By Elliott West
Introduction
Held at the SE&CC, Glasgow and televised on Sky Sports, this was a tournament where many of the snooker tour battled it out for a chance to walk away with the title and £82,500 in prize money. With worries brewing in the background that Sky would pull the plug on the event the following year with the broadcaster saying it would prefer to ditch this tournament and the British Open in favour for showing the World Matchplay and the live Premier League.
This was of Jimmy White’s triumph, fighting his way through the competition to play Paul Hunter in the final. In the end, White triumphed and defeated the highly talented Hunter 9-7. This win marked the end of a drought for Jimmy, his last professional title coming when he 30, the 1992 UK Championship. In clearly what was a significant win for White and preserved his place in the top 16, an emotional and drained Jimmy, accepted the trophy and embraced his father Tommy and Paul Hunter afterwards.
The Tournament
Round 1
Rod Lawler v Robin Hull W/O
Mark King v Jimmy Michie 5-2
Marco Fu v Scott MacKenzie 5-1
Stuart Bingham v Joe Swail 5-4
John Parrott v Mark Davis 5-4
Shaun Murphy v Dave Harold 5-1
Ian McCulloch v Nigel Bond 5-4
Drew Henry v Michael Holt 5-1
Ryan Day v Tony Drago 5-4
Jamie Burnett v Anthony Hamilton 5-2
Neil Robertson v Anthony Davies 5-3
Ding Junhui v Mark Selby 5-4
Allister Carter v Stuart Pettman 5-1
Barry Pinches v Robert Milkins 5-1
Dominic Dale v Gary Wilkinson 5-4
Gerard Greene v Chris Small 5-2
Round 2
In the second round, only five members of the top 16 failed to win their opening match with John Higgins being the highest ranked casualty, losing 5-4. Even before he started playing, his participation was in doubt with the Scot having contracted a bug from his family and was violently being sick in the toilets minutes before his match with Drew Henry commenced. Higgins led the match at 3-2, thanks to breaks of 73, 60 and 71, going to lead 4-3 and 39-0 in the deciding frame. However Higgins didn’t get a favourable split to the reds and Henry went on to capture the frame and match with a 73 break.
Matthew Stevens didn’t seem to have luck on his side as he lost his fifth successive match since winning the UK Championship the previous November. His match against Mark King resulted in a 5-3 defeat. King, buoyed by his run to the Irish Masters final, produced a convincing win, producing a 138 clearance in the opening frame and led the match 3-1 before Stevens pulled it back to 3-3. However the Welshman couldn’t push ahead any further and King was made to scrap out the remaining frames for victory.
Stephen Lee, a Crucible semi-finalist the previous year, was dealt a hammer blow to his World Championship chances when he was beaten in the decider by John Parrott, thanks to a 69 break. Lee had previously been on a break of 49 but then suffered a thunderous kick on a red.
Quinten Hann and David Gray were also top 16 casualties. Hann playing Jamie Burnett, had to be warned by the referee, Colin Brinded for swearing after trailing 3-2. What made it worse, was that there was children present in the audience. However his rebukes including punching the table, didn’t put his opponent off and Burnett kept his composure to lead 4-2 and then won the match 5-3.
Ian McCulloch was dealt a tricky adversary in his match against David Gray. Gray who had won the Scottish Open in Edinburgh the previous year, was frankly disappointing and ended up chasing his opponent throughout the match to no avail. The Scot led the match 2-0, 3-1 and 4-2 and finished it off in style with a run of 67. A grey day for David Gray and a jubilant one for Ian, who progressed into the last 16.
The best performance of the round,had to be Paul Hunter’s destruction of Ding Junhui in just 59 minutes. A lacklustre performance by Ding was added to by the Chinese player only scoring 20 points in the whole match. Certainly one to memory values for Ding and a win that Hunter must have been very proud of and savoured. This defeat was so significant because it denied Junhui the progression to the last 16, a rare occurrence. Perhaps it didn’t help that Ding was using a borrowed cue from Peter Ebdon after his own was smashed by baggage handlers at Glasgow Airport.
Mark Williams had a headache of a match against the Liverpudlian, Rod Lawler. Considered to be favourite, prior to the match, Williams was playing out of sorts. Lawler, someone who hadn’t had any impact on the tour since getting to the quarter-finals of the 2003 Welsh Open, played out of his skin, producing breaks of 81, 105 and 102 to lead 3-1. The match went to 4-4 and in the end Williams managed to drag himself over the line to win 5-4.
Similarly Ronnie O’Sullivan was pushed all the way in his match against Ryan Day. Leading the match 2-0, O’Sullivan looked like he would fly through the encounter but Day fought back and led the match 3-2 with a break of 120 and then 4-2. However on a break of 33 in the eighth frame but could not press home the advantage. O’Sullivan went on to make it 4-4 and then won the decider with an 83 break.
Stephen Hendry used a clever technique to ease past Gerard Greene 5-1. After losing to Mark King 5-1 in the Irish Masters, Hendry decided to put down his cue for eight days and concentrate on golf instead. The trick seemed to work because he came back ready and inspired, brushing his opponent aside with breaks of 103, 43, 57 and 69.
Stuart Bingham was also at the receiving end of an inspired Peter Ebdon. Peter who had already been triumphant at the Irish Masters, breezed past Bingham 5-3, helped by breaks of 92, 63, 72, 66 and 52.
Two old hands at snooker, Steve Davis and Jimmy White defeated Neil Robertson and Shaun Murphy 5-3 respectively. Davis fell over the line in his match, describing himself as a ‘gibbering wreck’, knowing that a win would preserve his 12th place in the rankings and a guarantee that he would remain in the top 16.
Meanwhile Jimmy White cleared brown to black in the eighth frame to beat Shaun Murphy 5-3. Murphy had led the match 2-1 and cleared blue to black for 3-3 before Jimmy’s 121 break allowed White to edge in front 4-3. A match that was lost for Murphy due to his inexperience on the brown.
Ken Doherty who had a mediocre season up this point, suddenly found some form in his match against Ali Carter. Carter led the match 2-1 but Ken surged back and won three frames on the bounce with breaks of 74, 67 and 87. Going two up with three to play, Doherty clinched victory two frames later.
Confidence seemed to the word of the moment as Graeme Dott beat Marco Fu 5-3, Alan McManus defeated Dominic Dale 5-1 and Joe Perry edged past Barry Pinches 5-4 after nearly being down in the match 3-0 at one stage.
Round 3
As the tournament entered round 3, the game’s top eight players all managed to cross the line. Jimmy White and Ian McCulloch also joined them from outside the elite group. As the starting gun was fired on this stage, Jimmy White continued where he had left off in round 2 and produced solid snooker to defeat an in-form John Parrott. John could have led the match 3-0 but he was blasted off the table by White’s five frame surge and had to settle for the two frames win in a 5-2 defeat.
Ian McCulloch was composed and controlled when he met Drew Henry. With breaks of 79, 44, 67 and 101, Ian eased past his opponent to reach his third ranking event quarter-final of his career. A win that boosted his chances of joining the top 16.
Steve Davis must have left Glasgow thinking he had thrown his match away against Paul Hunter. Given a golden set of chances to win the match, Davis threw them all away, failing to level 2-2 and allowed Hunter an pot to go 3-1 ahead. Paul then went 4-1 ahead before Davis came back to 4-3 behind. At 4-4, Davis missed a long red and let Hunter build a 62 break to win the match.
Mark Williams, then world no 1, faced Mark King. Williams went down 4-2 in the match to beat Mark King 5-4. This was aided by a fluke in the eighth frame which allowed Williams to make an 80 break, a 49 in the decider and he made two more scoring visits to secure victory.
Ronnie O’Sullivan was not put under any pressure by Jamie Burnett. It took just 83 minutes to beat Burnett 5-0. O’Sullivan made two centuries in the match, 107 and 106 but never looked threatened at any stage of the match.
Stephen Hendry had his work cut out when he met Alan McManus. McManus who always known a snooker table inside out, took the first frame with a 102 break and won a closer second frame on the blue to make it 2-0. However that is where it ended for Alan with his break in the rest of the match being 23. A scrappy affair, a type of game that Hendry detested. A missed yellow by McManus in the second to last frame sealed the match for Hendry and he went on to win 5-2.
Ken Doherty compiled his highest career break in his meeting with Joe Perry. Doherty, whose highest break had been 143 in competition, made this break in the opening frame and went on to lead 4-1 before Perry’s 64 in the sixth frame. Doherty won the match 5-2.
Peter Ebdon completed the quarter-final line up with a 5-3 victory over Graeme Dott. In a match that had controversy in it, Dott accusing Ebdon of bullying the referee, Michaela Tab. It occurred in the fifth frame when Tabb attempted to respot the pink on its spot but Ebdon questioned the decision and it ended up being placed on the brown spot. The decision left a sour taste but Dott could only draw the game to 3-3 before Ebdon took the last two to win 5-3.
Quarter-Finals
Doherty beat Hendry 5-4
To a packed audience, this was a match that many would have loved to have seen live. Doherty, often at the receiving end of Hendry victories, turned the tide in this episode and fought back from his opponent’s 2-0 lead. It then went to 2-2 and the Scot regained the lead at 3-2, 3-3 then went to 4-3 in Stephen’s favour but managed an 84 break and won a scrappy decider to take the match.
Hunter beat O’Sullivan 5-2
Fresh from their previous bout in the Masters final two months previously, O’Sullivan wanted to seek revenge for the previous defeat. Taking the first frame, Hunter went on to take the next three with runs of 117, 49 and an 80 clearance from 44 adrift in the fourth. However Ronnie was the weakest of the two players on the day and a 121 break by Paul in the seventh, effectively sealed the match.
White beat McCulloch 5-3
In this match, we got a glimpse of the Jimmy White that was to come in the forthcoming stages of this tournament. Although Ian pushed the match to 2-2, thanks to a 103 clearance, the rest of his performance was littered with errors, missing a number of crucial balls. White picked off the frames with sizeable breaks and the Scot was only able to capture another before he lost the bout 5-3.
Ebdon beat Williams 5-3
Peter didn’t need to go into top gear to win this match. Williams was fragile prior to this encounter and on the day was plagued by a number of kicks. A scrappy affair led to Ebdon taking a 3-1 lead but missed an easy blue. Williams pulled it back to 3-2 but that is where it ended for the Welshman. A 46 by Ebdon sealed the meeting.
Semi-Finals
White beat Ebdon 6-5
This match had everything, outstanding breakbuilding, tension, a fight-back and a grandstand finish that brought a standing ovation. White was down in the match 5-1 with Ebdon outplaying him in every department. However this whirlwind wasn’t ready to be blown away and produced snooker from the gods, to come back 6-5.
Hunter beat Doherty 6-2
Paul won this match because he took advantage in the close frames. Leading 2-1 and then 3-1 at the interval. Ken came back and was only able to muster up another frame before Paul won the match convincingly 6-2.
The Final
White beat Hunter 9-7
This was probably one of the heartwarming stories in snooker history. Jimmy White hadn’t won a world ranking tournament for twelve years but produced snooker that was the better of the two players. Hunter, below par, managed to draw the match at 4-4 but was clearly embarrassed by his performance compared to his earlier matches. Maybe pressure or natural burnout was the cause.
The interval seemed to change things and the standard of play definitely improved. White reeled off four frames in only 50 minutes with breaks of 51, 44, 56 and 76 to establish an 8-5 lead. Although Hunter salvaged the fourteenth frame with a 67 break, White had already captured the match by the sixteenth frame with a timely break of 49.
Ironically this loss for Hunter, meant that he fell from first to third in the LG Electronics Order of Merit. This meant that he lost out on a £50,000 bonus with 410 points, a prize that was claimed by Ronnie O’Sullivan instead with 470 points.
Summary
This was Jimmy White’s last professional title and took his ranking titles to ten. In recent years, he has won a number of Seniors titles but this win was definitely up there with being one of his best. A gritty player, who always plays with flair and scored heavily, White still remains a respected player and a legend of the game.
