PAUL MEDATI

Paul Medati, a professional from 1981 to 1995, has died of cancer at the age of 64.

Medati reached a highest ranking of 58th in 1986 and beat the likes of John Parrott, John Spencer and Dean Reynolds during his career.

He was part of the thriving Lancashire snooker scene of the 1970s/80s that was home to Spencer, John Virgo, Alex Higgins and Dennis Taylor.

He never reached a ranking tournament quarter-final but appeared in the last 16 of the 1983 UK Championship.

In more recent times Medati played on the GB9-ball pool circuit.

BABY TALK

Congratulations to Graeme Dott who has become a father for the second time after his wife, Elaine, gave birth to Lucy, a sister for four year-old Lewis, on Thursday.

ENTER THE CENTURIONS

The old maxim goes that a century only wins you one frame.

This is true but centuries are a very good indicator of form, as proved by the list below which includes centuries for all ranking and professional tournaments played so far.

It is no great surprise that that century machine Ronnie O’Sullivan is out in front. He compiled 50 tons last season and has every chance of making around the same number again (Stephen Hendry holds the record with 52).

Hendry himself has already made seven this season, which reaches its half way point at the UK Championship.

Among those yet to make one this season are Mark King, Ken Doherty and Steve Davis.

CENTURIES SO FAR THIS SEASON
15
Ronnie O’Sullivan

10
Mark Selby

9
Ricky Walden

8
Liang Wenbo

7
Ryan Day, Stephen Hendry, Ding Junhui, Judd Trump

6
Stephen Maguire, John Higgins, Joe Perry, Tom Ford

5
Mark Allen, Peter Ebdon, Ali Carter, Matthew Stevens, Michael Holt, Robert Milkins, Andy Hicks, James McBain

MOUNTJOY'S MOMENT IN TIME

It is 20 years to the day since Doug Mountjoy won his second UK Championship title in what is one of the most heartwarming tales in snooker's rich, compelling history.

Mountjoy was one of snooker’s greatest names of the late 1970s/early 1980s but like all the other players of this era had a life long before turning pro.

Snooker was run like a gentleman’s club in the 70s. To become a professional you had to be invited by the other members, not all of whom particularly wanted talented amateurs muscling in on their patch.

Mountjoy could not walk out of school and on to the circuit in the way players of this era have done. He worked as a miner in the coal valleys of South Wales and played snooker in the evenings.

Already twice Welsh amateur champion, in 1976 he won the World amateur crown and was accepted into the pro ranks. He made an immediate impact, winning the Masters at his first attempt.

In 1978 he won the UK title. Three years later he reached the world final at the Crucible where Steve Davis beat him 18-12. He spent 11 successive years in the elite top 16.

But by 1988 Mountjoy seemed a spent force. He was beaten 13-1 by Neal Foulds in the second round of the World Championship and fell to 24th in the world rankings.

At the age of 46 it appeared as if the only way was down.

Desperate to stave off decline, Mountjoy sought out Frank Callan, a former fishmonger from Blackpool who had gained a reputation as one of the sport’s leading coaches.

Callan took Mountjoy’s technique apart and rebuilt it. This was high risk but rewards were immediate. Mountjoy beat Stephen Hendry, the defending champion, at the Grand Prix and began to feel better about his game.

Even so, nobody gave him a chance at Preston Guild Hall, the venue for the UK Championship in what nostalgics may term the good old days.

Mountjoy beat Foulds 9-5 and former world champion Joe Johnson 9-5 before edging John Virgo 9-8 having led him 8-3.

He was so relaxed against Terry Griffiths in the semi-finals that he went to sleep in his dressing room in the interval.

The final against Hendry was very much the old versus the new. The young gun was widely expected to beat the veteran.

Yet from 7-7 after the first day Mountjoy won all seven frames of the third session.

It is fashionable now to pretend that nobody could really play 20 years ago but at one stage he compiled three successive centuries.

At 15-7 he had it won. At 15-12 it was getting sticky but Mountjoy duly completed an emotional 16-12 victory and dedicated it to Callan.

Even more remarkably he went on to win the next ranking title, the Mercantile Classic in Blackpool, and would rise to his highest ever ranking, fifth.

The financial rewards from this golden run of success should have set Mountjoy up for life but he was badly ripped off by a manager.

Worse still, he had a lung removed after developing a tumour and his career hastened to an end in 1997.

Mountjoy went out to Dubai to coach and continued in a coaching role on his return to Wales.

He still plays from time to time in the CIU Championship, a tournament for working men’s clubs, very much back to his roots.

It’s sad that Mountjoy endured an uncomfortable time after his renaissance but he was from a generation that was grateful to have made a living from playing snooker and never forgot what life was like before there was a televised professional circuit.

He was a key character in the soap opera that was the UK snooker boom and, 20 years ago, he authored one of the most memorable of all the many stories that have kept so many engrossed in this great game.

TRUMP ON HIS WAY TO WEMBLEY

Judd Trump, 19, will become the 11th teenager to compete in the final stages of the Wembley Masters in the tournament’s 35-year history after beating Mark Joyce 6-1 in the qualifying final in Sheffield today.

Trump, an outstanding junior, turned professional in 2005 but has come of age this season, qualifying for the final stages of the first four ranking events and beating Ronnie O’Sullivan on the way to the semi-finals of the Grand Prix.

He used to be very shy but seems now to relish the limelight and there’s no doubt he possesses a fierce talent.

His match against Mark Allen or Mark King at Wembley Arena in January should be one to savour.

The other wildcard will be announced soon with Ricky Walden, the Shanghai Masters champion, the obvious candidate.

RE: JOYCE

The final of the Masters qualifying tournament is between Judd Trump and Mark Joyce.

Most snooker fans know all about Trump by now but what of Joyce?

He hones his talent at the Masters Snooker Club in Walsall, the former practice base of ex-top 16 stars Martin Clark and Alain Robidoux.

Joyce attended a grammar school, which is itself unusual for players of a sport not renowned for their academic application (indeed it used to be said that prowess at snooker was the sign of a misspent youth).

He first rose to prominence when he won the European under 19 title in 2001 at the age of 17.

In 2006, Joyce won the English Amateur Championship, the oldest title in snooker, and after a good run on the PIOS was promoted to the professional ranks.

In his first season he managed to stay on, which is about as much as a rookie can hope for. He had been helped by Robin Hull’s withdrawal from the World Championship, which gave Joyce a walkover into the last 64 and, of course, a lot of ranking points.

Last season, he secured a television debut against Ronnie O’Sullivan at the Royal London Watches Grand Prix. He lost 4-0 but the ranking points helped him improve from 73rd to 59th in the standings.

He also lives about a mile from me. The West Midlands has long been a snooker hotbed and it’s good to have another player from the region doing well after Clark (from Sedgley) and Steve James (Cannock), both of whom are long since retired.

APATHY THE WINNER AT AGM

Sir Rodney Walker has been re-elected chairman of the WPBSA.

Of course he has. Nobody stood against him or the other directors – Sir David Richards, Hamish McInnes, Peter Ebdon and Lee Doyle – up for re-election at today’s AGM in Sheffield.

The official press release stated that Walker had received the backing of 91.3% of the players.

This sounds impressive but is deliberately misleading.

From an electorate of around 75, only 23 could be bothered to vote. Walker, Richards, McInnes and Doyle each received 21 votes for with two against. Ebdon received 17 votes for with six against.

The board themselves can vote and it is safe to assume Doyle, the chief executive of 110sport, brought in votes from his own players, 11 of whom are eligible to vote.

Therefore, apathy has clearly reigned among the ordinary membership.

Walker has deduced from this that the players are happy with how he is running snooker.

“As a sport we have moved on to a strong and secure footing within the past five years. There are now new challenges which lie ahead, but I am glad that the players have shown today that they would like me to continue to lead snooker as we face these challenges,” he said.

Actually, he received fewer than 30% support from those eligible to vote, although there is even less enthusiasm in removing him.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Are you a former professional snooker player?

Do you know any ex-pro players?

Snooker Scene is interested in tracking down those who have competed on the circuit to find out what they are up to these days.

We were inspired by looking through some back issues and wondering out loud what had happened to all the names in front of us.

We're not really after big names - as their whereabouts are known - but players who had their moments, who played on TV or at the Crucible or had a couple of big wins.

Please get in touch at snookersceneblog@aol.com

STICKS AND STONES...

If Neil Robertson made one mistake last season it was reading what other people thought of him.

Natural human curiosity of course leads public figures to venture on to the internet to see what is being said about them.

Neil read a couple of snooker forums where he was being roundly insulted.

He told me: “People said some things that don’t have anything to do with sport. They don’t understand what it takes to compete at the highest level.

“I shouldn’t have let it affect me but it did because I was struggling a lot last season.

“They were saying that my career was over and that they’d never see me again and I’d never win a tournament again.

“They said I was lucky to win the tournaments I had. I took it to heart when I shouldn’t have done.”

On the web it is easy to insult people behind the cloak of anonymity. In my experience, the people who do this are usually the last to repeat it in person.

If anyone wants to say anything to Neil's face they can do so in Telford tomorrow.

While it is perfectly acceptable to hold strong opinions, it is also worth remembering that not everyone has a thick skin and can shrug off unpleasant comments, especially when they are struggling for confidence, as Neil was last season.

Neil was also described this week as a ‘cocky Aussie’ by one newspaper – ironically owned by an Australian – because he made some comments about the great champions in sport not failing at the last. He wasn’t comparing himself to Roger Federer and co but this was how his remarks were interpreted.

My advice to him is to unplug his computer.

DAVIS GETS HIS POINTS

Steve Davis has received 1,900 last 16 losers points from the Bahrain Championship and Ronnie O'Sullivan 700 points for losing in the opening round.

Both players withdrew from the tournament with medical certificates.

Davis had been due to play O'Sullivan in the last 32.

It makes little difference to O'Sullivan either way because he's so far ahead at the top but Davis now rises five places to 22nd.

My opinion is that World Snooker has done the right thing. Davis withdrew when he had already been put through to the last 16.

Also, although there is natural scepticism regarding the Premier League situation, you can't disprove a doctor's note.

NEW DAD DOTT A NON-STARTER IN MOSCOW

Graeme Dott has withdrawn from this weekend’s leg of the World Series of Snooker in Moscow because his wife, Elaine, is due to give birth at any moment.

Dott, the 2006 world champion, won the Berlin stage of the new competition in July and was due to play Russian hopeful Sergey Vasilev.

“I’m disappointed not to be going to Moscow with the rest of the lads but at the same time I’m just excited that I'm going to be a dad again,” said Dott, who has a four year-old son, Lewis.

“The baby was due last Saturday so it could happen any minute now. It’s the waiting for Elaine and myself that is the hardest part.

“I was looking forward to Moscow having won in Berlin which was amazing, playing in front of the best crowd I’ve ever experienced. But right now my priority is my family.”

The World Series event in Moscow will be the first professional snooker tournament staged in the Russian capital.

It features twice world champion John Higgins, world no.4 Mark Selby and Chinese star Ding Junhui.

“We’ll all miss Graeme in Moscow but will have our glasses charged and ready to toast the new arrival in the Dott family,” said Pat Mooney, chief executive of World Series organisers FSTC management.

“There is nothing more important than Graeme, his wife and the good health of their baby.

“His withdrawal obviously means there is now an opening in the draw and we are working to bring in someone to fill that gap.

“It’s not going to be a problem because players are jumping at the chance to join the World Series.”

The Moscow event is not being televised on Eurosport because of problems related to obtaining the necessary documentation for techinical equipment required for broadcast.

The Grand Finals of the World Series will be staged at the Kremlin next March.

WORLD SERIES OF SNOOKER: MOSCOW
November 22/23

First round matches
John Higgins (Sco) v Antn Ryabinin (Rus)
TBA v Sergey Vasiliev (Rus)
Mark Selby (Eng) v Ruslan Chinakhov (Rus)
Ding Junhui (Chn) v Sergey Isaenko (Rus)

SPA WRITES TO PLAYERS

The newly formed Snooker Players' Association (SPA) has sent letters to players throughout the ranks inviting them to become members.

The SPA would effectively be a players' union in the same way the PFA is in English football.

A copy of the letter and further details can be found here.

HALF TERM REPORT: 9-16

As promised, here is part two of my half term report, this time focusing on the players ranked 9-16.

Incidentally, the irony of someone with a pretty poor academic record doing this isn't lost on me...

PETER EBDON: E (started 9th, now 19th)
Peter is danger of following the likes of Ken Doherty and Mark Williams out of the top 16 after a desperately disappointing start to the campaign in which he has only won one match. He has traditionally struggled in best of nine frame events so needs a vast improvement in the World and UK Championships to arrest his decline.

In truth, he hasn’t played really well for quite a while and this itself must be a worry for him. Only a really big performance now is going to prevent relegation.

NEIL ROBERTSON: B (started 10th, now 14th)
Although Neil has slipped a bit compared to his official ranking, by winning in Bahrain he has taken an important step towards safeguarding his place in the elite top 16 for a fourth successive season.

He struggled early on and lost a couple of close matches so he badly needed an injection of confidence in Manama and that’s what he got, particularly in beating Stephen Maguire in the quarter-finals. Now that he’s pulled himself out of this mini-slump the only way is up for the Aussie.

DING JUNHUI: D (started 11th, now 16th)
Ding was all smiles after winning the Jiangsu Classic and Warsaw leg of the World Series but neither of these tournaments carried ranking points and he heads into the second half of the season fighting for his top 16 place. It would be a major blow to him – and a sport increasingly relying on the Chinese market – were he to lose it.

Missing Bahrain was not Ding’s fault but one quarter-final from the other three tournaments will be disappointing for a player who won three ranking titles while still a teenager. The rest of this season serves as a test of character for a great talent whose temperament does not appear to be as strong as many of snooker’s other top stars.

JOE PERRY: C- (started 12th, now 7th)
Joe has consolidated his place in the top 16 and is well placed to finish the season inside the top eight for the first time in his 16-year professional career. However, having reached the World Championship semi-finals last season he will be disappointed with four last 16 finishes so far this campaign.

In fairness, he’s not had the best of draws – running into Ronnie O’Sullivan twice and Stephen Maguire once. Joe has impressed on his Premier League debut but will be hoping for better in this season’s remaining ranking events.

GRAEME DOTT: E (started 13th, now 48th)
Graeme’s rapid decline has been hastened by breaking his wrist in Shanghai, so his grade is a little harsh. Nevertheless, he went to the 2007 World Championship as provisional world no.1 and may start next season needing to win three matches to qualify for the Crucible.

His form did pick up a little in Bahrain but he still suffered another first round exit. Graeme has always been a fighter and he needs those qualities more than ever if he is to avoid disappearing off the radar completely.

MARCO FU: D+ (started 14th, now 9th)
Marco has risen from his official starting place but this is largely down to winning the Grand Prix last season. Two first round defeats and one quarter-final isn’t much to write home about for a player enjoying his highest ever ranking.

I don’t think Marco will drop out of the top 16 but it’s alarming how often he goes to tournaments and just doesn’t perform. We all know how good he is when he’s playing well but he doesn’t seem able to scrap through matches like a lot of players not on top form.

MARK KING: D- (started 15th, now 21st)
One victory in four ranking tournaments means Mark has been unable to make the most of his return to the top 16 and he is now battling to stay in the elite group for another year.

He is a player capable of beating anyone, indeed he has beaten all of the top players at one time or another, but simply hasn’t played well enough this season.

MARK ALLEN: C+ (started 16th, now 11th)
Mark has a semi-final and quarter-final to his name this season but also two first round defeats. Despite these, he is looking good to remain in the top 16 for a second straight season.

A lot of players who get into the top 16 find it tough to adjust to life as one of the elite. Mark is unlikely to be one of them because he’s always had so much self confidence. If he won a title in the second half of the campaign I wouldn’t be in the least bit surprised.

HALF TERM REPORT: THE TOP EIGHT

I’m told it is now unlikely the Malta Cup will be on as a ranking event this season (I hope this information is wrong), which means we are now halfway through the ranking tournament campaign.

So donning my imaginary schoolmaster’s cloak and hat (do they still wear these?) it’s time for a half term report on the game’s top players.

I’m starting with the top eight in the official rankings. You’ll see I’ve laboured the school analogy to the point of awarding grades for performances so far this season.

Tomorrow, I’ll look at those ranked 9-16 and then on Thursday some other players.

RONNIE O’SULLIVAN: A- (started 1st, now 1st)
Ronnie didn’t play at his very best to win the Northern Ireland Trophy but still showed flashes of the sort of genius only he is capable of. He made a break against Dave Harold where the balls had all been positioned awkwardly that had to be seen to be believed.

Ronnie seemed to get frustrated as the Shanghai Masters final went on and was inconsistent at the Grand Prix. Nevertheless, he has surely already done enough to keep his no.1 position at the end of the season.

STEPHEN MAGUIRE: C+ (started 2nd, now 2nd)
Stephen would have hoped for better than a semi-final and two quarter-finals from the first four events as, like any top player, he wants to be in finals and winning titles. However, his consistency has seen him consolidate second place in the rankings.

The big letdown was his performance in his native Glasgow, where he may have felt the pressure of trying to perform for family and friends. Even so, I expect him to kick-on for the rest of the season.

SHAUN MURPHY: E (started 3rd, now 6th)
Shaun has made a dreadful start to the campaign, which is very surprising bearing in mind his consistency over the last couple of years. Still without a win in a ranking event this season, he badly needs some results to get his confidence up.

Most, including me, would expect him to do so but we’ve seen so many great players sink like a stone in recent years that nothing is guaranteed. I hope Shaun pulls himself out of the slump because he’s always entertaining to watch when he’s on top form.

MARK SELBY: C- (started 4th, now 4th)
Mark was disadvantaged over the Bahrain/Premier League date clash but has still done enough to keep his top four place at the midway point in the season. Even so, there are a couple of worrying signs. He had Ricky Walden beaten at 4-1 in their Shanghai semi-final and played a strange shot on frame ball to give Ryan Day his chance to clear up in the last 16 of the Grand Prix.

But one of Mark’s great strengths is his general attitude and I expect him to shrug off this inconsistent start to the season and bounce back in the second half of the campaign.

JOHN HIGGINS: B+ (started 5th, now 8th)
Although John has gone down in the rankings, he was 14th provisionally at the start of the season so will be delighted to be back in the top eight at the halfway point. He was unable to play in Bahrain but won the Grand Prix and was a semi-finalist at the Northern Ireland Trophy.

The only worrying sign for fans of John is that his creditable commitment to the World Series means he is not able to give his game the attention some of the other players give theirs. Being so good, he can get away with this to an extent but it might catch up with him over the longer tournaments, ie the World and UK Championships.

STEPHEN HENDRY: C- (started 6th, now 10th)
Stephen salvaged his season, if not career, with his run to the semi-finals in Bahrain, in which he reminded us just what a great player he can be. The centuries were flying in again and at times he looked as good as in his heyday.

However, in the semis he reverted to the struggling player he looked in the first three tournaments. The test for him for the remainder of the season is to stave off the inevitable decline that comes to all players and keep his top eight place. I’d imagine Stephen would see anything else as a failure.

ALI CARTER: C+ (started 7th, now 5th)
Ali has improved tremendously over the last year because he now has the self belief to back up his obvious talent. Before last season’s World Championship he had only been in two ranking event semi-finals. He has now been in five.

He played superbly in the two semi-finals he was in this season before losing deciders but won’t be happy with two first round exits, in Shanghai and Bahrain. These have taken the shine off what has nevertheless been the most encouraging period of his career.

RYAN DAY: B+ (started 8th, now 3rd)
Ryan is now playing the best snooker of his career but I’m sure he would swap a little of the consistency for a title. He played the best snooker of the Grand Prix but came up short when it really mattered, in the final.

Still, he is up to third place in the provisional rankings with every reason to look forward to the rest of the season. In the class of 2008/09, Ryan is looking like one of the biggest dangermen.

NOW SELBY HAS HIS SAY

Mark Selby is the latest player to have his say over the Bahrain/Premier League scheduling mess and the need for tournaments in Europe, where the game is hugely popular.

His interview with the Eurosport website is here.

PRESSING ISSUES

This story on the media guardian website provides the background to a major fallout between the regular snooker press and World Snooker.

What follows is a long, somewhat self-regarding explanation of what it means and why it matters.

I fully accept that it will bore many of you to tears but this is an issue important for myself and my colleagues in the press room.

The Press Association is the UK’s national news agency and supplies copy to virtually every national and regional newspaper in the country.

These papers rely on the PA copy for a whole range of stories, including in sport, as they cannot have a journalist covering every single event everywhere in the world.

It is therefore important that the PA copy is informative, impartial and gives an accurate account of any particular story.

For the last 44 years, Everton’s News Agency, run by Clive Everton, the editor of Snooker Scene, has supplied snooker stories to the PA and covered tournaments for them.

Another agency, Lancaster and Crowther, has done so for around 25 years.

Earlier this month, each agency received a letter from the PA sports editor to inform us that he would no longer be requiring our services.

When asked why, he replied that they would be doing the coverage in-house from now on. Furthermore, they said they will be taking most of their stories from worldsnooker.com in future and that the PA had ‘enhanced its relationship with World Snooker.’

According to worldsnooker.com’s terms and conditions, users of the site cannot “modify, copy, reproduce, re-publish, upload, post, transmit, rent, loan, sell, lease, license, sub-license or distribute any material on the Site or create in any way content and/or derivative works based on the content of the Site or the Site itself or services provided by, or on behalf of World Snooker in whole or in part without our prior written consent.”

The governing body readily agreed to the PA’s request. It seems to suit both sides. PA get free copy and therefore save money and World Snooker get to have their spin on events on the main news wire.

In a letter to World Snooker complaining about this new arrangement, the Snooker Writers Association said: “Worldsnooker.com is a corporate website that does not give an accurate account of what happens at tournaments. Any controversy is basically played down or even covered up. The bland tone of its coverage will result in PA stories that are not going to interest sports editors in carrying copy on a sport that is already struggling for coverage.”

World Snooker responded that the approach from the PA came as a “complete surprise” and appears to believe they had no choice other than to accept.

Well actually they could at least have considered the knock-on effect for the sport as a whole. They could have contacted the SWA to talk it over with them or demanded certain requirements from the PA as to the scope of their coverage.

I have personally covered the qualifiers as conscientiously as I could for the PA for a decade, either at the various venues – Blackpool, Newport, Burton-on-Trent and Prestatyn – or from afar. To be ousted in this way is very upsetting.

What sort of coverage is a guy sat in the PA office going to give them now bearing in mind worldsnooker.com offers only scant reports on them and sometimes none at all?

When something controversial (ie interesting) is said or happens at a tournament, only those newspapers with specialist correspondents present will carry coverage because worldsnooker.com won't mention it.

The regular snooker press are a committed (some of them should have been) group of people who have written about the sport for many years, often from a position of deep affection for it.

Now this cosy new relationship between the PA and World Snooker will result in even less coverage of a sport already struggling for space in newspapers.

When I started in this sport, The Daily Telegraph and Times were guaranteed to carry a reasonable sized report on a day’s play from any tournament no matter what had happened.

Now, it is rare for either paper to include more than a paragraph.

It has to be a really good story these days for sports editors to be interested. Uncontroversial PR of the sort fed to PA by worldsnooker.com is not going to appeal to anyone.

Some of my colleagues are even talking about no longer going to tournaments.

Players are now warned that they will be disciplined for even the mildest of statements. At the Northern Ireland Trophy in August they were all given a letter advising them to answer ‘no comment’ to even routine questions.

By the time of the final in Belfast there were no journalists present at all.

World Snooker in their letter to the SWA write that “We very much appreciate that we need to work together with the snooker writers.”

That’s assuming there will be any snooker writers left.

HIGGINS HAS HIS SAY

John Higgins has given an interview to the Eurosport website in which he speaks of his frustration of how the sport is being run by World Snooker.

Higgins has become the most vocal critic of the governing body among the players since setting up the World Series earlier this year.

As a twice world champion he is entitled to his opinions and I think most of his fellow players would agree with them.

The World Series has shown that there is a huge appetite for snooker in Europe and credit goes to him for taking tournaments to the continent.

However, I am slightly alarmed by the mention lower down the interview of reducing the traditional game from 15 reds to six or ten.

John is right that there are many, many things that could be improved in terms of how snooker is run.

But one thing that does not need changing is the game itself.

Interview here.

AND THE WILDCARD GOES TO...

The wildcard for the Wembley Masters will be announced at some point between the qualifiers later this month and the UK Championship.

Therefore, Ricky Walden has to be considered the outstanding favourite to receive an invite.

He did, after all, win the Shanghai Masters with victories over Stephen Hendry, Neil Robertson, Steve Davis, Mark Selby and Ronnie O’Sullivan.

I’d be surprised if Ricky is overlooked but it is not impossible. There are a number of other leading contenders as well.

Judd Trump impressed in a BBC tournament (which of course the Masters is as well) by beating O’Sullivan before losing to John Higgins in the Grand Prix semi-finals.

Liang Wenbo brought his exciting, ultra attacking style of play to the World Championship and got all the way to the quarter-finals.

Former top 16 stars Dave Harold and Matthew Stevens have appeared in ranking tournament finals while veteran Steve Davis has found a bit of form.

But surely Walden is the leading contender for a Wembley place.

And he’s just the sort of player who could do some damage there come January.

WORTHY WINNER

Neil Robertson was the worthy winner of the Bahrain Championship.

He went to Manama low in confidence but gradually found some during the week.

His performance in beating Stephen Maguire in the quarter-finals could well have turned his entire season around.

It’s unfair on the late Eddie Charlton to compare these two Australians because he was at his peak before there was a recognisable circuit like today.

Nevertheless, Robertson has a reasonable claim to be Australia’s most successful snooker player ever. His victory in Bahrain gave him his third rankling title. Only 15 other players in the game’s history have won this many.

He had some off table stuff to deal with last season that distracted him from his on table efforts.

He now has a new coach, Steve Prest, and practises in a new club and will hopefully kick on from this victory and win more tournaments.

I hope so. Neil is good to watch and it’s good for any sport to have players of different nationalities winning titles, particularly in the British dominated game of snooker.

Matthew Stevens could have led the final 8-6 but missed an awkward black and failed to win another frame.

This was a further disappointment for a man who had already won only one ranking title from six finals.

At least he has some confidence back and a bunch of points as he attempts to rejoin the elite top 16, which is where a player of his class belongs.

So what of the Bahrain Championship?

Not even the most deluded spin doctor could claim the crowd turnout during the week was good. It must have been the lowest attendance for a ranking tournament final I have ever seen.

Players thrive on an atmosphere and tend to raise their game when the crowd gets behind them.

We saw much high quality snooker during the week but the event obviously missed Mark Selby, John Higgins and Ding Junhui, who were all contracted to play in the Premier League, and Ronnie O’Sullivan and Steve Davis, who withdrew with sick notes, although of course Davis was also in the Premier League.

If World Snooker stages this event next year then they should do so at a time when everyone can enter and if they have to come to a separate arrangement with O’Sullivan to get him there then they should seriously consider that as well.

No one player is bigger than the sport but snooker benefits from having all its stars taking part in tournaments, particularly new ones in new territories.

ROBERTSON FAVOURITE FOR BAHRAIN TITLE

As so often happens to players who go on to lift a title, Neil Robertson suffered a major scare in the opening round of the Bahrain Championship.

He led Marcus Campbell 4-1 but only beat him 5-4. Similarly, Ronnie O'Sullivan and Ricky Walden were taken to deciders in their opening matches in Belfast and Shanghai respectively.

Of course, Robertson hasn't won the title yet but, like so many Aussie sportsmen, he is super confident and well aware that Matthew Stevens has lost five of his previous six ranking finals.

So I would make Robertson the favourite.

My main hope, though, is that the final is high quality and brings in a big crowd after what has been a disappointing turnout all week.