The Gdynia Sports Arena, home to the European Tour event staged in Poland by the Baltic Sea, was another curious-looking home for snooker following on so soon after the iconic circus-tent design of the Tempodrom in Berlin. This one, giving the impression of being built into a grassy mound, could almost have been a nuclear bunker. But in more light-hearted fashion it was immediately branded ‘The Teletubbies House’ by Ian Burns and others. Shaun Murphy would certainly have felt in Laa-Laa Land after claiming a first title for two and half years, but he could not afford to get Dipsy with a Championship League date looming the day after back in Essex.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4

Judd Trump hit a green ball so hard in the first session of the German Masters final that it became damaged. Rolf Kalb, the German Eurosport commentator and master of ceremonies in Berlin, was approached by several spectators who wanted the green to keep so struck on the idea of auctioning it off for charity. World Snooker agreed this was a nice idea and had both Trump and Ding Junhui sign the ball, including it in a full set, plus case.

The balls were auctioned for the Phillipp Lahm Foundation, which provides educational resources for children in Africa, and raised €1,355.

 

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Snooker players don’t always enjoy travelling but some fans really demonstrate commitment. Two Russian women travelled 3,000 km from their home in Murmansk to attend the German Masters final, a journey which lasted two days.

 

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Stephen Hendry has not only joined Twitter – you can follow him at @SHendry775 – but tweeted over 450 times in only four days, which certainly makes him more loquacious than in several post match press conferences after he had suffered disappointing defeats in his heyday.

It’s now 20 years since Hendry defeated Jimmy White 18-17 in the 1994 World Championship final, after which White famously remarked, “He’s beginning to annoy me.”

White’s verdict on Hendry joining the social network? – “Now he can annoy me on twitter!”

SHI Yuanyuan, or Victoria to give her the English name she chose, is a well-known figure on the tour, a former journalist providing copy for Chinese news outlets and web sites turned Sheffield-based entrepreneur. As well as organising waistcoat sponsorship logos with Chinese companies for players Victoria has since the summer been looking after Ding Junhui following his parting of the ways with long-time managers Garry Baldrey and Keith Warren. We at Inside Snooker don’t know what type of green tea she has put him on, but it is working. Four ranking titles, and counting.

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.