic, and the good news is that we get two sessions of it.

Ricky Walden's great run continues and if he wins the title he is in line for a Masters wildcard, as it was stipulated a qualifier would get an invite to the game's leading invitation event if they landed the UK crown.

Mark Allen produced a brilliant finish in a tense and absorbing contest against Marco Fu to reach the sixth ranking event semi-final of his career.

He plays Walden on Saturday in what represents a big chance for a player with a lower profile than many in the game to earn a place in one of snooker's showpiece occasions.

CLOSE QUARTERS

So we're down to the last eight of the williamhill.com UK Championship at the Barbican Centre in York and the race for the title is still wide open.

Judd Trump, still standing despite a couple of scares, faces Stephen Maguire, who has at times looked superb.

Neil Robertson and Ding Junhui, the game's two outstanding non-British players, clash cues in what could be a terrific battle.

Ricky Walden is through to only his third major quarter-final since he won the 2008 Shanghai Masters and tackles Shaun Murphy, much relieved to beat Martin Gould 6-4 from 5-0 yesterday.

Mark Allen played very well to see off Ali Carter and Marco Fu finished strongly against Mark Selby, who must have been disappointed by his performance.

Carter didn't take the defeat well. He announced his retirement on twitter, effective from the end of the season.

I've heard too many players say they will retire over the years to take this deadly seriously as the vast majority never do.

Most probably want to but what else will they do? In Carter's case, of course, he could fly planes but I suspect when the disappointment subsides he will have a rethink.

The huge numbers of people who have been watching at the Barbican are interested in the snooker but nothing gets a sport wider media coverage like a good old fashioned ruck.

The Allen-Barry Hearn rumpus is rumbling on in frankly hilarious fashion. Hearn calling the Northern Irishman a 'silly little boy' and Allen responding by wearing a gag to his post match press conference last night.

This is all essentially flim-flam but you'll have noticed the newspapers are full of this every day.

Speaking of which, Mark Williams was tweeting between frames yesterday, a practice which will no doubt be banned on the basis that it runs the risk of people enjoying themselves.

Mark's tweets were pretty ripe but they made me laugh because I could imagine him saying them out loud.

We should accept the players for the people they are, rather than trying to mould them into a series of dull clones.

Yes, the corporate image of snooker is important but if we cry out for 'personalities' we shouldn't deride the players for showing some.

WEDNESDAY IN YORK

The Judd Trump-Ronnie O'Sullivan match lived up to its billing with a wonderful afternoon's entertainment.

It seems whenever these two meet there simply aren't enough frames to savour the majestic potting, break-building and drama they serve up between them.

O'Sullivan was unlucky to suffer that kick in the deciding frame because it looked like we were heading for a re-spot finish.

Afterwards there was another retirement threat from O'Sullivan, who first said he would quit the game after losing to Ken Doherty in the 1994 UK Championship quarter-finals at the age of 18.

I've heard it many times since but one thing I would say is that whenever Ronnie has said it, I think he has believed it.

He may well want to walk away but perhaps the fear is this: if he does quit and still doesn't find what he's looking for without snooker, what then?

He talked about the lonely life on the snooker circuit, which it certainly can be. After the best part of 20 years slogging around I can well understand why Ronnie isn't looking forward to more of the same.

Something tells me he won't be short of offers as he searches for a partner, though.

Trump has ridden his luck this week - as often happens to players who end up winning the title.

The same could be said for Ding Junhui, who survived a second successive deciding frame finish to see off Matthew Stevens, who was nicely in during the last but missed a black off its spot.

At night, John Higgins didn't look his old self but Stephen Maguire was superb in building a 5-1 lead. Higgins started to come back at him but Maguire held on well to win 6-4.

It's about time he won another major title. His last was three and a half years ago but Maguire looks highly tuned in this week.

Neil Robertson is having a cracking season and did for Graeme Dott 6-3 in last night's other match.

The second round is completed today. Mark Williams stuttered against Joe Jogia and faces in Ricky Walden a player who has seen his confidence return.

Shaun Murphy will have to contain Martin Gould, for whom confidence is at an all time high having joined the top 16 and won £25,000 in the recent Power Snooker.

Mark Selby will be favourite against Marco Fu but Ali Carter v Mark Allen is harder to call.

Meanwhile all the off-table nonsense continues to swirl around. Mark Allen has been reported to the WPBSA's disciplinary committee following his outburst on Monday, not for his comments but for the language he used.

If every player who swore in press conferences, interviews or on social media was fined then World Snooker could fund at least one full ranking event.

And I'm always a little wary of the old catch-all charge 'bringing the game into disrepute.'

I've been waiting years for someone to bring snooker into repute.

DAY OF CHAMPIONS

Another very interesting day in York has left us with a stellar line up for the williamhill.com UK Championship.

Judd Trump looked vulnerable against Dominic Dale, who played good match snooker to build a 4-2 lead before Trump enjoyed some outrageous good fortune on the way to winning 6-4.

In frame seven he had two flukes, including a ludicrous one on a pink, which helped turn the match. There seem to have been more timely flukes in this tournament than any other all year.

It sets up a mouth-watering encounter today with Ronnie O’Sullivan, just one of many seriously enticing second round matches at the Barbican Centre.

Ding Junhui struggled in the first round against Mark Davis but has a good record against Matthew Stevens, who scored heavily in beating Marcus Campbell on Saturday night.

Neil Robertson beat Graeme Dott in the 2010 World Championship final, which dragged on until close to 1am. The good news this time is that neither will be knackered after 17 days of snooker and their contest could be a thriller.

The same goes for John Higgins’s match against his fellow Scot, Stephen Maguire, who has a good record in this event and is capable of matching Higgins in the hard snooker stakes.

So today features eight players who between them have won 11 UK titles and nine world titles.

Mark Williams is probably glad of a day off after almost buckling last night against Joe Jogia.

The key word here is almost. Williams came through in the end, much to the delight of the legions of people who seemed to have backed various accumulators of which his match was the last.

Williams often does this: plays patchy stuff early in a tournament and then gets better and better. He’s still wonderful to watch when he’s playing his best and still a real dangerman for the title.

The venue has been packed out and the tournament is proving so popular that extra tickets have been released to meet demand.

But this is snooker and therefore it wouldn’t be right if someone hadn’t had a bleat up about something.

Yesterday it was the turn of Mark Allen, who expressed the view that Barry Hearn is ruining the sport and should go.

I don’t know Allen or profess to know what he wants from the game but I’ve been working in snooker for 14 years and there has never been a time when all the players have been happy.

There are either too few tournaments or too many. They are either too long or too short. There are either too many in the UK or too many abroad. The calendar is either too spaced out or too hectic. The top players are either getting too much money or should get more. It’s either unfair that all the matches aren’t on TV or unfair that the matches aren’t longer and played in cubicles.

And so on and so on and so on.

By the way, this isn’t limited to the players. On my very first day in the media centre I witnessed two seasoned journalists arguing about who had the best chair.

It taught me well and I have moaned about pretty much everything ever since, the main difference being that, quite rightly, nobody pays any attention to what I say and that I know a good thing when I see it.

Allen said that Hearn was making snooker too much like darts, with drunks shouting out. In fact, this has only happened at the Shootout – a huge rater for Sky – and Power Snooker, an independent promotion which Allen will presumably not be playing in again.

Hearn has not done himself any favours by being so publically dismissive of the players but they claimed they wanted more tournaments and he is working very hard to provide them.

If certain players worked as hard at their games and being professional in every sense of the word they may be more successful.

The main problem is that snooker players aren’t used to be being told what to do. Previously if they didn’t like the guy in charge they voted him out and replaced him with someone else, who they also then voted out before repeating the process over and over again until almost every potential sponsor had lost interest.

That was the environment that led to Hearn taking full control of the sport, without any prospect of being ejected. If the players had run the game properly there would have been no need to turn to him in the first place.

Anyway, all that is a sideshow. We have a fascinating tournament in progress and this is all the general public is interested in.

And there is much to grab their interest in York this week.

SEEDS FAIL TO SCATTER

It was another day of terrific entertainment at the Barbican in York as the williamhill.com UK Championship once again provided value for money.

Mark Selby did for Ryan Day in no time at all, winning an edgy first frame and then motoring as Day struggled.

Ronnie O’Sullivan played some sublime stuff in dispatching legend Steve Davis 6-1, potting a yellow in one frame with the cue ball in the jaws of a baulk corner pocket which had to be seen to be believed.

The first, and so far only, top 16 casualty was Stuart Bingham, beaten 6-4 by Marco Fu. The key frame here was the sixth in which Fu was called for a foul when leading by 61 with 59 on, meaning Bingham could win.

The Aussie Open champ set about clearing up but lost prime position from green to brown, missed the brown and a grateful Fu made it 3-3.

Buoyed by confidence, he went for his shots and his eventual victory was not a huge upset given his record.

Ali Carter v Robert Milkins wasn’t great fare but victory clearly meant a lot to Carter. At night, Martin Gould came through against Peter Lines and Shaun Murphy survived a bit of a mid match scare against an obviously promising Li Yan.

The first round concludes today. Centre stage in the afternoon session are Judd Trump and Dominic Dale, who will be hoping to continue the recent form he showed in reaching the final of PTC10.

Mark Allen would be expected to come through against Adrian Gunnell, as would Mark Williams against Joe Jogia.

However, Stephen Lee’s match with Ricky Walden could well be much closer. Walden looks to have come back into form and, like Fu beating Bingham, it would not be a big shock if he triumphed.

Crowd support has been terrific, although some people have commented on the Barbican’s squeaky stairs.

Off table noise is always a bone of contention in snooker because it is quiet most of the time.

There was once a match at the Crucible where an elderly couple were sat in the front row, the wife eating a bag of sweets.

It led the late, great referee, John Street, to turn to the husband and remark: ‘Sir, could you please keep that bag quiet.’

Thankfully no offence was taken.