Congratulations to John Higgins who is now the 2009 Betfred.com World Champion following a hugely impressive 18-9 victory over world number three Shaun Murphy tonight. In winning the title he joins joins Stephen Hendry, Steve Davis, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Ray Reardon and John Spencer as having won the trophy on three or more occasions…
I’ve just got back home and it is approaching 2am as I start writing this so will try to keep it fairly brief and post more detailed observations on the final and indeed the tournament as a whole during the coming days. As it is, here is the last instalment of my Crucible diary for this year.
Click here to see how the final result affects the rankings for next year.
Afternoon Session
I got to the Crucible today for what would be my fourth world final at around 1pm and with the scoreline standing at 11-5 in favour of Higgins overnight, it was pretty clear in my mind that Shaun would have to win the afternoon session at the very least 5-3, and ideally 6-2 to give himself a real chance tonight.
Early on I thought that he might have a chance as he looked to be cueing nicely, looked to be confident around the table and did seem to be up for the fight. Unfortunately for him however, so did John Higgins and importantly for him, he seemed to be getting the first big chance in each frame. Indeed each frame seemed to follow the same pattern, Higgins getting in first, making about 50 before breaking down and giving Shaun a chance to counter. Though Murphy actually played some very good stuff, he kept leaving himself facing some tricky shots towards the end of the frames (a red into the green pocket springs to mind), and having missed them, left everything on for a Higgins clearance.
As a result, John had actually increased his lead to 14-6 by the mid-session interval, pretty harsh on Shaun I felt given how the frames had unfolded but it just wasn’t his day. At this point as the players headed out of the arena, I took the opportunity to take a few photos, notably of the trophy, the table and the arena as a whole. Though I did get some excellent images, I was later to regret this as I did not have much battery left in my camera for the trophy presentation later!
On the resumption of play it was pretty clear that Shaun had to win at the very least three of the remaining frames and in all honesty, probably all four. He did start well, breaks of 47 and 79 bringing him slightly closer at 14-8 and just threatening to make things interesting for tonight, but again, he could not quite get a run together and as John took the last two of the session to make it 16-8, it was pretty clear that we would not have much of an evening session to look forward to.
The Waiting Game
With the afternoon session starting an hour earlier this year (a very good move I must say), there was an unusually long gap between sessions and as is often the case, it was filled with getting a few photos of various snooker personalities here for the final. One thing about the third Monday is that the vibe is totally different to the previous days, no waiting around at Stage Door or anything like that and of course you don’t know who is going to be there, be it former champions or other celebrities.
Hanging around with a couple of friends, we managed to bump into Tony Knowles, Ken Doherty, Ray Reardon, Dickie Bird and Sir Rodney Walker, while I also saw that Patsy Fagan was in attendance. As it turned out both Knowles and Doherty were on standby for the evening session to play an exhibition should the final end prematurely which of course would be the case.
Evening Session
Needing just two for victory it was always going to be a case of when and not if John Higgins was going to take victory, though by the build-up given by MC Rob Walker and the reactions of a couple of people in the crowd pre-match (one Higgins fan with a bandana in particular), you would not have guessed it. Could Murphy pull off the seemingly impossible and make the fight-back that to be honest I had half-expected to come this afternoon?
No. John took the first frame with a couple of solid breaks and while Murphy took the second of the session to keep the match alive for a short while, Higgins made sure of it with a run of 73 in what would be the 1,001st frame of his career played at the Crucible, one not to be forgotten. It was strange in that while John was obviously delighted, he did not celebrate as much as perhaps he might have if the match had been a little closer.
It obviously meant a lot to him though and the trophy presentation was really quite touching as having received the trophy, John immediately went over to comfort one of his three children who was obviously a little overawed by the occasion. I thought that was a really sweet moment and it says a lot about Higgins who as well as being a brilliant snooker player, is a real family man.
Exhibition
As the final session finished after just three frames World Snooker managed to put on an exhibition which turned out to be a best of three Super Sixes event between John Parrott/Michael Holt and Ken Doherty/Tony Knowles, though while relatively entertaining, it was not the most exciting thing in the world. Having just seen the World Championship trophy lifted though, I guess it is always going to be a hard act to follow!
Afterwards I hung around for a while with friends who I have met during the last few years at the Crucible and as we chatted about all things snooker, already the venue was being taken apart (along with the table) as the realisation that it is all over for another year sunk in. Thanks to Mark, Ryan, Bev, ‘Hairbear’, Chris, Kellie and all the rest of you who as always have enhanced my enjoyment of the tournament this year and make it not just a snooker tournament, but a snooker experience and a fun one at that.
As I say, over the course of the next few days I hope to post more detailed observations and comments about the tournament as a whole, but right now I’ll close by simply saying well done to John Higgins once again, undoubtedly a true legend of the game.