John Higgins wins a record 4th Welsh Title

John Higgins recorded a 9-3 victory over Ben Woolaston in tonight's final in Cardiff.

The Wizard of Wishaw won his first ranking title since the 2012 Shanghai Masters and his 26th ranking event. Higgins was throughout the stronger player as Ben Woolaston struggled to get anything going in his first full ranking event final. Despite being outplayed in the first session, it was an outrageous fluke for Higgins prevented Woolaston leveling the session at 4-4. Instead Higgins took a crucial 5-3 advantage into the evening session.


In the first frame of the evening session Higgins potted a great long red and made twenty before going in-off while splitting the red. Woolaston was never able to get an easy opportunity though and was snatching at any half chance. John wasn't really missing but was running out of position and there was a real feeling of tension for both players. A similar pattern followed in a very tense 2nd frame which Higgins also won. Once 7-3 infront Higgins relaxed and was able to take the next two frames relatively easily.

Unfortunately it wasn't a great final, John did enough to win comfortably without ever really needing to raise his game, while Ben struggled to settle his nerves. However only a few weeks after losing to an amateur in the China Open qualifying this has proven to be the best week of Ben Woolaston's career and he will hope to build on it for the remaining few weeks of the season. He will rise to a career high ranking of 28 and a similar deep run in a ranking event could see him challenge for the top 16.

For John he has all buy cemented his place in the top 16 for the remainder of the season and will be looking to kick on from this weeks success. I've been saying for a few tournaments I believe I've seen some form in Higgins & that it's been the mental side of the game that's been letting him down. It will be interesting to see if he stops beating himself up over little set backs in matches and return to the granite match player which has led him to Four world titles.

The snooker schedule is packed in the lead up to the World Championships in April. Next up is a few of the smaller events before a ranking event pile up in mid March. The players will be flying to Poland in a week for the Gydnia Open.

Taking Flight in Cardiff

Two days are in the books in the 2015 Welsh Open and 92 players are already on their way home. We're down to the last 32 and it's not been without shocks. Well maybe I should change that to "Shock”, Ding Junhui's and Barry Hawkins defeats wouldn't surprise most people given their form this season. However the Shaun Murphy's defeat to the talented Jamie Jones is more of a shock.

Jones came to the attention of the masses after his great performance at the World Championships a few years ago. Still young and clearly very talented he was tipped to keep rising through the ranks, however he's had a disastrous few years in the qualifiers, going down, rather than up the rankings. Jones will face an all Welsh tie versus Mark Williams next live on Eurosport at 8pm.

The other 13 members of the top 16 are still standing though. Robert Milkins, Xiao Guodong & Mark Davis are all out though in the race for the top 16 for the World Championship. With Mark Williams now overtaking Robert Milkins for the last automatic qualifying spot in the WC.

In the betting I fancy a little £5 bet on Perry, Dott, Walden & Higgins - £20.07

John Higgins has a very good draw, if he can get it together mentally I believe he is cueing well enough to get to the later stages. He will probably have to beat Maguire in the Quarters, a complete bogey player for Higgins in recent years - 2011 PTC event was his last victory - but I think this could be his week to reach a Semi Final.

Graeme Dott is in the race for a top 16 ranking and he will most likely face John Higgins in the last 16 in a crunch match for the last 16. At this point Dott is around £30,000 behind Higgins so will require a few deep tournament runs to catch his fellow Scot. 

Ricky Walden will face Martin Gould in a very tough match to call, hence the good odds but I fancy Ricky to just have enough to go through a close match.

Joe Perry is one of my favourite players to watch, he is very good in every department and fly's under the radar. He is 1/3 today to beat Gary Wilson and I think this is easy money, don't let me down Joe!

The quarter finals are on Friday and I’ve got the following match ups coming up:

Ronnie O'Sullivan v Judd Trump

Mark Allen v Joe Perry

John Higgins v Stephen Maguire

Michael White v Mark Selby

Visiting the German Masters 2015

I thought I would put down a short overview of my trip to the German Masters last week.

Originally my holiday with friends to Berlin was to coincide with Hertha Berlin's home fixture versus Bayern Munich in early December, this proved too short notice to muster up funds so the next best match was chosen - Hertha v Bayer Leverkusen.

Tempodrom Berlin

At the time I was unaware that my timing was perfectly in line for the German Masters, an event I had always wanted to attend. In fact the timing was so perfect that I shared a flight out with a few of the Scottish Snooker contingent (picture below).

Stephen Maguire, Me, A friend of their party?, Anthony McGill and John Higgins

So after a few days of heavy drinking I needed a quieter night and the Friday Evening session looked tantalising with 6 of the top 8 remaining in the draw. Purchasing tickets was easy, all the tourist information shops dotted about the city sold them. I got a couple at the Brandenburg gate tourist information just before my excellent walking tour by Stephen at - Free Walking Tour - I highly recommend this if you are ever in Berlin.

The venue is in a central location and like the rest of the city is served by a superb overground/underground rail network. I would recommend buying the 5 day pass for the rail system, it worked out at 40 Euro's but given how much time we spent on the network it was worth it. Ticket conductors are rarely seen but if you do get caught it's a 50 Euro fine.

The tent is an impressive venue from the outside and on this extremely cold evening shelter was greatly received. Inside it was like most modern venues. Bars and cloak rooms lined the space under the stands and there were a few doors at either end for shuffling into the arena. Once inside you are taken aback by the sheer size of this arena. I never got to visit the old Wembley Conference centre but this must be the closest venue on the tour in terms of scale. Finding your seat wasn't so easy I found, the numbering system mixed with my lack of German made it more difficult so we just took any empty seats at the back.

I've read a lot on twitter the last few days about how this is the 2nd best venue behind the Crucible. I would tend to disagree, I think it's the most impressive venue but the view from the back is limited, you just feel too far away. The last row in the temporary seating venues, such as the Barbican will provide a much better viewing experience, it just won't look as good on TV.

There is a sizable lobby where people can amble about and stretch their legs and the Eurosport team where situated in the corner of it. Due to being in Berlin for all but the final day I didn't get enough of an opportunity to judge the new TV panel. However I know from his ITV stint that Neil Foulds is an excellent studio analyst. I don't agree with having Ronnie O'Sullivan commenting though, he's still at the top of his game and I feel it's a conflict of interests. There was a similar situation over the winter when an injured Australian Cricket Captain Michael Clarke was invited to join Channel 9's test coverage and comment on his own players. It all felt a bit uncomfortable, as you knew the usually quite outspoken leader couldn't properly express his opinions of his colleagues.

Eurosport Team

I've not really went into what happened on the night as it's almost a week ago and plenty has been written but I thought I would put down my thoughts on the event from my visit. As I've done for the Crucible in the following two links:

Visiting the Crucible 2013
Visiting the Crucible 2014

I've got a few pics of the moment after Judd Trump his this wonderful 147:

Judd celebrates his 2nd 147

Players are quick to get back to work.

Although I prefer the World Championships at Sheffield this event could easily rival for cost as a visitor, I booked my flights from Edinburgh Airport for £57 return and the tickets were about £20. I would recommend it to all snooker fans as I look to plan my trip to the Welsh Open next.