My top man for November was International champion Ricky Walden who produced some fine performances both in the International Championship and the following Champion of Champions event in Coventry. The International Championship was split over the course of both October and November, with Ricky beating Mark Allen in the final in November, and dispatching of Robert Milkins, Jamie Burnett, Joe Swail, Zhou Yuelong and David Morris at the back end of October. Ricky then went straight on to the Champion of Champions event in Coventry the next week and despite suffering from some heavy jet lag he managed to whitewash Mark Allen (him again) in the first round before losing out in the group final to Neil Robertson, although that could’ve easily been a different story. The month came to a close for Ricky with victories in the first two rounds of the UK Championship against Steve Davis and in a decider against Robbie Williams.
Here are a few of the victories that particularly impressed
me from Ricky in November:
Ricky Walden 10-7 Mark Allen – Ricky Walden had been playing
fluent snooker all week at the International Championships and it continued at
the start of the final against Mark Allen. Breaks of 49 and 59 from Ricky in
the opener gave him a 1-0 lead, before runs of 40 and 45 saw Allen level the
match. A high of 64 from Walden helped him on his way to the next two frames as
he went into the first interval 3-1 ahead. Allen soon won the next two, with a
113 in the sixth to level at 3-3 and the next two were shared to make it 4-4
with one frame of the session to go. It was a frame both players had chances in
but Allen took it to lead 5-4 after the first session. That didn’t faze Ricky
though who made contributions of 45, 47 and 85 on the way to winning three
straight frames taking a 7-5 advantage. Breaks of 68 and 74 saw Allen come back
and level the game once more at 7-7. From here though Ricky Walden found an
extra gear and his very fluent best of the match by making breaks of 85, 103,
54 and 62 to win all of the next three frames and become the International
Champion with a 10-7 victory.
Ricky Walden 4-0 Mark Allen – When the players were drawn to
play against each other again just a few days later at the Champion of
Champions event in Coventry I don’t think that either one would’ve been
relishing the prospect, especially after a long haul flight back from China
that both players were clearly still feeling the effects of. Ricky Walden is
the type of player though that always just gets on with whatever is thrown at
him, and giving his best on the day. That is certainly what he did in this
match starting off with breaks of 53 and 57 to win the opener and he followed
that up with a run of 58 to take the second frame and go halfway on the road to
victory at 2-0. Walden dominated the third frame and that was when Allen really
looked like he was struggling as Ricky went one away at 3-0. It was one visit
stuff from Walden in the fourth and what turned out to be final frame with a
run of 86 seeing him through 4-0.
That shows the two sides to Ricky Walden’s game, because
when he’s at his best he’s incredibly fluent and he can make breaks for fun,
beating anybody in the world to win tournaments like he did in the International
Championships and has showed many other times in the past for the three times
ranking winner. However, when he and his opponent are both struggling he is
very good at being able to do what he has to in order to win the match by
grinding out a result. If Walden does make a very bad start in matches
sometimes though and his opponent starts putting him under lots of pressure he
can be beaten by anyone at times and that sometimes shows some of the
consistency he lacks in tournaments, and is possibly the reason why Walden
hasn’t matched the titles he’s won in China with titles in the UK and a
consistent top 8 ranking. He is still a brilliant player though and well
capable of winning a big UK event and I sincerely hope he does because he’s a
great ambassador for snooker and he always goes about things in the right way.
Ricky is another brilliant candidate for my player of the year and tomorrow i'll reveal my final candidate when I look back at the month of snooker in December.
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