O'SULLIVAN AND DING WIN MAIN AWARDS

O'SULLIVAN AND DING WIN MAIN AWARDS

RONNIE O’Sullivan was handed a small consolation for his Crucible final disappointment by picking up a ‘Player of the Year’ double on Thursday night.

The Rocket won the main award and also the fans’ prize at snooker’s glitzy annual celebration dinner at the Lancaster London Hotel.

The 38-year-old O’Sullivan missed out on a sixth World Championship success with an 18-14 loss to Mark Selby in Sheffield on Monday night.

Even playing a limited schedule O’Sullivan won the Champion of Champions, Masters and Welsh Open titles – sealing victory in Newport by making a record 12th maximum 147 break.

The snooker writers’ award went to China’s Ding Junhui.

Ding, 27, equalled Stephen Hendry’s record of winning five ranking titles in the same season and also reached his highest position of No2 in the world rankings.

New world champion and world No1 Mark Selby won the ‘Performance of the Year’ award for his comeback victory over O’Sullivan in the World Championship final this week.

Leicester’s Selby also picked up the ‘Magic Moment’ award for making snooker’s 100th 147 maximum break with his brilliant effort at the UK Championship in York last December.

Rookie of the Year went to Gateshead's 25-year-old John Astley who climbed into the world's top 100 during a promising debut season.

There was a special award for Neil Robertson, who became the first player to make 100 century breaks during a single season, completing the 'ton of tons' at the Crucible.

The ceremony also saw two former world champions inducted into snooker's Hall of Fame: Dennis Taylor and Cliff Thorburn.

 

Photographs by Monique Limbos