Neil Robertson last night claimed his second Masters title with a 10-4 victory over Barry Hawkins in front of another packed house at the Alexandra Palace. In truth the final itself was a bit of a damp squib, but that in no way takes away from what was another fabulous week of drama on the green baize.
So here are some of my takeaways from the week.
1. In the days following Zhao's victory in the UK Championship & then Brecel's victory in the Scottish Open, many were quick to jump on the bandwagon that we were now seeing a changing of the guard. What we saw here was, that for all the talent they undoubtedly possess, these young guns have a bit to go to match the ring craft of the old guard just yet. Both Yan & Zhou were out played & out thought by Williams & Higgins respectively.There is no disgrace in that & they both strike me as the type of people who will learn from the experience.The point is that anyone who thought these great champ would now disappear gently into the good night, were maybe jumping the gun a bit.
2. Judd Trump's quest for another Triple Crown title fell short again with his 6-5 defeat to Barry Hawkins in the semi final. As I said before, I think its inevitable he will top Ronnie's ranking title haul & he should be the first player to reach the 2000 century mark, but unless his record improves in these events, he will never take his place among the real greats of the sport. that said I think there were some real flashes this week of the Judd of the last few seasons emerging again.I have a feeling we wont be waiting too long to see him with another trophy., but its what he does at The Crucible, that will define his season.
3. It was surprising to see us all to see how badly Mark Selby was playing on Friday evening & unfortunately the answer cut more deeply than it being a simple bad night at the office.On Saturday,he revealed on twitter that he is currently struggling with his mental health & is now seeking the help he requires to get him through these troubles. This was an extraordinarily brave thing for him to do & all we can do is wish him the very best.He hopefully takes great encouragement from the outpouring of support he received following the tweet. Thankfully we are now living in a time where peoples understanding of mental health issues are growing all the time.None of us are immune & seeing people like Mark standing up in this way may encourage others to seek the help they need also.
4. We heard endless commentary on the atmosphere at the Ally Pally this week & for the most part it was excellent, but lets be honest, there were also times when things really threatened to get out of hand. The fact that these incidents mostly happened in the evening session is probably no coincidence. This is where the refs need to be aided by strong stewarding & some chucking out if necessary. I don't know what it was like there, but it certainly made for some uncomfortable viewing.This is not a road we want to see the sport slip down. Maybe in future Rob could tone down the hyping up of the crowd a bit for the evening sessions & this also applies to whoever is in charge of the music that is pumped in between frames. We have a great sport that is built on respect at every level, lets not let that be ruined by a few idiots.
5. I posted a tweet during the week about what a wonderful job John Virgo was doing in the commentary box & the massive positive reaction I got, yet again showed what an unforgivable mistake it would be for the BBC to drop him at the end of the season. "JV"brings something extra to a commentary that just isn't there with anyone else across all snooker broadcasting. Good and all as Stephen Hendry is, its particularly noticeable how much his standard improves when he is alongside Virgo. This is what the best do in any sphere, they raise the performance of those around them. Hopefully the powers that be reconsider. They got it wrong a number of years ago when they prematurely benched Clive Everton. Hopefully lightening doesn't strike twice.
6. Finally though lets salute our champion once again. This was Robertson sixth Triple Crown title & that total only really starts to reflect what wonderful player he is.Its probably fair to say he wasn't at his absolute best this week & really should have gone out to Williams in that epic semi final, but yesterday, when the chance came, he powered through the finish line like all great champions do. This win was bridging a 10 year gap since his first Masters title & he'll be hoping it can be the catalyst to him filling in that other great omission on his cv, another world title to go with is 2010 crown. For now though lets all rise for one of sports greatest ambassadors.
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