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TEN months has felt like ten minutes to all snooker fans as the the season whistled past- and lived up to the old maxim of expect the unexpected- but keep hold of some realism, and try and retain your sanity
As the season kicked off in Belfast for the Northern Ireland Trophy there was an air of predictability about it. Yet Steve Davis didn't have too much time to settle in- as he was dumped out by potting sensation Liang Wenbo, who promptly then sent Peter Ebdon packing in the following round.
Ebdon though had the fortune of being able to slip away quietly as Stephen Hendry was outplayed by Stephen Lee in his opener- and what a form indicator it was to prove for Hendry for much of the following season. Shock after shock then followed at the Waterfront Hotel as Neil Robertson fell to Ian McCulloch, and then 2005 world champion Shaun Murphy was demolished by Mark Williams.
Defending champion Stephen Maguire had scrambled through to the last eight- but then saw his title wrestled from him by Dave Harold, who encouraged by his form completed a Scottish double by ending the hopes of John Higgins in the semi finals- to arrive in the final against Ronnie O'Sullivan, who had scraped through against Allister Carter in the semi finals. Unfortunatley it was Dave Harold who did the scraping in the final- 3 frames to be precise as the Rocket ran out an easy winner 9-3
So it seemed as if normal service had been maintained as the players boarded the plane for Shanghai- and for Dominic Dale it meant a return to the venue of that saw him win his first ranking title the previous season.Yet the man known as Spaceman was to experience a space oddity as Davis grounded Major Dom with a 5-4 victory. Making the most of ousting the reigning champion Steve then dispatched Dave Harold, who had upset local fans by beating Ding Junhui- By then though the draw had been well and truly blown open thanks to the efforts of Ricky Walden, who had survived the wildcard round beating local hope Zhang Anda, and followed it up by sending Stephen Hendry home early. Joining him on the early flight home was Shaun Murphy- who's miserable start to the season continued when he was crushed by Andy Hicks 5-1.
So the tournament was well and truly up for grabs- and certainly when Ryan Day removed John Higgins. For those eliminated in the last eight it was a chance lost- and first to go was Steve Davis who spurned a 2-0 lead to lose to Walden 5-3. Walden was on the sort of inspired form that was to take him past Mark Selby in the semi finals and put him through to the final where he found hiself facing Ronnie O'Sullivan. But if Ronnie thought he was in for a second ranking title of the season he was in for a shock as Ricky refused to be intimidated in facing the world champion and carved out a 10-8 victory for his first ever ranking title.
As the circuit made it's way back to Britain Glasgow was the venue for the Grand Prix. Gone was the round robin format- and in came an FA Cup style draw at the close of each round. Not here could the pros plot their way through and make a guess who they were likely to play in the next round- they had to trust to luck of the draw.
And the perils of a random draw meant that Neil Robertson, who was still struggling for form at the beginning of the season had to face Steve Davis- just the sort of draw he'd have liked to avoid- and Davis- one of the form horses of the early season squeezed past the former champion 5-4 to book his place in the second orund draw. And wasn't it kind to Steve as he came face to face with Adrian Gunnell, who had sent Shaun Murphy tumbling out of the tournament.
But the Davis Gunnell match was to resemble a chess match as both players traded mistakes as they treid to out-think the other. Credit to Adrian as he recovered from 3-1 down to force Davis into a nervy late night finish- that only went the way of Steve when he potted a blue to wrap up victory and book a clash with Allister Carter
Round 2 also saw reigning champion Marco Fu removed in one of the matches of the round by Ronnie O'Sullivan- and the random draw had thrown up the juicy match up between John Higgins and Stephen Hendry. Both players in need of some match victories. And the match was to go the way of Higgins who won the battle of the Scots. From then on there was to be no stopping John as he negotiated his way past Ding Junhui and Judd Trump who had dumped O'Sullivan out in quarter finals. Higgins arrived in the final where he faced Ryan Day who had put paid to Allister Carter's hopes- Carter who had ended Davis's campaign in the quarter finals 5-3.
In front of a local crowd Higgins was after his first ranking title in 18months- and with the exception of Sheffield John could not probably think of a better place in which to break his drought. But what a tussell it was Ryan who had seen off Jamie Cope earlier in the tournament forced John into producing his best snooker as he edged a fascinating match 9-7 and with it claimed the title he first won in 1994.
The expanding circuit had found its way to Manama for the Bahrain international- but this is where the fun and games began as a clash with the tournament dates and the Premier Snooker League forced John Higgins, Mark Selby and Ding Junhui to withdraw as their matches clashed with the tournament.
Incredibly that wasn't the extent of the withdrawals as Ronnie O'Sullivan then pulled out with unspecified medical reasons-handing Steve Davis a walkover into the second round after the Nugget squeezed through 5-4 in a qualifying match. Davis then scratched from the tournament with an ear infection. All of which meant that Dominic Dale found himself in the quarter finals facing Matthew Stevens who had accounted for Stuart Bingham and Ryan Day. A gilt edged chance for either to put themselves into a semi final. And it was Stevens who prevailed. to set up a semi final with Stephen Hendry who had exacted revenge for his defeat in Shanghai by beating Ricky Walden and followed it up with victory over Robert Milkins.
But this doesn't do justice to the tournament first round where the big names followed each other into the airport departure lounge as Marco Fu, Peter Ebdon, Graeme Dott, Shaun Murphy and Allister Carter fell at the first hurdle.
Someone who did avoid the minefield that was called the first round was Neil Robertson, but even he was made to sweat as Marcus Campbell nailed a 147 and forced the Australian into a deciding frame that Robertson edged. From there Robertson put paid to Stephen Maguire and Mark Allen to put himself into the final against Stevens. Robertson was looking for his second ranking title of his career- as indeed was Stevens. And it was tight- but it was Robertson who claimed victory beating the Welshman 9-7.
So four ranking tournaments gone- and four different winners as the tour headed off to Telford- which had replaced York as the venue for the UK Open. The second most prestigious title on the calendar is a format the players do enjoy- from round one it is the best of 17. So first to nine, enabling the players to put a poor first session behind them and re-group for the second.
Someone who had to do some re-grouping was Shaun Murphy who had endured early exits in the previous three events and he negotiated his first round match against Martin Gould.
Yet once again the shocks came from the kick off- as Mark Selby fell to Mark Williams, Stephen Hendry was beaten again by Stephen Lee while Ding Junhui made no mistake in beating Davis. But all of this was overshadowed as match fixing allegations was to dominate the headlines; in a match that involved Stephen Maguire and Jamie Burnett. And following a succession of bets on a 9-3 scoreline in favour of Maguire - whereupon the bookies stopped taking bets on the match-some of them before the match had even started. That the match ended 9-3 to Maguire, with Burnett missing a frame winning black merely added fuel to the fire. It was then the World Snooker announced an investigation into the allegations of match fixing - with Burnett strenuously denying any wrongdoing.
Anyhow back to the snooker itself and defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan found himself outplayed in his his second round match by Joe Perry as the Wisbech man advanced with a 9-5 victory against a bemused O'Sullivan. He was joined in the last eight by Marco Fu, Shaun Murphy who seemed to be recovering his confidence having eased past Mark Allen-more of him a little later on. Surprise surprise John Higgins was also there, alongside Stephen Maguire who had put paid to Neil Robertson.
Joe Perry couldn't repeat the heroics of the previous round and succumbed to Marco Fu while Murphy proved too strong for Stephen Lee. Allister Carter continued his progress by seeing off Mark Williams while Maguire got the better of Higgins in a tight encounter.
So that meant that a semi final between Shaun Murphy and Stephen Maguire that went the way of the Englishman- but who would he face in the final- well it was to be Marco Fu who edged past Allister Carter 9-7
And of course it meant that a new name would be on the trophy. Would it be Shaun Murphy or a second ranking title for Marco Fu. Well the match was a classic as both players traded the lead on nujerous occasions before Marco fought back from 6-8 to lead 9-8. Surely now that would have knocked the syuffing out of Shaun. Not a chance as Murphy refused to buckle and fought his eway back into the match to level at 9-9 and send it into a final frame shoot out.
Who was going to prevail in the decider-The answer was Murphy who maintained the momentum that was to seal the title. Sportingly Marco conceded and Murphy was back in the winners enclosure- as the season reached Christmas.
As the year turned all thoughts switched to the The Masters at Wembley Arena. And with it the return of Mark Selby as reigning champion. The top 16 all qualify for this prestigious invitation event plus two wild cards, one qualifies from the play offs. The other receives one from the organisers- and they play the two men ranked 15th and 16th in for the right to enter the first round proper. Someone who had made it through to the first round proper by nature of his ranking was Joe Perry- who then had the prospect of facing Ronnie O'Sullivan in his opening match. Joe should have won- he led 5-4 and had a chance to close out a 6-4 victory but missed a straightforward pink- and with it went his chance of victory. Ronnie grabbed the repreive that had come his way cleared to level and then completed a 6-5 victory over the Cambridgeshire professional.
And once a big fish is let off the hook he invariably turns into a shark- O'Sullivan breezed past Allister Carter who had seen off in the previous round and then destroyed Maguire in the semi finals, while Mark Selby had seen off Ricky Walden, Mark Allen and dispatched John Higgins in the semis. The two had met in the 2008 final- now it was time for the re-match.
With a full capacity crowd supporting the Essex man against the Jester from Leicester both players served up a match of high quality-Selby and O'Sullivan level at 4-4 at the interval. On the resumption Mark edged into a 7-5 lead at the mid session interval. Back came Ronnie to level at 7-7 before exchanging frames to be locked at 8-8- which way was it going to swing now. The answer was Ronnie's way as he snatched the seventeenth frame on the black by one point before clearing with a break of 55 to clinch a 10-8 victory.
From London the tour headed to Newport in South Wales for the Welsh Open and the shorter match format inevitably meant the first round shocks, Anthony Hamilton beat Peter Ebdon, Joe Swail defeated Mark Allen in an all Northern Ireland clash and Martin Gould sent Stephen Hendry home early, recording a 5-3 victory against the Scotsman
Mark Selby, the reigning champion had made progress into the quarter finals, accounting for Paul Davies and Dave Gilbert comfortably. In the quarter finals he met Nottingham's Anthony Hamilton- unfortunately Selby was distracted by the antics of his former manager George Bamby who with a brilliant sense of timing served Mark with a writ and bankruptcy notice as the Leicester man sat in his chair just prior to the match geytting underway. To say that the timing was tactless is to put it extremely kindly. And steps need to be taken to ensure that occurances such as these are not allowed to happen again.
Hardly surprising given those shenanigans that Mark Selby then went on to lose that quarter final match to Hamilton.
The man who kept his head while all around were losing theirs was Allister Carter who saw off the hopes of Jimy White, Graeme Dott and Shaun Murphy and then survived a gruelling semi final against Hamilton to arrive in the final against Joe Swail. Swail had been the surprise of the tournament- as after beating Allen saw off Martin Gould, Stephen Maguire and former champion Neil Robertson in the semi finals. Carter was the heavy favourite to win the final but a combination of stubborn resistance from Swail- and maybe being expected to win saw Allister come up with a catalogue of errors in the first session. Swail, playing the role of underdog merely took the chances that presented themselves and ended the session with a 5-3 advantage. But from that promising position Swail was unable to win another frame as Allister returned refreshed for the evening session and ran off six straight frames to seal a 9-5 victory and with it a first ranking tournament victory.
As winter became spring the season began to reach it's conclusion as it headed off to Beijjing for the China Open. And with only the World Championships to come there were several anxious players worried about whether or not they could retain their top 16 status- those who may have been sweating were Peter Ebdon and Stephen Hendry-both had not enjoyed the best of seasons - yet in the Chinese capital they seemed to relax more and so started to produce some solid snooker.
And Peter Ebdon was the beneficiary of a bit of luck as defending champion Stephen Maguire crashed out in the first round, losing to Dave Harold 5-0. Exit the reigning champion and Ebdon took his chance. He eliminated Tang Jun, followed by Harold. This set up a clash with Stephen Hendry who had squeezed past Ricky Walden(again) 5-4. The match went the way of the Englishman as he recorded a 5-1 victory. This put the Dubai based man into the semi finals against Stuart Pettman who had come through qualifying, and backed it up in the forbidden city with wins against Mark Allen, Allister Carter and Graeme Dott. Ebdon though was to prove a far stiffer proposition and eased to a 6-1 victory, putting him through to the final where he would face John Higgins who had outplayed Ronnie O'Sullivan, winning 5-3 in the quarter finals- and then ended the run of Ryan Day with 6-4 victory in the semi finals who had ousted Jamie Cope, Mark King and Shaun Murphy..
To the final and when Ebdon and Higgins play you can be sure that it will be a tense, absorbing encounter- but this had extra significance for Peter as he knew that victory would almost certainly see him safe in the top 16 for next season. And when Peter Ebdon's mind is focussed on a target he is very difficult to beat as slowly but surely he inched his way towards his goal of victory. Not that it was easy for him as John Higgins made him toil for everything before the Englishman reached the magic figure of 10 with the help of a 71 break in what was to be the final frame in the best of 19 encounter to preserve his top sixteen status with a 10-8 victory.
So to Sheffield for the climax of the season, the World Championships, and Ronnie O'Sullivan defending his title at the Crucible. The first week proceeded routinely enough with O'Sullivan, Higgins, Murphy and Selby all winning their first round encounters. So too did Ding Junhui, who by beating Liang Wenbo hung on to his top sixteen berth for the coming seaason, as did Stephen Hendry who reeled off five straigh frames for a 10-7 victory against Mark Williams after trailing the Welshman 7-5. Where was the first upset going to come from I wondered- I didn't have to wait long for my answer. Witnessing the events of Friday and Saturday in the press room I had the feeling that Ronnie was not inpregnable- and so it proved as the the championship was blown wide open on middle Saturday as O'Sullivan returned for the final session of his second round match with Mark Allen.
Ronnie had not been able to shake off the Antrim man who stuck close to him like a limpet- giving as good as he got. True- Allen trailed 9-7 at the end of the second session- and the feeling was that Ronnie would be too good. I was one who did think that an upset was possible and as Allen turned a 7-9 deficit into a 10-9 lead so the unlikely amongst many was becoming a possibility. Ronnie levelled at 10-10. 10-10 became 11-11 thus making it in effect the best of three in the remaining frames with 13 the target for a place in the quarter finals.
With long potting most of us can only fantasise about nailing; Allen then set about O'Sullivan in the final frames. Hammering in a break of 80 he moved to 12-11 and got over the line at 13-11, when two visits to the table from the Ulsterman saw him end Ronnie's reign as champion
And what a championships it was to be for Mark as he kept his nerve to edge past Ryan Day to earn a crack at John Higgins in the semi finals- Higgins though was not without the Crucible collywobbles himself as he trailed Jamie Cope 12-10 before reeling off three nigh on perfect frames to squeeze home 13-12- and then in a match of the highest quality- and arguably the match of the tournament recovered from 12-11 to extinguish the hopes of Mark Selby 13-12.
Meanwhile in the other half of the draw Shaun Murphy was gaining in confidence as after a nervy opener against Andrew Higginson he dispatched Marco Fu in two sessions- and then won a gruelling encounter against Stephen Hendry 13-11- during which Hendry compiled a 147. Maybe this unsettled Hendry as after compiling the maximum he lost his way in the match. And how costly it was, as despite a late rally closing to 12-11 Murphy re-asserted himself with the help of a century break for a 13-11 victory. Joining Allen, Higgins and Murphy in the last four was Neil Robertson who had seen off Steve Davis, Allister Carter and outpotted Stephen Maguire to earn a crack at Murphy.
And the drama of those semi finals cannot be overstated- as they virtually followed the same pattern as each other. Higgins v Allen saw John race clear 13-3, needing only four more frames for a place in the final. Incredibly Mark found his best form here- and with Higgins starting to look nervous the Antrim man closed to 15-9 with the final session to come. Higgins was stunned - as it looked as he'd be in for an early finish but Mark showed even more resilience in the final session as he closed to 16-13 before Higgins finally got over the line for a 17-13 victory.
Meanwhile Shaun Murphy had opened up a similar advantage on Neil Robertson- but once again, the worm turned as Robertson roared back from 14-7 down to level at 14-14 at the mid session interval. The interval though came at the wrong time for Neil as Shaun was able to gather himself and see out the the remaining three frames with Neil not getting a chance in any of them- the Englishman prevailing 17-14
But how much that was to take out of Shaun mentally was to be decisive- as Higgins set about Murphy on day one of the final. After sharing the opening session Murphy took the first of the evening to lead 5-4. From there Shaun sat in his chair as Higgins stormed ahead to lead 11-5 at the end of day 1 of the final.
Resuming on day 2 Shaun needed a Mark Allen style recovery in the third session if he was to stay in the hunt. Trouble was Higgins had already experienced it and swiftly slammed that door in Shaun's face as he moved to 16-8 at the end of the third session.
Returning for the vital finale Higgins knew that he just had to hold himself together and he won the opener with Murphy taking the second of the night for 17-9. One more frame would do it for the Scotsman and Higgins quickly fired in a 32 break to put on the cusp of victory. By now Murphy was running on empty as a loose safety gave John another opening. With a long red to the corner the Scot embarked on a break of 73, that ended on the final yellow at 8.50 on Bank Holiday Monday with a sporting concession from Shaun as John claimed his third world title.
So the circuit reached it's conclusion with John Higgins winning the world championship- but snooker also has a few names to watch out for in the next few years. Mark Allen emerging as a world class player, while Neil Robertson has underlined his status as a proven match winner over a variety of distances. Ronnie O'Sullivan who can touch brilliance almost at will together with consistent tournament winners of Murphy and Higgins. While the game now is rich with talented players with the capacity to win tournaments the thorny issue of luring sponsors into the sport remains. The tournaments need sponsors and a regular fixed calendar; as doubts remain over the future of tournaments in Bahrain and Northern Ireland. Resolving these issues has to be of the highest priority.
Suzy Jardine
- you all know my style well enough now- direct and to the point
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