WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12

News that the Players Tour Championship grand finals will be switched from Thailand to an as yet undisclosed location in Europe was met with concern by several players now eyeing a tough schedule in March. 

They will be off to Haikou for the World Open (March 10-16), which can involve as many as three flights depending on the route and will have to come back to Europe for the PTC finals (March 25-29) before flying back out to Beijing for the China Open (March 31-April 6).

Players who qualify for Beijing can’t yet book flights because they don’t know what country they will be flying from. Worse still, at least one player qualified for Thailand has already booked a flight to Bangkok.

One top player suggested the upheaval could cost players come the Crucible, where mental energy is an absolute must.

 

++

 

Knowing he could finish only fifth at best in group 5 of the Championship League – and would therefore not be involved in the semi-finals on Tuesday evening – John Higgins attempted to make a getaway only to discover Neil Robertson’s car was blocking his own. Robertson was playing Mark Selby at the time.

Undeterred, the Scot found Robertson’s keys and moved the world no.1’s car to a different car park, thus leaving Robertson fearing it had been stolen until the penny dropped.

Robertson, who turned 32 on the day in question, tweeted: “I was about to call the police!!! It was bad enough he beat me 3-2 on my bday!”

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.

 

++

 

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.

 

++

 

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!”