Overwhelmed Wenbo and Ruthless Robertson into UK Final

Liang Wenbo and Neil Robertson will contest the final of the UK Championships after contrasting victories today in the semi-finals. Liang Wenbo fought hard for his win in the afternoon against David Grace in what was a lengthy match to the extent that it delayed the start of the Neil Robertson match by 30 minutes. After winning the opening frame after Grace missed an easy pink, Wenbo struggled badly and you could sense his nerves and tension playing for a spot in the top 16 and to get into January's Masters as well as his second ever ranking event final. He went 3-1 down at the interval before a 110 break pulled him back to 2-3. Grace dominated the next to move 4-2 ahead but he barely had a chance as Wenbo levelled at 4-4 in what was a match littered with errors, as you would expect from two players in a major semi-final who are both outside of the top 16 and lack experience at this level. The break of 50 in frame nine from Wenbo in my mind was a huge psychological boost, as it came out of nothing really and was to put him ahead at a crucial stage of the match. The Chinese took an early lead in frame ten but Grace came back at him and after brilliant pots much later on, on green and brown, he missed a tricky pink to extend the match and Liang knocked in the pink, black and jumped for joy in celebration of his amazing triumph to both get into the UK Final and next months Masters.

The celebration caused a bit of a stir on Twitter, with people saying it was bad conduct. It would be interesting to see if these are the people that call for "more characters" in the game of snooker, because that is the kind of emotional release that shows a good character as you can see what it meant to him, just like his wins against Judd Trump, Tom Ford and Marco Fu. It also must be tough for him to be living in the shadow of Ding Junhui back home in China, and now with the younger prodigies coming through as well, it is tough for him to come over here and earn the respect and recognition that he already deserves. Anyone that doesn't respect that and how hard it is for players to come from overseas and challenge the huge crop of top British players in their own back yard, won't be able to respect what was going through Wenbo's mind today and how much it REALLY means to for him to win that match.

The second semi-final was much less eventful as Neil Robertson was rampant thrashing Mark Selby 6-0. It was not one way traffic in terms of Neil totally out scoring his opponent, but what he did was play the better safety from the very start to the finish and knock in some very good trademark long balls which against Selby is so important. Mark had the best of the early chances in almost every frame but he could not take advantage as Neil won three of the six frames on the black and a further one on the pink to ease through to the final.

Semi-Final Results:

Liang Wenbo 6-4 David Grace
Neil Robertson 6-0 Mark Selby

Final Preview:

Neil Robertson Vs Liang Wenbo - 128 guys started out in this event but now we are down to the final two and for me they have been the best and most entertaining of the week. Starting with Liang Wenbo, most people will not give him a chance because of his lower ranking and experience, but he has had to earn his right to get here all the same by beating top players in Judd Trump (from 4-1 behind) and Marco Fu in a deciding frame, as well as comebacks from 4-2 today against Grace and 5-3 against Tom Ford. He has showed a lot of grit and determination but also scored very well and shown a great amount of mental strength throughout the week. The tension of getting to the final and into the top 16 for the Masters next year will be gone and as he said he can relax and enjoy the experience now in his second ever ranking final, and first in a major triple crown event of course.

With Neil Robertson in fantastic form and absolutely flying, it really is tough to give anyone a chance against him to be honest. The very dangerous Thepchaiya Un-Nooh was extinguished with no problem whatsoever. Stephen Maguire was seen off 6-1 despite opening up with a century, as Neil punched in three tons of his own. Three centuries from John Higgins could not get him across the line as Neil edged a decider there, and he totally dominated Mark Selby in all aspects and put the world number 1 under immediate pressure on the way to a whitewash win. He has all of the experience as a triple crown winner to deal with anything that his Chinese opponent will throw at him tomorrow, and his form in my mind makes him totally unstoppable. You would not like to rule out Wenbo after the sheer determination he has displayed this week but it is hard to see him beating someone playing this well in his first really big final. Even if he did get close as we saw today the pressure can take hold and really affect him more than it will Neil.

Prediction: Neil to romp home again a 10-4 winner.


It really has been a fantastic week of snooker, made particularly special by the exploits of David Grace, and all credit to him for his achievements, and of course those of Liang Wenbo to get himself into the Masters. Mark Selby has missed out on a third UK final in four years, while Robertson is into his second in three years which in itself is phenomenal going and he has lit up the Barbican with the sort of displays that saw him capture the 2013 UK crown and get 100 centuries in the 2013/2014 season.

With the end of the UK Championship in sight that also means that Christmas is nearly upon us and with that will bring my usual Christmas features for you to enjoy. The same as last year can be expected with my countdown of the best players and most magical moments of 2015 (on a month by month basis from January through to December) and of course my 12 days of Christmas classic matches of 2015 countdown (counting down my favourite matches from the start of the 2014 UK Championships until the end of the Champion and Champions last month - I know it's a bit of an odd system). I hope you have all enjoyed following the blog in 2015 as much as I have enjoyed writing each and every piece.