A day in the life of... the commentator with Neal Foulds

In a first for my blog today we have a "A day in the life of" piece detailing the average day of the snooker commentator, with all of the jobs that have to be done for the commentators away from the microphone, and what life is like for the average commentator. I was incredibly pleased that my favourite commentator out there right now in Neal Foulds agreed to write such a piece for the blog, while working for ITV on the Champion of Champions event won by Ronnie O'Sullivan last week in Coventry.

In this piece Neal gives a great insight behind the scenes at the Champion of Champions in Coventry, focussing particularly on Friday 7th November when Robertson played Carter and Walden played Allen before Robertson played Walden in the evening. He also offers some entertainment when it comes to a missing suit, which will hopefully turn up for him at some point.

So, this is what Neal Foulds was up to on Friday November 7th and throughout the week in Coventry:

Yesterday was a rest day in the Champion Of Champions snooker at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry to allow ITV4 to cover Europa League football. Today sees the concluding pool of 4 players and by the time we go off air tonight at 10.15pm we'll know who will join Ding Junhui, Judd Trump & Ronnie O'Sullivan in the weekends semi-finals.

 It's 9am and I'm down at breakfast, the beauty of this event is that there is a new batch of players here every day. On Monday John Higgins was tucking into breakfast with Dominic Dale as I arrived. Dominic (aka the spaceman) was very proud of his new eBay purchase. It's the wristwatch worn by Steve Davis throughout the halcyon days of his career. Apparently Steve recently found it in a drawer, battery dead and promptly put it up for sale. I assume he knew the batteries are replaceable!!

Anyway, John and Dominic lost their opening matches the same day. John to an in form Barry Hawkins and in Dom's case the Davis Ebel watch didn't bring about any old magic as Dom was beaten by Ding.

Tuesday's breakfast room saw none of the players in attendance, World Champ Mark Selby lives less than an hour away & there is no sign of Stephen Maguire, Judd Trump or the watch-less Steve Davis. The Nugget eventually arrived only a few minutes before his match as his train to Coventry was delayed. I was a little surprised he travelled here on the train in the first place.

It's great to see Steve play again though, his defeat by Selby was closer than the 4-1 score line suggests. Steve is and will always be a snooker legend and has never changed since I first met him 40 years ago playing in the British youth championships in Neasden in London. Oddly enough his first round opponent that day was Tony Meo, another brilliant player.

Wednesday saw Ronnie O'Sullivan at the breakfast table, chatting to WSA chairman Jason Ferguson. The Rocket looked lean & mean and says he needed to lose some weight. A light breakfast ensued. If Ronnie needs to lose weight what does it say for the rest of us?

He later breezed through his matches beating Stuart Bingham & Marco Fu with the loss of only 2 frames all day. The Rocket being launched into action on November 5th leads to too many options for media headlines. I'll leave you to work out the possibilities but the worst pun I heard was that nobody could hold a (roman) candle to him all day!!

Anyway back to today.

No players down at breakfast this morning but Clive Everton is up and about, I've never got to breakfast before him in a morning! I've also never made it into the commentary box without him already being in there as he prepares for his opening line. An old pro.

Alan McManus is here too, combining practise with research for today's game. Alan is very organised and writes everything down. He has already been out for a run around the outer perimeter of the Ricoh Arena.  I’m really enjoying listening to Alan's commentaries this week.

In contrast I have just got up and walked straight down here, no early morning run and no notepad!! Also a grey suit I put into the hotel cleaning services 3 days ago seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth. At reception they have no record of it being put in to be cleaned? Did I dream it?

Anyway Mark Johnston-Allen sits down opposite me, a former pro who has the record of beating Stephen Hendry 3 times in as many matches. MJA is the MC this week. I've told Jill Douglas to reference Mark as "giant killer" this week. Lovely bloke is Mark, although he appears a little bleary eyed this morning. Yesterday being a day off, I think Mark enjoyed himself at the bar!!
We've got all the stats ready for today. Neil Robertson is playing Ali Carter, a repeat of last year’s quarter final in Coventry. Robbo won 6-5 that night, lots of water under the bridge since then. It's great to see Ali back in good health after an awful past 6 months.

The other match is a repeat of the final of the international in Chengdu only last Sunday. Ricky Walden beat Mark Allen 10-7 that day. In case you were wondering it's 9036 miles from Chengdu to Coventry although I doubt you were!!

I'm asked to do an interview with Ali Carter at midday. Looking forward to it as it's great to see him back. Ali arrives a bit late, and somewhat flustered. Turns out aside from his other issues he has forgotten his dress suit. I hope he didn't put it into be cleaned!! I have a nice chat with Ali and wish him luck.

Great introductions by Mark Johnston-Allen  at the start of the match, Ali's walk-on to a standing ovation is really something. I look over at my colleague Jill Douglas who has a few tears in her eyes. MJA is wearing a suit suspiciously like the one I have lost. On a similar note Ali is wearing Ricky Walden's suit but changes it after the first frame as his own clobber arrives in Coventry.

As I write this the early signs are that Neil is doing a professional job and has hardly missed a ball in leading 2-0.

Now the session is finished. Two whitewashes Robertson 4-0 and Walden defeats Allen 4-0.

The session ends early (around 4pm) so Jill, Alan and I have an hour to fill with chat and highlights before we tuck into dinner. The food is laid on by the hotel for the ITV crew, the description of "traditional lamb hot pot, rosemary roast potatoes and seasonal vegetables" sounds fine but the portions are so small they are almost non-existent. I am hungrier after the meal than I was before it.

I'm booked to interview Neil Robertson for 6.15pm ahead of the evening session where he now meets Ricky. When Neil arrives he is in work mode, polite and easy to speak to but one senses he is in the zone for his match to follow. One thing in particular that Neil says interests me, he says his thoroughly ruthless victory over Ali was to show him respect. Not take the match lightly in any way. I like that comment. Snooker is a tough game on the table and has to be played that way.

Another good session of play tonight. Great commentary from Clive and Alan tonight and Robertson is too strong for Walden. Ricky looked tired at the end, perhaps his body clock is still in Chengdu.

A swift beer after the game and off to bed. All things considered a good day and despite no world champion in the semi-finals, a top class line up for the weekend.

The sponsors and ITV seem very happy with things so far. Apart from the disappearance of my suit all is good for me too as I sign off. Well not quite all good, my night’s sleep is broken by a security alert announcement at 5.30am. At that time you know it isn't a drill. A further announcement is made 5 minutes later to disregard the previous one.

Seems that there might be a few bleary eyes on Saturday morning.

I really enjoyed reading such behind the scenes views from Neal Foulds and I'd like to thank him for taking part in this feature from my blog, and hopefully i'll have more like this in the future. The snooker tour now has a bit of time off ahead of the Ruhr Open next weekend and then the big end to the year with the UK Championships in York and there will be a lot of build-up on here ahead of that one starting on Tuesday 25th November.

O'Sullivan and Trump to contest Champion of Champions Final

The Champion of Champions final today at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry will be played out by Ronnie O'Sullivan and Judd Trump in their first meeting since the 2013 World Championship semi-finals. Ronnie overcame Ding Junhui while Trump beat Neil Robertson on a day of fantastic snooker, and with a final like this it should be another great day of snooker to come today in this best-of-19 final. It will be interesting to see what the arena is like noise wise for the afternoon session of the final with Coventry playing an FA Cup tie at home this afternoon also. On Wednesday night fireworks could be heard clearly from inside the arena, and a noisy football crowd can certainly turn the volume up a few notches, though it shouldn't really affect the players.

Back to yesterdays action and Ronnie O'Sullivan saw off Ding Junhui in the afternoon semi-final. Ronnie won three of the first 4 frames to take a 3-1 mid-session interval lead but at this stage O'Sullivan hadn't made a break above 50 and the highest break of the match so far was a 51 from Ding. The Chinaman started to get going after the break and came out firing with breaks of 88 and 111 to square the match up at 3-3. What was Ronnie's response? Well it was a big one as he went back in front at 4-3 with a break of 105. Ding stuck in there and levelled again at 4-4 to keep the pressure on Ronnie, but he handled it in style winning the last two frames with breaks of 91 and 125 to wrap up the match in superb style with two more sublime breaks.

With Ronnie into the final then, it was Robertson and Trump who were going head to head in the evening for the right to join him in the final. Neil Robertson took the opening frame of the match with a run of 65 while Judd dominated the second frame to make it 1 apiece. Both of the next tow frames were close with Judd winning frame three on the black before Robertson gave him a scare before the interval by getting close to making the two snookers he needed on the pink, but at the break it was 3-1 to Trump. It was a hard fought match after the mid-session interval, but incredibly gripping. Robertson pulled a frame back at 2-3 only for Trump to retake his two frame advantage at 4-2. Neil dominated the seventh to close the gap again but a 56, Judd's highest break of the match, in frame eight put him a frame from the final at 5-3. The Australian wasn't going away though, and he put the pressure on Trump with a sublime 117 to close to within a frame at 4-5. Judd made a break of 51 in the tenth frame but that wasn't quite enough for him to seal it and the frame went down to the colours. There was some fantastic safety played by both players on the pink and black, with Robertson hardly getting a sight at either ball with a pot on either taking us into a decider. Eventually, after a few missed long attempts at it, Judd stroked in a long black and booked his place in the final after winning a hard fought semi-final 6-4.

Final Preview:

Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Judd Trump - This should be a cracking final between two players that have exactly the same attacking, quick, heavy scoring style of play and they will both set out to entertain over this beat of 19 today. Judd breezed past Stephen Maguire and Mark Selby playing some of the best snooker I've seen him play in a very long time, but as I said in my preview of the semi-finals, the three days he had off killed that momentum and he relied heavily on his improved safety game to put Neil under pressure because at times Trump missed some blacks off of the spot which Robertson didn't punish him for but Ronnie certainly will today. The other worry for fans of Judd is that he says he lost his confidence through the Neil Robertson match and that he wasn't confident for this final against Ronnie. If O'Sullivan heard that and watched Judd's head go down against Neil he'll be rubbing his hands. Trump can't afford to show Ronnie any kind of weakness early in this match, because frustration and this lack of confidence certainly came across last night and if it does today Ronnie will walk all over him like he has hundreds of opponents in the past. Ronnie however will be extremely confident given his performances on Wednesday against Stuart Bingham and Marco Fu, as well as the way he carried himself yesterday and responded when Ding put him under heavy pressure as Stuart did on Wednesday. Sometimes pressure would get to Ronnie but this week he certainly seems to have responded and found strength from these positions. He's been inspired by a venue he enjoys and big crowds in support of him this week and I think that will push him on to defending his Champion of Champions title.

Prediction: Ronnie O'Sullivan to win 10-6


It's been another really enjoyable week of snooker this week and I've had great fun watching it all unfold and I'm really looking forward to seeing what today's final produces. I've got a couple of nice pieces to come over the next few weeks on the blog, while there is a near two week break after this until the European Tour 4 Ruhr Open.

Down to 4 in Coventry

It's semi-finals time at the Champion of Champions in Coventry after the final group was played out yesterday. The day started off with a brilliant ovation for Ali Carter (in Ricky Walden's waistcoat after forgetting his) on his full return to snooker after treatment for lung cancer as he took on Neil Robertson. It wasn't to be for Carter in terms of a winning return though as Neil Robertson got the job done comfortably with breaks of 50, 106 and 111 on the way to completing a 4-0 whitewash and getting into the group final. Neil was joined in the group final by Ricky Walden after he continued where he left off in Chengdu, by beating Mark Allen again, 4-0 this time after Mark really didn't get going. Walden looked to be in good rhythm again with breaks of 53, 57, 58 and 86 on the way to that victory and it was going to be a very interesting group final with Robertson. The first six frames of the match were shared as Walden made breaks of 87 and 61 while Neil Robertson had breaks of 59, 64 and a new tournament highest break of 134 to see it at 3-3. Neil Robertson then won a large safety battle on the black in the next frame after Ricky missed a tricky frame ball pink to the middle earlier in the frame and that made it 4-3 to the Australian. From there tiredness just caught up with Walden as Neil seemed to be taking an exceedingly long time over shots and it was Robertson who won the final two frames of the match to take a 6-3 win.

Group 3 semi-finals:

Neil Robertson 4-0 Ali Carter
Ricky Walden 4-0 Mark Allen

Group 3 Final:

Neil Robertson 6-3 Ricky Walden


What that now means is that today's semi-finals will be contested over the best of 11 frames between Ronnie O'Sullivan and Ding Junhui in the afternoon and then Neil Robertson and Judd Trump in the evening, in what has the potential to be a day of snooker that could produce a couple of classic matches. They're looking like two very tough matches to call and I'm looking forward to watching both games unfold today.

Semi-Final Preview: (Picks in bold)

Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Ding Junhui - Ronnie O'Sullivan played brilliantly on Wednesday to defeat Stuart Bingham and then an under par Marco Fu in group 1 and I'm sure he'll continue that form today in a match he'll very much be pumped up for in front of a brilliant Coventry crowd this week, in what he says is already one of his favourite venues. Ronnie just loves these big UK events and he always seems to come to them playing his best when he's in the right frame of mind and he seems to have a very good mind-set again this week, so I expect some big Ronnie O'Sullivan entertainment this afternoon. He also has the head to head massively on his side having thrashed him in their recent Welsh Open final in February while Ronnie also won their meeting in last years Group final 6-5 coming from behind there. Ding Junhui played some decent snooker on Monday, but he'll need to improve if he's to beat Ronnie today. Having had four days off since he just got over the line on Monday evening against Barry Hawkins, he should've put in some hard practice and be well prepared for this match so it should be a close one.

Neil Robertson Vs Judd Trump - The thing I like about this match is that it's an incredibly tough match to call. Judd Trump played some amazing snooker on Tuesday, some of the best I've seen him play in a long time so he'll be very confident coming into this after the thrashings he handed out to Maguire and Selby in Group 2. Judd though is very much a momentum player in my opinion and when he gets on a roll he'll stay there for a while, but then may struggle to pick such a high level up again straight away for the next tournament perhaps. Where that comes in here is because Judd has had a full 3 days off and will now want to pick up straight from where he left off on Tuesday but that's a very tough ask and would mean that he'd have needed to put in some seriously hard practice to try and maintain that momentum. Trumps problem will come if he doesn't start well and he begins to get frustrated, like he has done on several of the occasions he's exited in the early stages of ranking events over the last year or so. Neil Robertson meanwhile would've been fresh coming into yesterday and now gets the opportunity to pick his momentum from yesterday (where he made 3 centuries) straight up again today and really push Judd from the very opening frame. Neil did a professional job on Carter and Walden in group 3 and when he's in that sort of mood he doesn't care about his opponent. Neil did a similar job in the final two sessions of the pairs World Championship clash earlier this year and Judd became very frustrated with how slowly Neil was playing, so he needs to deal with those feelings better this time around. The head to head with these two guys is very equal with the players trading blows fairly equally with each one seeming like a revenge match. Today I have the feeling that Neil knows how to get under Trump's skin and he's going to set out to do that from the very first shot.


As I said earlier these should be two very close matches and I'm really looking forward to watching the coverage this afternoon on ITV4 (which has been superb once again this week) and whatever happens in today's games it will be an exciting final tomorrow and i'll be back in the morning to preview that game and look back on these semi-finals.

Ronnie Romps to Group 1 success

Ronnie O'Sullivan stormed to the group 1 victory on day 3 of the Champion of Champions with a whitewash of Hong Kong's Marco Fu in the group final 6-0. Earlier in the day Ronnie produced some sublime snooker when he was under pressure against Stuart Bingham, winning that group semi-final 4-2. The standard wasn't fantastic that was produced in the other group semi by Marco Fu and Shaun Murphy with both players missing some quite easy balls and struggling really to get going, especially Murphy, while Fu dug in as he always does when he's struggling to win that one 4-1.

Group Semi-Finals:

Ronnie O'Sullivan 4-2 Stuart Bingham - The standard produced in this one was fantastic with a 50+ break winning every frame with 3 centuries in the match, which is always good going for a best-of-7. The match started off well as he dominated the first frame with a break of 60 to lead 1-0. Stuart fought back nicely with a break of 107 in the second frame to level the match at 1-1 before a break of 62 in a frame where both players had chances was enough to see him over the line to a 2-1 lead. At this stage Stuart must've fancied his chances of winning the game big time, but with the Rocket you never know what's coming next, although you can usually speculate that it will be a huge response. From getting into a 2-1 lead Stuart went on to score one more point in the match, as O'Sullivan levelled the match with a break of 83, before taking the lead with a 115 in the fifth. He then made it consecutive centuries to kill off the match as a break of 103 saw him over the line and into the group final with a 4-2 victory that was very well earned.

Marco Fu 4-1 Shaun Murphy - The only thing to say about this match is that it was a big struggle for both players, certainly to start with that is, as the players reminded us fans and bloggers how hard the game is missing balls that you certainly wouldn't expect players in the top 10 in the world to be missing. The first frame was scrappy but Murphy made a 50 break on the way to winning it and taking a 1-0 lead. The next frame was scrappy again with both players having chances, Fu first but he missed a simple ball to the middle when well in, but Murphy did the same thing with the pink a few shots later and Fu didn't need a second invitation to seize and take the frame. This was pretty much the theme for the rest of the match with Fu getting the early chances but Murphy not being able to seize when his came along and letting Fu back in, just as he did in frame three with Fu taking a 2-1 lead. After an early chance from Murphy didn't amount to anything, Fu was on a break of 56 when he threw in an elementary miss on a straight red that happened to be frame ball, but Murphy missed immediately to let Marco back in to take a 3-1 lead. Shaun had an early chance in frame five as well from a good long pot, but he could only make 15 before going into the reds and not landing nicely on a colour, taking on a risky blue with awkward cueing, but when he missed it was Marco's match for the taking and this time he took it without much drama as a break of 80 sent him into the final a 4-1 winner.

Group Final:

Ronnie O'Sullivan 6-0 Marco Fu - Marco Fu knew that he had to improve if he was going to have any chance of beating O'Sullivan in this match, but unfortunately for Marco he couldn't improve to any sort of required amount and when you're playing Ronnie he will smell weakness a mile off and pounce all over it. The match started off without Marco potting a ball in the opening two frames as breaks of 75 and 71 put O'Sullivan 2-0 up. Marco had an early chance in frame three but he couldn't make anything of it which was probably a product of being shut out of the opening couple of frames, as a break of 62 put O'Sullivan 3-0 up in very quick time. The fourth frame was huge in the context of the match as Marco had enormous chances to win it, but it was O'Sullivan that took it on the black after earlier breaks of 45 from Fu and 61 from Ronnie. At 4-0 you certainly felt there was no way back for O'Sullivan and that 3-1 probably would've been too big a deficit for Marco but at least he'd have had a half chance. In the next frame Ronnie needed a couple of chances but a later break of 60 was enough to put him 5-0 ahead and one away from a semi-final meeting with Ding Junhui. The Rocket fired home on bonfire night (when fireworks could actually be heard loud and clear in the arena) with a display that ended up being a whitewash with the sixth frame going his way as well after Fu missed his own chances and couldn't get into the match at all which was a bit tough to watch really, just as the earlier group semi-final was. It always looked like being O'Sullivan's day in the end.


It wasn't the most entertaining day of snooker and Ronnie stormed home to victory in the end putting him in a semi-final with Ding Junhui on Saturday. There's one more group to come tomorrow (today being a rest day) and then we're on to the semi-finals on Saturday. Should be a good climax to the week.

Trump storms to Group 4 victory

Judd Trump played some sublime snooker on the second day of the Champion of Champions event in Coventry, dropping just two frames on the way to his group 4 victory, booking his place in Saturday's semi-finals beating Mark Selby 6-1 in the group final. Things started off well for Mark Selby in the group semi-finals beating Steve Davis, while Judd Trump was in a dominating mood from the start of his match with Stephen Maguire where he ran out a 4-1 winner. In the interviews he completed afterwards for ITV4 he seemed to have matured a great deal and has admitted that he's been putting in a lot more practice over the last few months having "slacked off" for the 2 or so years previous, and now he wants to reap the rewards of this work. It has to be said if he plays like he did yesterday over the weekend he'll be a big favourite for the tournament, because he looked like he could've beaten anyone put in front of him.

Group Semi-Finals

Mark Selby 4-1 Steve Davis - The match started off well for Mark Selby as he dominated the opening frame to take the lead, but Steve soon drew level in the match by taking a second frame in which both players had chances to win it, and to get on the board would've made Steve feel a lot better. Mark was soon back in front though with the first 50+ break of the match, a 68, giving him the third frame and making it 2-1. Selby dominated the next frame as well without Davis scoring a point to go one away from victory and the evening's group final at 3-1. Steve's best break of the match came in the fifth frame with a break of 53 giving him the chance to perhaps force another frame but a superb clearance of 64 from Mark gave him the frame and the match, 4-1.

Judd Trump 4-1 Stephen Maguire - If you're a Stephen Maguire fan there's not much to say about your man in this match as he was dominated pretty much from start to finish. Judd Trump took the opening frame with a break of 82, while he doubled his lead by taking the second frame with the days first century, a 106. An early 37 had Maguire under pressure, and when he missed a mid-range red having been cold on table time for two and a half frames it was no surprise to see Trump knock in an outrageous red and make a 66 break from it to go 3-0 ahead in very quick time, without Maguire potting a single ball in the match so far. Stephen did eventually pot a ball in the fourth frame but didn't look like potting many as a break of 55 from Judd put him very to getting over the line, however a clearance of 40 from Maguire allowed him to steal the frame by 2 points on the black and extend the match at 1-3. It wasn't extended by much though as Maguire was whitewashed again in the fifth and final frame as a run of 89 from Top Trump put him into the group final with a 4-1 win

Group Final:

Judd Trump 6-1 Mark Selby - Mark looked like he was playing well early on, getting in first in the opening frame with a break of 53, but good safety and long potting from Trump as he'd shown earlier on, allowed him to get back into the frame and win it on the pink to move 1-0 ahead. Judd soon doubled that lead by winning the key safety battle in frame two as Mark failed to take his earlier chances once more and things were already looking dangerous for Mark being 2-0 down to a player in this kind of form. The world champion soon steadied the ship in the third by dominating that frame and closing the gap at 1-2. From here though Judd completely shut Selby out, as the man from Leicester only scored a further 12 points in the match. It took Trump two chances to close out frame four but he did close it out and Selby already looked in huge trouble when he went into the mid-session break 3-1 behind. It didn't get any better from there as Mark was shut completely out of the next two frames as breaks of 68 and 70 helped Trump along to a 5-1 advantage, one away from a place in Saturday's semi-finals. As you'd expect from a player of Judd's class in the form he was in yesterday, he finished the match off in style in the seventh frame with the highest break of the match, the group and the tournament so far knocking in a 119 to win the match 6-1 and sending Selby home, wondering what he really did wrong in that encounter.

Having made into the semi-finals now, Trump has three full days off before his match on Saturday where he will play the winner of Friday's group 2 involving Neil Robertson, Ali Carter, Mark Allen and Ricky Walden.


As for today though we have group 1 of the Champion of Champions involving defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan who takes on Stuart Bingham in the group semi-finals in a repeat of last years final, while Shaun Murphy plays Marco Fu straight afterwards with the two winners facing off across the best-of-11 frames in the evening. If you want to see my full preview, with a preview of todays group 1 and Friday's group 2 then it can be found here:
cueactionsnookerblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/champion-of-champions-preview.html

I'll be back tomorrow with a round-up of that group, and it should be a good one looking at the four guys involved.

Ding wins decider to win Champion of Champions Group 4

Ding Junhui was the first man to book a place in Saturday's Champion of Champions semi-finals after he beat Barry Hawkins 6-5 in the group semi-final in a cracking match last night. Earlier in the day Ding Junhui played first and beat Dominic Dale in a tough match 4-2, while Barry Hawkins played very well in sending John Higgins home 4-1. Ding wasn't at his best today but hopefully for him, 4 full days off ahead of the semi-finals should allow him to get some heavy practice in for the last 4 and bring him in well prepared.

This is what happened yesterday in a little more detail:

Group 4 semi-finals:

Ding Junhui 4-2 Dominic Dale - Ding Junhui started the match off pretty well, with a break of 52 helping him to the opening frame, while he soon doubled his lead as Dominic struggled to settle and only scored 2 points in frames 2 and 3, with Ding Junhui taking an early 3-0 lead thanks to a break of 77 in the third. The Chinaman made a break of 54 in the fourth frame and had a chance to seal the match and a whitewash but a break of 58 from Dale kept him in the match. Dominic then took another tight frame in the fifth, while he had another chance to counter in frame six before missing a tricky pink, and leaving Ding in for the few pots he needed to get past the winning post and into the group finals that evening.

Barry Hawkins 4-1 John Higgins - Barry Hawkins was pretty rampant in his match with John Higgins, romping home to a comfortable 4-1 victory in no time at all. Barry started the match off with a good break of 75 to take the opening frame. John dominated the next frame with Hawkins only scoring 8 points as the Scot levelled the match at 1-1. From there though Higgins wasn't really in it as Hawkins reeled off breaks of 57 and 73 in the next two frames to put him one away from victory at 3-1, and then a break of 58 in the fifth frame was enough to see Barry Hawkins home and into the group final to play Ding Junhui just a couple of hours afterwards.

Group 4 Final:

Ding Junhui 6-5 Barry Hawkins - This match had plenty of twists and turns between Ding Junhui and Barry Hawkins, but Hawkins couldn't get revenge for his group semi-final defeat to the Chinaman in the first running of this event last year. Ding dominated the early stages of the match taking the opening couple of frames for a 2-0 lead, thanks in part to a break of 65 as Hawkins only scored 13 points in the first two frames. Barry pulled one back in the third frame, but Ding Junhui soon restored his two frame advantage ahead of the mid-session interval thanks to a brilliant break of 105 putting him 3-1 up at the break. The first frame after the mid-session break was a very scrappy one but when Ding Junhui won it to go 4-1 in front and just two frames from the semi-finals you wondered what Hawkins had left in him for the rest of the match. The answer was plenty as Ding Junhui only scored 21 points in the next three frames as Barry levelled the match up at 4-4 thanks to runs of 70 in frame six and 80 in frame seven. With the match now down to a best-of-3 things were getting tense and it showed as the key ninth frame was a very lengthy one that went really quite scrappy, but Ding got an early lead in the frame and from there he was able to keep Hawkins at bay to put himself 5-4 ahead with 2 bites of the cherry for the victory. The response of the left-hander was emphatic as he made a nice century of 112 (the highest break of the day) to force the decider that the match deserved after such a valiant fight back from Barry. Unfortunately for Hawkins, he didn't have a chance in the decider before Ding had already left him needing snookers thanks mainly to a well played break of 55, and it was the Chinaman that was into the semi-finals with a hard fought 6-5 win.


Today we're on to group 2 of the Champion of Champions as Mark Selby takes on Steve Davis, before Judd Trump plays Stephen Maguire in the best-of-7 frame group semi-finals, before the two winners of those games face off in the evening in the best-of-11 group final. If you want to read my preview of that group and any of the other groups, my full Champion of Champions Preview is here:
cueactionsnookerblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/champion-of-champions-preview.html

I'll be back at the same time tomorrow to round off that group in full, and I hope you all enjoy another entertaining day of snooker.

Walden defeats Allen to become Chengdu Champion

Ricky Walden is the International Champion after beating Mark Allen in todays best-of-19 frames International Championship 10-7 after a brilliant week of snooker from Ricky. Walden's week saw him defeat David Morris 6-3, Zhou Yuelong 6-5, Joe Swail 6-4, Jamie Burnett 6-1, Robert Milkins 9-2 ahead of todays 10-7 victory in the final against Mark Allen in a week that saw Ricky climb up to 8th in the World (so he's now seeded top 8 for the UK Championships), while Mark Allen climbed up to 6th in the world and Robert Milkins climbed back into the top 16 with Mark Williams now just behind in 18th. It's a bad week though for Judd Trump though as he's down to No.11 in the World which is his lowest ranking for some time I believe and Stephen Maguire is beginning to hover down in 14th and with lots of money to come off in February's Welsh Open he could do with some big ranking performances.

Back to today now though, and this is a quick little round-up of what happened today in the final between Ricky Walden and Mark Allen:

Ricky Walden 10-7 Mark Allen - The match started off pretty evenly in the first couple of frames with Walden having breaks of 49 and 59 to make it 1-0 before breaks of 40 and 45 in the next from Allen levelled it up at 1-1. The next 2 frames went to Walden with a run of 64 in the third as Ricky went into the mid-session interval with a 3-1 lead. That lead was soon cancelled out by Mark Allen though winning a scrappy fifth on the colours before making a magnificent century break of 113 to level that match up at 3-3, with just the three frames left in the afternoon session. Both players had good chances in the seventh frame but it was Walden that took the frame on the colours for a 4-3 lead. Ricky couldn't really get things together in the final 2 frames of the session as breaks of 47 and 52 from Allen helped him to taking both and the 5-4 lead going into the final session of possibly 10 frames in the evening. At this stage of the match you very much felt that it was anyone's match.

Ricky Walden was looking better and on top form again at the beginning of the final session as he won all of the opening three frames in turning a 5-4 deficit into a 7-5 lead. Runs of 47 and 45 in the tenth were followed by a 40 in the eleventh after a 44 from Allen, and the best of a lot an 85 in the twelfth showing the top form that got him to the final. Mark Allen hit back by taking the next two frames either side of the interval. He made it 6-7 at the mid-session break thanks to a run of 68 and he squared the match up once more at 7-7 with a lovely 74. What did Ricky have in response to being pegged back once again? Well the answer is some of the best snooker he's played all week given the circumstances and position of the match. A contribution of 85 put him back in front at 8-7 with several good recovery pots in there. Yet another century this week for Walden put him one away from victory at 9-7 with a brilliant 103 in that sixteenth frame showing that he wasn't going to shy away as the pressure went. In the seventeenth frame, Ricky made an early 54 before having to play safe, Mark then got lucky to cover a red that he put over the corner, but Walden was even luckier to miss a long pot sending reds round the table, only for one of them to drop in, a fluke that saw him on the way to a further 62 that sealed the frame, match and tournament with a fantastic display from the Chester man giving him a 10-7 win.


It really has been a really enjoyable week of snooker at the International Championships with some really brilliant games throughout the week including a complete classic of a semi-final between Mark Allen and Mark Williams before a fitting final to the end the event, and the best man coming out on top in Ricky Walden. Next week it's onto the Champion of Champions event at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry which can be watched on ITV4 in the UK and will be another great week of snooker which starts off tomorrow and ends next Sunday (with a day off on Thursday) and I will have updates from that throughout the week as I have this week with the action in Chengdu. I hope you've all had a brilliant week and enjoyed reading my pieces throughout.