As a month of snooker, March was absolutely packed full of
events. The first day of March saw the conclusion of the Gdynia Open with Neil
Robertson running out the winner there once again. That was followed by the Sky
Sports week of snooker with the World Seniors and Shoot-out from Blackpool.
Next stop was India where Michael White won his first ever ranking event title,
from Asia back to the UK and Llandudno was the destination for Judd Trump’s
World Grand Prix victory, before another trip to Asia and Thailand this time
and the Players Championship Finals.
Throughout that time one man was consistent without ever
getting his hands on one of the major titles and that was Mark Williams. In a
field full of oldies he did run out the World Seniors Champion (aged 39), and
even during the Shoot-out he made the Last 16. At the Gdynia Open on March 1st
he was the runner-up to Neil Robertson. India came along and he lost out in a
narrow semi-final against eventual winner White. The difference between winning
and losing in the quarter-finals of the World Grand Prix against Judd Trump was
a decider which went to the colours. Finally, he looked like getting his title
at the Players Championship when he led Joe Perry 3-0 in a best-of-7 final but
Joe won all of the remaining frames to win the title.
The model of consistency that Mark displayed here was the
kind that had been missing from his game for a few years and firmly reinstated
him amongst the world’s top 16 from which he was outside of when this ran
began.
His best runs really would have to be in the full ranking
tournaments as they matter most, and a semi-final of the Indian Open saw him
defeated 4-2 in the semis by White but prior to that he came through deciding
frame wins against Peter Ebdon and Judd Trump before a comfortable win against
Robert Milkins in the quarter-finals. In the Players Championship finals he
started off by winning a potentially dangerous game against the other losing
semi-finalist in India and that was Thepchaiya Un-Nooh. Next up was a 4-3 win
against the then world champion Mark Selby. It was another decider in the
quarter-finals as Mark took on the ever improving Matt Selt. Yet another
meeting against Trump followed and he avenged the Grand Prix loss by beating
him 4-2 to make the final in which he lost to Joe.
The performances are made even better by the amount of
travelling he had to do in a short space of time to manage it. By going so late
in the Gdynia Open he had to fly back first thing on Monday morning, in time to
make his first round match in Blackpool at the Seniors that evening. After a
few days in Blackpool ended that Friday he had to quickly go out once again to
the Indian Open, the first of many long haul flights. Once he was knocked out
in Saturday’s semi-finals he had to make the return leg back to Wales for the
World Grand Prix for his first round match. When Judd knocked him out on the
Friday night that was not the end of things for Willo in March as he had
another long haul flight and a trip to Thailand for the Players Championship
finals that started on the Tuesday. He made the final on Saturday which meant
another short change as a flight to Beijing was ahead for the China Open which
started on the Monday. You’d have thought that all of these long flights and
snooker matches would have caught up with Mark eventually and perhaps that was
the reason he didn’t get across the line in the latter stages of one of them. At
the time I pointed to the work he had put in with his fitness coach Steve and
the weight loss he achieved there was also great work for him and allowed him
the strength and mental stamina.
There is no one performance you could point to that would
sum up Mark’s March as there so many great wins but to beat an in form Judd
Trump twice either side of a narrow quarter-final loss to the same player in a
tournament he went on to win is impressive work, but what impressed me the most
was the consistency that he was able to keep up having started by making the
semi-finals of the Welsh Open losing that in a decider as well. Of course the
pressure was on throughout the run, knowing he had to keep it going in order to
get an automatic top 16 seeding through to the Crucible and avoid three rounds
of qualifying. The run of results is always something I want to look for in a
player of the month and it is rare to perform well throughout an entire month,
wall to wall. Having found one here there was no way that Mark Williams could
not be my Player of the Month for March.
Be sure to take some time out of your busy Christmas Eve schedule tomorrow to find out my player of the Month for April.
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