Championship League Group 1: Day 1: An eventful day in Essex

As snooker returned for the first time in 2015 on the tour, it was an incredibly eventful day at Crondon Park where it literally all seemed to be happening. First up the news arrived very late to everyone it seemed that Shaun Murphy had withdrawn from the tournament as he has been ill with a virus. That all seemed to happen an hour before play started (despite the fact he actually withdrew well in advance) which mean Mark King stepped in living just 20 minutes from Crondon Park and with a revised schedule we started 30 minutes late at 12.30pm. Once we did get going, there was some on table excitement in Barry Hawkins second match against Stephen Maguire in the second frame where (starting from a fluke) Hawkins was able to make a maximum break at around 3.30pm from my memory, so just three hours into snooker in 2015 we'd already had our first 147.

Now it's time for me to show you a picture I've taken of my (what shall surely become famous) notepad with all of yesterdays results and the as it stands table on written on it. For a little bit of fun you can also try and spot where I was forced to test my new pen after the previous one ran out.

 

 

 

As you can see from that Stuart Bingham had the perfect day and would already seem to be into the semi-finals with two games left having won all four of his first games. Neil Robertson has won three of his first four games and is also on target for a top four finish while it's anyone's game from the remaining five players for the two other semi-final spots. Barry Hawkins had a nice day after his 147 against Maguire as he won two of his opening three games, but another good day is needed from him today with plenty of players breathing down his neck. Marco Fu and Stephen Maguire were both only able to record one win from their opening four games, with both players beating Judd Trump. Maguire and Fu do play each other so you would suggest that the loser of that game may finish in the bottom two and get eliminated, while the winner has a great chance of making the play-offs. Having only got a late call to play, Mark King had a short but productive day at Crondon Park. He only played two games, which means he has four games in a row today and to take two frames off of Bingham and beat Fu 3-1 was some achievement on little preparation and if he can carry on strong and win half of his games today you'd fancy his semi-final chances. Finally, one man that has it all to do is Judd Trump who has lost all three of his opening games against Robertson, Fu and Maguire and you feel he has to win all of his remaining games to make sure of a semi-final spot, while a couple of wins could save him from elimination in the bottom two places having won 5 frames in those three defeats with two decider losses against Robertson and Fu yesterday.

 

 

That's how everything looks then after day one of the Championship League and who needs to do what on the final day of this opening group. From what I saw I was particularly impressed with Stuart Bingham and Barry Hawkins and in my view it will be one of those two who wins this group, though they will also face good competition from Neil Robertson and Stephen Maguire looks most likely of the others to take the other semi-final place having played ok yesterday and playing King and Fu as his final two games today i expect him to win both and as long as Trump doesn't win his remaining games that should be the play-off line-up. 

We'll see how everything pans out though, and i'll be back tomorrow to let you all know how it's gone and give you a little preview of what's to come in Group 2 of the Championship League.

Championship League Preview

Christmas is over and the new year has rolled in and that means that we have entered the second half of the season and the snooker action is coming at us thick and fast starting with the first couple of groups at the Championship League this coming week. As always the Championship League features 25 players that will compete over 7 groups in order for the 7 winners of those groups to then go into the Winners Group. As I say the whole thing starts on Monday with Group 1 and every group runs across two days at different stages over the next six weeks.

Here is the full list of groups, players and dates for the seven qualifying groups of the Championship League:

Group 1 (Monday 5th and Tuesday 6th January):
Neil Robertson
Barry Hawkins
Judd Trump
Stuart Bingham
Marco Fu
Shaun Murphy
Stephen Maguire

Group 2 (Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th January):
Ali Carter
Robert Milkins
Michael Holt
+ 4 players from group 1

Group 3 (Monday 19th and Tuesday 20th January)
Ricky Walden
Mark Davis
Ryan Day
+ 4 players from group 2

Group 4 (Wednesday 21st and Thursday 22nd January)
Martin Gould
Matthew Stevens
Michael White
+ 4 players from group 3

Group 5 (Monday 26th and Tuesday 27th January)
Ronnie O'Sullivan
Liang Wenbo
Fergal O'Brien
+ 4 players from group 4

Group 6 (Wednesday 28th and Thursday 29th January)
Dominic Dale
Peter Ebdon
Kurt Maflin
+ 4 players from group 5

Group 7 (Monday 8th and Tuesday 9th February)
John Higgins
Mark Williams
Xiao Guodong
+ 4 players from group 6

Winners Group (Wednesday 10th and Thursday 11th February)
7 Group Winners


As always it's a round robin event where every player plays each other once over the two days before the top 4 in the group go through to the semi-finals and the overall group winner goes into the winners group, while places 6th and 7th in the group are eliminated and the other four remaining players move on to the next group.

Looking at the players we have in the first couple of groups this week it is nice to see Ali Carter competing ahead of his Masters tie with Barry Hawkins, while nine of the ten guys competing across the first two groups also competing in the upcoming Masters event so that could give us a little insight into how they're playing and a hint perhaps as to how they will go in their first round games at the Ally Pally.

My main focus here is looking ahead to the first couple of groups, while I will look ahead to the other groups at a later stage and I will have daily updates with results and as it stands league tables (possibly scrawled onto my famous notepad) throughout the seven groups and winners group.

Looking at group one, as all seven guys in the group are playing in the following weeks Masters, this group gives them an opportunity to get back on the table after Christmas, with some nice practice with every player playing at least six best-of-five frame encounters. Judd Trump was in the best form prior to Christmas and he is the defending Championship League champion. I fully expect Judd to make the semi-finals but whether he wins the group or not is another question, because some people are of the opinion that he likes to play the groups as by staying in longer, you can take a greater amount of financial incentive, but I'm not necessarily saying he will do that this time. Stephen Maguire was also in good form, but you wonder with the Scot whether he would've been working that hard over Christmas and how motivated he will be in this event, as he is more likely to be eyeing it up for good practice. Neil Robertson is another guy that you expect to play well, but he probably won't be too interested in winning the group as a primary outcome, as he looks to just get in some good preparations for a long run at the Masters.

As for Barry Hawkins, Stuart Bingham, Marco Fu and Shaun Murphy you know that they will be eyeing good Masters preparation as well, but these are also the types of players who enter every single tournament with the primary goal of doing as well as they possibly can, and the idea of pure match practice is one that will come as a secondary outcome of being in this event and I fully expect one of these four guys to run out as the group one winner, as that is often the way that the early groups go, as the best players on paper and in form don't always win. Marco Fu has been struggling a bit prior to Christmas and he may be one of the players that struggles over the course of the two days if he doesn't get off to a good start. Stuart, Barry and Shaun are quality players along with Marco and I expect them all to be strong in the opening group.

The key to the Championship League is getting a good start and a good run of the fixtures, because if things aren't going your way on day one, day two could come around and it could be too little too late pick up a place in the semi-finals or avoiding elimination. In terms of group one fixtures: Barry Hawkins plays three games on day one and has the evening off, while Neil Robertson and Shaun Murphy play one game in each of the first second and third sessions to finish day one having also played three games. Marco Fu meanwhile also plays four games  on day one, but two of those four come in the final session of the day in the evening, and Bingham and Maguire also have to play four games on day one and two on day two which means they have to get off to a good start early on to give themselves a chance. Finally, Judd Trump has a similar day to Robertson and Murphy playing just the three games.

If I had to predict a group one winner I'd go with Stuart Bingham because he is the most likely to get off to a good start on day one in order to consolidate a semi-final place.

As I mentioned earlier I will be back after day one with an update showing the results, the day one table and with details of who needs to do what in the final round robin games on Tuesday, so if you have an interest in the event, stick with this blog as I'm a huge fan of the Championship League, and will cover the whole event in full this year because I see no reason not to.

Moment of the Year 2014: The Final Countdown

As with my player of the year feature, we’ve now seen all of my candidates throughout the months of 2014 for my best snooker moment of the year that has just come to a close. Now of course the time has come for me to make my final decision and announce my favourite moment of 2014, so here is the final countdown:

12= Dominic Dale’s Shoot-out win (January) – As good as it was to see the players like Dominic having a bit of fun during the Snooker Shoot-out last year, you can’t class it as proper snooker as such and therefore it was more just a bit of fun and can’t become a serious contender.

11= Neil Robertson thrills home crowd with consecutive home finals (July) – For the second year in succession Neil Robertson was able to thrill his home crowd in Australia by making the final of the Australian Open. However, he wasn’t able to go one step further and win the whole of the event and I wouldn’t even say that that was his best moment of 2014 so it can’t really come close to being mine either.

10= Mark Selby wins in Riga with another epic comeback (August)– Everyone loves a big comeback, and Mark Selby seems to produce them far more often than anyone else does in recent years. Because of this however, and with the fact it was only in a European Tour event it doesn’t make the moment as special as it would’ve been if it would have happened in a full ranking event over a much longer format.

9= Allen gets his revenge with awesome Shanghai fight back (September) - When Mark Allen made his comeback over Selby, earning his revenge, that was a more special moment because the it was in a full ranking event and of course it’s a very special moment for a player when they can earn some revenge over a player who has a put a few over on them.

8= Wildcard Xintong makes Wuxi Classic Last 16 (June) – This moment in the summer again was a lovely moment to see a young Chinese amateur come through the Wildcard qualifiers to reach the Last 16 of a full ranking event. Although, this isn’t the first time Xintong has beaten some top professional players and he has beaten more since so it hardly comes as a surprise that he has managed to do this, and this would certainly have been higher up on the final list if it would have been more out of the blue and stunned the snooker world, but in the end it wasn’t stunning as much as it was a slight surprise.

7= Murphy wins in Gdynia with 147 (February) – Back in February when it took place this was an incredibly special moment for Shaun Murphy to win his first title of any kind since November 2011 and to do so, with a maximum 147 break in the earlier rounds but on the very same day nonetheless. However, like Robertson’s run to the Australian Open Final, in my view it wasn’t even his most special moment at a European Tour event in 2014, and has to therefore be slightly lower down on my list.

6= James Cahill beats Ding on the way to UK Last 16 (December) – This was a fantastic run just a few weeks ago from the youngster (18 at the time this took place) and he would’ve been absolutely thrilled to not only beat Ding Junhui on the big stage under the TV lights, but also to beat two very solid players in King and Higginson to get to this stage and that’s what made it more of a special moment for me as this wasn’t so much of a one-off. It was an epic encounter too with Ding Junhui and a rollercoaster of emotions for Cahill throughout and that for me has to put it in the top half of my countdown.

5= Wasley stuns Ding in Crucible epic (April) – In comparison to Cahill’s run and his victory over Ding Junhui in a major ranking event, I have to rate this one higher for a number of reasons. Firstly, to make the World Championship Last 16 he had to win a total of four qualifying matches (including one over Robert Milkins on a re-spotted black). He also had to go and beat Ding Junhui on the television over a much longer format of best-of-19 frames and when the Chinaman was on a rich run of form making him an even bigger favourite to beat Wasley in that match.

4= Ronnie O’Sullivan wins Welsh Open with a 147 to finish (March) – Any Ronnie O’Sullivan 147 is special, but to make one in a ranking event final, in the frame he needed for victory just puts this one right up there with the best he’s ever made. Also, some of the shots that he had to pull off towards the end of the break (the shot from last red to black a particular highlight) and to finish by switching hands and grinning to pot the final black left handed showed how much he enjoyed making the break and how much he was just enjoying his snooker, and it was a great moment to watch on the TV as I did, but an even more special one if you were lucky enough to be there.

3= Shaun Murphy’s crazy day in Mulheim (November) – This day in the life of Shaun Murphy was an incredibly special one and possibly one of the most exciting and topsy turvey days that we’ve ever seen in a European Tour event making this moment all the more special. He showed great character to come back from a missed  final green and a missed final blue on maximum attempts earlier in the day to make a great maximum in the final under heaps of pressure and he played one of the best maximum shots I’ve ever seen on the 15^th black. To go with it all he won the title, which was consecutive European Tour events for the Magician and I may have the biased opinion (as a massive fan of Shaun’s) but it was easily one of the best moments of 2014 and therefore had to make it high up on my moments of the year list.

2= Robertson finishes the season with 103 centuries (May) – When this moment took place, you knew that not only this was a very special moment like all of the other ones on this list, but what makes this one unique compared to the previous ones on the countdown is that when we watched Robertson make the 100^th 100 of the season we were watching history unfold as the first man ever to do this (let’s be honest no-one else had even come close) but it will take an even more special moment for this astounding record to be broken, but who knows what the future will bring. In the here and now this is an incredible moment just thinking about it, and one that deserved to be in the top 2 of my moment of the year countdown.

1= Ali Carter wins on return in Hong Kong (October) – Finally, my Moment of the Year for 2014 was that incredible moment when the inspirational Ali Carter came back after treatment for Lung Cancer over the months previous, competing in his first tournament of any kind to win the Hong Kong exhibition Cup. What made this moment special is that he had to beat seasoned professionals at the very top of their games in order for this to happen, and the reaction it got from him and everyone else over social media was amazing and I couldn’t have been happier to see it happen. In fact, to put the whole thing into perspective for me, this moment was that special and sits above the rest that much for me that when writing the original October moment of the month piece on this and taking about how inspirational Ali is, it honestly brought a tear to my eye. I really do hope that there are a lot more moments like this for Ali to come, because after everything that’s happened he deserves to have some happy times and a bit of luck for a change and I like to wish Ali in particular all the best for 2015.

That’s all from me on my Moment of the Year countdown, and I don’t think anyone can honestly argue with my winning snooker moment of 2014 being Ali’s comeback victory in Hong Kong, and if anyone disagrees I hope they have a very good reason is all I can say. I’m sure there will be plenty more magical moments in the game of snooker in the year to come, and if all goes to plan you can expect this feature to return at the end of 2015.

Player of the Year 2014: The Final Countdown

We’ve seen all 12 candidates now and looked back at all of the months and the players that impressed me the most in each. Now though, it’s time for me to put my money where my mouth is and decide on the final order and my number one player of 2014. So, without further stalling it’s time to start the countdown.

12= Oliver Lines (October) – As I said in the original piece Oliver is a magnificent young player, but having only joined the main professional tour in May and only having a couple of decent runs it’d be tough to say that he is right up there in the top 5 or 10 best players over the whole of 2014.

11= Stephen Maguire (December) – Stephen Maguire may have had a good end to the year with runs to the semi-finals in the Ruhr Open and the UK Championship before winning the Lisbon Open and a semi-final at the Masters got him off to a good start in 2014, but for the most part Maguire was struggling with his game and his form and admitted that himself at the time. So again, in terms of pure consistency and quality throughout the year Maguire isn’t quite up with the best.

10= Ricky Walden (November) – Again, with Maguire, Walden’s 2014 was good in patches but not consistent throughout. Failure to qualify for certain tournaments like the German Masters both in 2014 and for 2015 will disappoint him as will the manner of his UK Championship Last 16 exit 6-0 to Bingham just a month after his International Championship title, but all things considered Ricky can still be very happy with what he achieved in 2014 but hopefully 2015 will see him add some extra consistency to his game.

9= Joe Perry (June) – As well as Joe Perry’s June run to the final of the Wuxi Classic he was also able to make the semi-finals of the Welsh Open and the quarter-finals of both the German Masters and Players Championship Finals and he pushed Ronnie O’Sullivan to the limit in the World Championship Last 16 but wasn’t just able to get over the line. Joe’s top 16 ranking for now is looking pretty solid for now, but a poorer back end to the year is the only reason he isn’t higher on my list.

8= Mark Allen (August) – An early semi-final appearance at the World Open and a quarter-final place in the PC Finals would have pleased Allen and coupled with runs to the final of the Riga Open, Shanghai Masters and International Championship and of course winning the Pau Hunter Classic Allen’s 2014 looks pretty impressive. The only thing that was missing was stronger runs at the Triple Crown events, and winning a big ranking title and converting more of those finals into trophies and if he could’ve done that he’d be right at the top of the list, but unfortunately he couldn’t. However, he’s set a great platform to have another very strong year on 2015.

7= Stuart Bingham (September) – Stuart Bingham has had another incredibly impressive year. As well as his Shanghai Masters victory in September making him Player of the Month, he was also able to make the UK Championship semi-finals for the second year running and looks to be one of the few players who can consistently cause Ronnie O’Sullivan problems. Meanwhile, another two victories on the Asian Tour demonstrates that his “have cue will travel” attitude is paying dividends. For me, the one thing missing for Stuart is a title in the UK or Europe to add to all of his titles on the Asian Tour and in ranking events overseas.

6= Ding Junhui (February) – Ding had a couple of titles at the German Masters and China Open in 2014, but the back half did become a struggle for him with only an Asian Tour title to his name along with a Shanghai Masters semi-final. It could be said I’ve been harsh in not putting Ding higher up this list, but his failures to even qualify for the Wuxi and International is very disappointing and Last 32 exits at the World and UK Championships are also not expected from a player of his calibre. All things considered then he may be the new World No.1 but there is a lot of work for him to do to stay there and perhaps that can be done in 2015.

5= Shaun Murphy (March) – Shaun Murphy’s game was very much down in the dumps in January but in 2014 as a whole he has managed to turn things right around again, winning three European Tour events, the Gdynia Open in February, Bulgarian Open in October and November’s Ruhr Open as well as his first full ranking title for three years in March at the World Open and three 147’s is a record for any player in a calendar. For him to continue his progress a really big title in the UK would be very nice and I certainly think he can get one in 2014.

4= Neil Robertson (April) – As well as his record breaking century of centuries, 2014 saw Neil Robertson defend his Wuxi Classic title in June, make the Australian Open final in July, the China Open final in April (with flu) and the World Championship semi-finals losing a tight battle with Mark Selby. Robertson will be disappointed not to have done better in defending his UK title and early exits in the International Championships and PC Finals were again slightly disappointing but he’s been very consistent overall. To maintain these levels of performance Robertson needs to build a stable base in the smaller European Tour events in order to build up his best form for the big events so he can perform consistently across all events throughout the year but there is no way that you can criticise the Australian’s 2014.

3= Mark Selby (May) – The main reason Mark Selby is at no.3 in my player of the year list is because of his big performances once again on the big stage. Winning the World Championship is plenty good enough as a reason for him to be in the top few players of 2014, finally proving that he can win at the Crucible and he continued his Masters dominance by making another final at the Ally Pally in January. He hasn’t let his performance slip either in the European Tour events winning the Riga Open and making the latter stages in Furth and Sofia. Mark is a superb player and a very hard worker for someone and he’s done superbly in 2014 as he does every single year showing his high level of consistency, which is even more impressive given the fact that snooker is certainly not as natural for him as the likes of O’Sullivan, Trump and Murphy to name a few. The key for Selby is to keep going in 2015 and continue reaching the latter stages of the big events.

2= Ronnie O’Sullivan (January) – Some of you may be very surprised that Ronnie O’Sullivan is not my player of the year. In 2014 he won the Masters very convincingly in January, the Welsh Open in March, made the World Championship final again in May, won the Champion of Champions in November and the UK Championships to end the year making two 147’s and closing in on Stephen Hendry’s centuries record. However, this is the high standard that Ronnie O’Sullivan has set himself over the last 2 years and when he’s at his very best you would expect him to win all of these titles that I have mentioned, and as astounding achievement as all of this is I just wanted to look elsewhere when thinking of who I really thought was an outstanding performer in 2014.

1= Judd Trump (July) – Yes that’s right ladies and gentleman, my Player of the Year for 2014 is Judd Trump. Judd’s year really got going in February when he made the German Masters final, and that seemed like the moment when things turned around for Judd because he had really been struggling badly with his game in 2013 for the most part and he was finally returning to his best and this had taken a really large amount of hard work. What followed was the Championship League title in March, a World Championship quarter-final in April where he was very unlucky to lose out to a strong Neil Robertson, who he did manage to get his revenge on by winning the Australian Open title in July, his first ranking title for 20 months which is a long time for someone of Judd’s class. He continued his big performances by making the Paul Hunter Classic final and the Ruhr Open semi-final on the European Tour before losing out in both of the Champion of Champions and UK Championship finals where he was well ahead of the rest of the field, apart from Ronnie who is still just that bit better than the left hander, but Trump has made a lot of ground up on him this year, and that is exactly why Judd is my player of the year for the resurgence and improvement he has shown to battle and find his best form again, and then cash in on this in all events across the field. It is inevitable in my mind that 2015 will bring more big titles.

That is all from my player of the year countdown in 2014, well done to Judd Trump for winning that title, but also a big well done to the other 11 players that were selected by myself to make it onto this list. The question is now… which 12 players will be the ones to impress me most in 2015? Well there is a lot of snooker to be played before I decide that and I’m looking forward to every single minute of it.

Moment of the Month: December: James Cahill beats Ding Junhui on way to UK Last 16

My final moment of the year is upon as I look back on December and one of the best moments of the final month of 2014 and it was James Cahill's run to the UK Championship Last 16 at the age of just 18. Here is exactly what happened:

As we entered the UK Championships Stephen Hendry’s nephew James Cahill was only 18 years of age. His performances at the UK Championships were enough for me to want to give a player of such a young age some recognition for the tough players that he had to beat in order to reach the Last 16 in one of the biggest tournaments on the calendar.

First up, in the Last 128 James Cahill was drawn against a very solid player and a tough man to beat in the 30^th seed Mark King. James Cahill played very well though and Mark seemed to struggle a little bit in the match to get going. James took a scrappy opening frame before breaks of 47 and 84 helped him to a 3-0 advantage, already halfway to victory. Again James needed more than one opportunity in the fourth frame but he still dominated it to go into the interval 4-0 in front. Multiple chances were needed again in frames five and six but Cahill won them both to finish off a remarkably comfortable victory as he whitewashed King 6-0.

Next up in the Last 64 James faced another very steady, reliable player in the 35^th seed Andrew Higginson, and Cahill was going to have tough work ahead of him once again. Andrew won the opener with a break of 68, before a very long drawn out second frame went the way of James to level the match at 1-1. Cahill then edged ahead with a contribution of 64, though Higginson hit straight back with a 75 to pull the match level at 2-2 going into the break. Cahill went ahead again winning frame five with a break of 61, before Higginson hit straight back with a 76 to make it 3-3. Once again though, it was Cahill that went into the lead as a break of 51 was enough  to send him 4-3 in front but again Andrew matched him punch for punch as a 66 made it 4-4. A 58 from the young man though was enough to put him one ahead with two to play at 5-4 and runs of 34 and 33 had Higginson on the back foot straight away in frame ten, but this time Andrew had no response as James Cahill closed out another fantastic win to move into the Last 32 beat Andrew Higginson 6-4.

Awaiting Cahill in the third round was Chinese number one and third seed for this tournament Ding Junhui. Ding seemed to be in fine form at the start of this match knocking in a fine 134 to lead 1-0, but James hit straight back with a 100 himself to level at 1-1. All of the next three frames were pretty dis-jointed with both players having opportunities but in the end James got the better of all three of those frames to move 4-1 in front, and a 57 in the next put him a frame from victory at 5-1. As top players do though, Ding Junhui fought hard and hit back taking the seventh in two chances, before contributions of 60 and 55 helped him to close to within a frame of Cahill at 4-5. In frame ten it looked as though James Cahill had won it, leaving Ding needing three snookers on the final red but a foul and a free ball given away allowed Ding to win again and Cahill lost the safety battle on the green as the Chinaman made a 25 clearance to steal the frame on the black and take the match into a decider that he would’ve been a huge favourite for. In the eleventh and final frame Ding had the first chance making a 32 before missing and letting James in who made a 56 break to take control of the frame and when he got his chance on the final reds he took it to finally close out the match for the biggest win of his life beating Ding Junhui 6-5.

The Last 16 wasn’t to fair as well for Cahill however, as he played Mark Davis who proved too strong after the underdogs exploits from the night before, beating him 6-2 with top runs of 53, 63 and 68.

It really was a fantastic run on the big stage for James Cahill to win three huge matches in the second biggest tournament that he can play in, and to win the biggest of those matches against the number 3 seed on the main TV table at just 18 years of age was a stunning result, and definitely worthy of my moment of the month for December.

Those are my 12 favourite moments of the snookering year revealed to you and there are some absolute crackers in there, and tomorrow i'll announce my final order of the moments and decide on my best snooker moment of 2014.

Player of the Month: December: Stephen Maguire

We're coming to the end of my player of the year countdown and my look back at the best players throughout the years snooker, and today it's time for me to reveal my final candidate for the prize and that is December's player of the month...Stephen Maguire. Here is my view on Maguire's December:

The player that impressed me the most in finishing the year of snooker was Lisbon Open champion and UK Championship semi-finalist Stephen Maguire. After beating Chinese players Lu Ning and Yu DeLu in the early stages of the UK Championship at the back end of November, Stephen turned on the style to beat Mark Williams in the Last 32, before then beating David Morris in the Last 16 and Marco Fu in the quarter-finals, eventually losing out in the last 4 in a close match against Judd Trump. That clearly gave him some confidence going into the Lisbon Open European Tour 5 event a week later, playing his first 3 games on the Saturday where he struggled past Sanderson Lam, before then thrashing Robin Hull and Barry Pinches. On the Sunday Stephen began proceedings in the Last 16 beating John Higgins 4-2 in a tough match, before then overcoming Noppon Saengkham in the quarter-finals. Arguably his best performance of the tournament came in the semi-finals where he whitewashed Mark Davis (who only managed 18 points in the match). From there he was a huge favourite to beat Matt Selt in the final, and despite being 1-0 down and pulled back to 2-2 in the final he was too good for Matt in the end winning 4-2.

These were some of my picks of the Scot’s performances in December:

Stephen Maguire 6-2 Mark Williams – Stephen Maguire hadn’t been at the top of his game coming into these UK Championships, without a good run in a big event for some time, and he could well have gone out the round before to Yu De Lu. Mark Williams had been playing very well as he showed on the way to the International Championship semi-finals and I predicted that Mark would win this one before the match began. As the match started though you could see that would be a different story as Maguire couldn’t miss at the start of the game. A break of 64 gave him the opener before a wonderful 132 made it 2-0. Williams won the next to get on the board, but a one visit frame again for Maguire with a break of 90 made it 3-1 at the mid-session break. A break of 51 from the Welshman stole the fifth frame on the black and that could’ve been the turning point at 3-2. Stephen didn’t let it affect him though and a couple of one visit frames followed for Maguire as runs of 87 and 80 put him just a frame away from victory at 5-2. After those frames you could see that Williams knew the task ahead of him would be incredibly tough and he did have chances in frame eight, but he couldn’t take them and Maguire killed off the match to win 6-2 in a much more comfortable outcome than I expected.

Stephen Maguire 4-0 Mark Davis – Stephen Maguire carried that form on to the Lisbon Open and by the time he met Mark Davis in the semi-finals he must have been thinking about picking up his first title of any kind since the Welsh Open back in February 2013, and that could well have put him under extra pressure coming into this match against a very solid player in Mark Davis. Stephen Maguire was in a determined mood though, and Mark Davis was unable to get his foot in the door of this match. Stephen had runs of 47 and 49 to take the opening frame and a couple of 42’s in the second doubled his lead in quick style. A 52 in the third put the Scot a frame from the final and it didn’t take long for him to kill this one off as a break of 81 won him the fourth in one visit to beat Davis 4-0 who could only manage 18 points in the match.

As brilliant a player as Stephen Maguire is and a very fluent player to watch when at the very top of his game but you have to say that Maguire has not won as much in his career as he should’ve done. However, 2014 was not his greatest year for the most part, but by the time he ended he was “on fire” as his nickname goes. The job for Maguire now is to take that form into 2015 and get another big ranking title under his belt, as well as consolidating his top 16 ranking which is still in a little bit of danger hovering around the 16 mark when you take off his Welsh Open winners money from 2 seasons ago. We all know that Stephen Maguire has tons of ability and should’ve won more than he has, but now is the time for him to start cashing in his career like Selby and Murphy around his age need to continue doing as well having done the hard work to get where they are now in the game.

Tomorrow then it's time for me to publish my final order from the 12 candidates I've revealed from the years snooker so far and decide on my Player of the Year for 2014, so be sure to come back and have a read.

Classic Matches of 2014 Countdown:1st Place: Mark Allen Vs Mark Williams (International Championships)

It's the moment we've all been waiting, first place on my classic matches of 2014 countdown and the match is of course that wonderful International Championship semi-final on Saturday November 1st between Mark Allen and Mark Williams and I have to say it was a match you couldn't take your eyes off of with brilliant break-building on show throughout...

Mark Allen Vs Mark Williams:

This best-of-17 semi-final started out with Mark Allen knocking in a good long ball, and with plenty of reds open it looked like a good opportunity to build a handy lead in the frame. It was the perfect start for Allen in the end as a break of 92 made it 1-0 to him. Mark Williams first scoring visit came in frame two, but he could only manage 14 before missing a tricky red and leaving Allen in, who only made 4 before giving his counterpart a half chance. Williams added 20 before missing again leaving another opening for Allen, who needed to get into the pack straight away, but he couldn’t land on one and played safe. A poor safety left Mark Allen another opportunity and a clearance of 71 got the job done this time for him to lead 2-0. A confidently played long red from Williams gave him his first good chance in the third. The reds were nicely open, and Mark Williams picked them off well as a fine century of 120 made it 1-2. Williams had the first opportunity once again in frame four and he was looking in top form as he got into the pack early on, getting a beautiful split of the reds. The brilliant scoring continued as the Welshman sealed the frame in one visit thanks to consecutive centuries as a superb 135 levelled the scores at the mid-session break at 2-2.

Following the break, Allen came out of the traps the fastest with a confident red from range giving him a good early chance and after getting nicely into the reds, the opening for another heavy scoring visit was there, but he ran slightly out of position before missing a trickier red than he wanted on 52. Williams was back in then, but his cannon to the three reds and pink in the middle of the table didn’t come off as he ran out of position on 16. The newly in shape Mark Williams won the safety battle and was given the next good opening from which he manufactured who added 26 before missing a cross double. Allen fluked the penultimate red and Williams nearly did the same on the final red, but when it stayed in the jaws Allen was able to do enough to edge 3-2 in front. Mark Allen was again first in in frame six taking control of the frame with a break of 54 before running out of position and playing a shot to nothing red into the middle. The next chance in the frame fell to Williams though after a good safety battle, and he made a break of 70 to leave Allen requiring a snooker to win on the pink. Allen got the snooker and all of a sudden a very important battle on the pink began and after both players had attempts at it, Williams played a very good long cut back to level the match at 3-3. A nightmare snooker escape from Williams, left his opponent a golden opening to make a frame winning break with all of the reds spread around the business end of the table. Allen picked the reds off beautifully and constructed a very nice break again of 105 put him 4-3 in front with one frame left of the session. Williams had the opening scoring visit of frame eight, but he would’ve been very disappointed to miss the blue he did on just 29. Mark Allen had some good fortune to put a red near the corner and cover the natural path to it, so Williams tried to play it cushion first but it wobbled in the jaws and stayed there to hand an opening to the Pistol. Allen made 14 before a huge kick on the pink left a chance for Williams, but he couldn’t take it and handed it straight back. From there Allen made 55 to win the frame and take a 5-3 lead into the final session later that evening.

Mark Allen was the first off in the second session with a good long pot to get in, and he made some good recovery pots on the way to a perfect start and a run of 77 making it 6-3. Allen was in first in frame ten too after a couple of missed opportunities to get going from Williams. He’d made it to 32 before missing a tough red from middle distance after someone in the crowd put him off. A miss-timed safety shot later on from the Northern Irishman left his fellow Mark a chance to overtake him and build a frame lead of his own. Williams seized his chance and a break of 84 got him back in the match at 4-6. Frame eleven looked to be going very scrappy with the safety battle sending a number of reds to the side cushion, which meant that when Allen’s chance came he had a lot of hard work ahead of him. Clever cannons and good recovery pots put him in a commanding position and the superb standard of break building continued as a 67 put Allen three in front again at 7-4. Looking for only a couple more frames for a place in the final, Mark Allen made a good long ball to have the first crack at frame twelve but he was left hampered and stretching on a red which he missed on 18, to leave Mark Williams a chance. Williams made a break of 49 before taking on a risky plant, splitting all of the reds and when he missed it, Allen was primed to counter. It all came down to the final red for Allen who missed it in the jaws and stuck it for Williams who was already ahead by 3 points, and a clearance to the pink was enough for him to get back in it again at 5-7.
Following the mid-session interval, Williams knew he needed to strike first and a brilliant long red gave him the chance to do so. He managed a perfect spread of the bunch early on from the blue, but a couple of poor positional shots cost him and he had to play safe having only made 40. A long pot from Williams gave him the chance to lay a good snooker with the reds spread and he got 20 points in fouls from Allen. The chance to clinch the frame was soon Williams though after another good long red allowed him in and he did enough to close the gap to just one at 6-7. Frame fourteen saw an early chance for Mark Allen after a missed long red from Williams and he made 40 from that opening before missing a tough red up into the baulk corner. Williams long potting had been good in the main however, and it gave him a golden chance soon after with all the reds invitingly spread from an attacking safety played by the Pistol. Once again, Williams played the break to perfection levelling the match with his third century of it, a 102 making it 7-7 as this best- of -17 became a best of 3.

When Allen missed a long pot and the red went up the table, the last thing he wanted was to go in-off as well, leaving an early opportunity for MJW to build a decent lead and a 25 got the ball rolling before his cannon to the bunch failed. A mistake from Allen gave him another look in, and a further 46 left Mark Allen needing a snooker trailing by 71 with 67 left. When he escaped and hit the black instead of the final red it left a chance for Allen to steal, though the blue was awkwardly positioned and the pink away from its spot. To get from blue to pink he’d have to go around the table but the cue balls path was disrupted by the black which ended up on the side cushion and left the pink at range. Allen stroked the pink in beautifully and doubled the black which was followed by a big fist pump, as the Northern Irishman stole a frame that I’ll never know how Williams lost, going one up with two to play at 8-7. It was always going to prove tough for Williams to come back from such a big blow, but he gave himself the chance in frame sixteen by rolling in a sublime red from range. Some magnificent recovery shots kept the break going under huge pressure throughout the break, yet he kept responding to make what must go down as one of the best pressure breaks of the whole tournament in Chengdu, to force a final frame decider in a contribution of 86. The first opportunity in that seventeenth and final frame fell to the cue of Mark Williams, but he missed a tough red on 8, leaving Allen in only for him to miss a pink in the middle on 1. MJW added another 7 before splitting the pack from the pink and failing to land on one, leaving safety as his only option. A very tight pot into the middle bag from Allen gave him the best opening of the decider so far. He put 33 more on to his score before a positional error left him on a tough pink which he missed to leave a huge chance for Mark Williams. It was always going to be about the final red which the Welshman had to roll along the bottom cushion and it just wobbled in the jaws which was so unfortunate and it let Allen in for the clearance which was no problem in the end for Mark Allen to make it into the final of one of the best matches I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching with some amazing break building and absolutely loads of tension at the end, which had me on the edge of my seat and heartbroken at the end for Mark Williams who was so unlucky to lose 9-8.

That's it for my classic matches countdown for another year and what a fantastic year it's been in 2014 for great matches, and as it is New Years Day I'd like to wish all of my blogs readers a brilliant new year and all the very best to everybody for 2015 and thank you all for reading my blog within the last year.