Rock giants Simple Minds were playing Berlin on Saturday night, and the way Judd Trump despatched Rod Lawler it looked as if the Juddernaut had been keen to get down to the Huxley’s Neue Welt before the obligatory encore performance of ‘Waterfront’. The main Glittering Prize in the German capital over the weekend was, of course, was the £70,000 for winning the Masters. Thank you, we were here all week. Which is more than be said for Jim Kerr and his mob.

It is doubtful too many Premier League footballers would cope with the strict regime at Hertha Berlin, the capital city’s top-flight Bundesliga club. An offer for a couple of players to attend the 8pm deciding session of the Judd Trump vs Ding Junhui  final at the Tempodrom, following their early afternoon Sunday kick-off against Nuremberg, was politely declined with the response: “I am afraid it is forbidden for the players to go out after a match.” And this, without another game for a week. Based on past performance, a fair few English players would have been through a couple of bottles of Krystal before the break-off.

It may have been only the second full ranking event semi-final of his career for Rod Lawler, and a first for 18 years, but the 42-year-old was certainly playing it cool in the build-up to his big moment in front of a packed and wildly enthusiastic 2,500 sell-out crowd at the Tempodrom. The Liverpudlian spent most of Saturday relaxing but clearly aware of the possibility of extreme stage fright against Judd Trump came to the venue with wife Jo just to see the walk-ons of Ding Junhui and Ryan Day. They then promptly left, and 10 minutes before his own entrance, at 7.50pm, Lawler had to ask who had won the first semi-final.

The Tempodrom was first used for snooker seven years ago – but the circumstances and conditions presented a serious challenge for all those involved, including six-time world champion Steve Davis. The visiting Holiday on Ice show had a day off mid-run, and a hastily-arranged ‘Snooker on Ice’ was scheduled with a table installed on top of a thin carpet to protect the surface. However the carpet was little protection against the extreme cold, and Davis, Matthew Stevens, Neil Robertson and Germany’s Lasse Munstermann battled on with noses streaming and according to the Nugget “frozen up to the waist”.

The decision was taken by senior referee Jan Verhaas at the German Masters to recognise the growing influence and strong performances from the host country’s officials this season at their flagship home tournament in Berlin. An all-German line-up therefore took to the floor for Friday night’s quarter-finals at the Tempodrom, featuring Ingo Schmidt, Thorsten Mueller, Theo Selbertinger and Maike Kesseler. Mueller had to work hardest for his money, with the Rod Lawler match against Mark Davis finishing at around 12.15am.

The growth in popularity of snooker in Germany is to a large extent rooted in its coverage on Eurosport Germany, and the broadcaster pronounced themselves very happy with the viewing figures over the first couple of days, even before the business end of the tournament. Audiences peaked at just under 500,000 in the evenings, despite being directly up against the hugely popular German version of jungle reality show ‘I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here’. Apparently the same camp in Australia that housed snooker legend Steve Davis last year is used by the Germans in January and early February, and then the Dutch have their turn, and it is at least reassuring that not more than one jungle is being desecrated for the celebrity antics. Don’t say we never bring you the really big news on Inside Snooker.

Rod Lawler was delighted after reaching his first quarter-final in a full ranking event for more than a decade, setting up a clash with Mark Davis after coming through a rollercoaster ride against China’s Tian Pengfei 5-4. Liverpool’s Lawler, 42, had led 4-0 before Tian hit top gear to level at 4-4 – but the world No50 edged through on the final blue. Lawler, a professional for 24 years, fell off the tour in 2012 but got straight back on via Qualifying School. Though a winner of a PTC later that year, the last time Lawler was in the final eight of a major event was the 2003 Welsh Open, staged at the Cardiff International Arena. He lost 5-2 to Stephen Hendry, who went on to win the title that year. After his last-16 victory in Berlin he was already describing it a “perfect week” following Liverpool’s derby demolition of Everton on Tuesday.

Almost inevitably the arrival of world champion and former German Masters winner Ronnie O’Sullivan at the Tempodrom caused one of the biggest stirs of the pre-weekend phase of the tournament. The Rocket failed to qualify after a defeat in Barnsley to Thailand’s Thepchaiya Un-Nooh that saw him accused of some reckless shots, and left organisers underwhelmed. A large quantity of O’Sullivan branded merchandise and copies of his recent autobiography ‘Running’ translated into German had been produced for this event and forthcoming exhibitions, and there was a danger of it not being shifted from the ‘Ronnie Shop’ and most being consigned to a Berlin lock-up garage or other place of rest. But after some wheeling and dealing O’Sullivan travelled out regardless and did three sets of book-signing and photos with wildly enthusiastic fans, two at the venue and one at the nearby players’ hotel.

It was a sign of the controversy generated by the Table Eight ‘Room of Doom’ that the order of play for Friday afternoon, the last-16 tie and final match due to be played in the separate area, was scanned as much for who had to be in there as for who was on the main table in the arena. With Shaun Murphy taking on Judd Trump the TV clash pretty much took care of itself, but with several of the field already having tasted the dubious delights of the ‘Buddha Lounge’ it was Xiao Guodong and Jamie Burnett who drew the short straw. A cynic might wonder if these were players least likely to throw their toys out of the pram on the issue, Inside Snooker couldn’t possibly comment.