CHILD'S PLAY FOR WILSON

Kyren Wilson was still in a happy daze walking around Cardiff on Monday night, after a Sunday he won’t be forgetting in a hurry.

The 23-year-old from Northamptonshire saw son and first child Finley Kyren Wilson born at around 7am last Sunday – and then dashed north to Barnsley for a China Open qualifier, beating Matthew Day 5-3 to clinch a trip to Beijing.

World No59 Wilson, one of the sport’s rising stars, admitted: “I just don’t want to be away from him for a second and keep looking at his picture on my phone. Obviously I would have stayed with Sophie if he had been born later but when he arrived in the morning she told me to go to Barnsley and play the qualifier, so winning it topped off an amazing day.”

RUSSIAN ROULETTE SEES REF LUISE PUT ON MASTERCLASS

There was a cuesports first for Inside Snooker in Berlin, where the chance arose to have a go at Russian Pyramid (also known as Russian billiards or Russian pool), a game still found in the city owing to the historical links with the former Soviet Union.

Featuring 15 numbered white balls and a ‘cue’ ball, and played on varying table sizes (this one was the full 12ft by 6ft) the notable features compared to snooker on the same size surface area are the larger balls and much tighter pockets, with literally a couple of millimetres to spare for the ball to go in. The jaws of the centre pockets also make it very challenging to get anything down from much of an angle.

There were probably weren’t any better informed people to be playing with than official table fitter Pete Godwin, who may not have potted too many but was able to quote off the top of his head the size of the larger, heavier balls at 2 and 11/16 inches.

But the undoubted star of the show was snooker referee Luise Kraatz. The Nuremberg official put on a masterclass and while everyone else was struggling to have any success even from a couple of inches waltzed round the table potting them off the lampshades.

FROM LOCAL HERO TO AUDIENCE ZERO

It’s a big day at the Tempodrom in Berlin for Marcel Eckardt, a German referee taking charge of the German Masters final between Mark Selby and Shaun Murphy.

At 25, Marcel is the youngest person to referee a ranking tournament final. He now lives and works in Berlin after taking a six month break from snooker to concentrate on work, part of which involved a period of studying.

As expected, he got a rapturous reception from the 2,500 strong Tempodrom crowd but his next refereeing engagement will be a quieter affair. Early on Monday morning he flies to the UK to take charge at the Championship League, where there is no audience.

This is about as drastic a change in atmosphere as you can get but confirms Marcel as a dedicated official keen to gain as much experience as possible.

It seems likely he will be donning the white gloves at the Crucible if not this season then in the near future.

EUROSPORT PICK RIGHT DAY TO SELL SNOOKER

After deciding to make a big statement of intent at the German Masters by having a studio presence for the first time at the snooker, broadcasters Eurosport followed that up with more efforts to spread the word once safely installed at the Tempodrom.

A pan-European media day on Friday afternoon saw journalists from Germany, Italy, Hungary, Poland, Spain, Romania, the Czech Republic and Portugal invited and given the VIP treatment including tours of the venue, a masterclass on the practice tables with young German prospect Lukas Kleckers, and some wining and dining.

The practice session did raise an eyebrow from Mark Selby, working on his game on the adjacent table ahead of his evening quarter-final showdown with Judd Trump but it takes more than excited gaggle of hacks and presenters to ruffle the world champion these days.

And the invited party could not really have picked a better day to be in the Tempodrom, arguably one of the finest in recent snooker history taking all factors into consideration. There was a 147 from Trump who went on to lose, four quarter-finals going to a deciding frame, a first ranking success for Shaun Murphy over Ronnie O’Sullivan and that was just the evening.

Earlier, of course, Murphy had obtained a snooker to stay in the tournament when 4-3 down to Mark Allen in another classic last-16 encounter.