“It’s absolutely amazing and I don’t really know how I have won that”.
Mark Allen
Introduction
This game they call snooker never ceases to amaze me. It always produces drama, sweat, tears and joy in abundance and even when you think there is a clear winner, the rug can suddenly be pulled from under their feet and the trapdoor of defeat suddenly swung open. The UK Championship since its foundation in 1977 has produced a number of champions over the years and each richly deserved members of this exclusive club. This year was no exception and produced plenty of headlines including a media swipe at Ronnie O’Sullivan by Shaun Murphy and the toppling of seven of the top eight players before the semi-finals.
With only four players left in York, it looked like for a fleeting moment that Ronnie O’Sullivan had his chance to seize an eighth UK Championship. Ronnie, encouraged by his recent victories at the Hong Kong Masters and the Champion of Champions, brought his form to the Barbican and played here to a standard that gave him a great chance of claiming more silverware. However, it wasn’t to be because he came up against his good friend Ding Junhui, who was usually on the losing end of Ronnie’s cue. Ding on this occasion produced a display of sublime snooker that left his opponent searching for answers. A 6-0 whitewash is rare on an O’Sullivan scoresheet. On the other side of the draw, Mark Allen pulled a win out of the fire with Jack Lisowski, clinching the last frame in a 6-5 thriller to set up a fascinating final with Ding.
The Jaws of Defeat
In a final that had so much to offer, Ding Junhui was definitely the fresher of the two players with Mark Allen getting the rougher of the two deals, playing his spot the night before, using a large dose of adrenaline to win his match on a knife edge. A sizzling Ding shot out of the traps and froze out his opponent for the majority of the afternoon session. This had a severe detrimental effect on Allen who just couldn’t get his cue arm going. He looked spent at the end of the session and only had a glimmer of hope of coming back going from 6-1 to 6-2 to prepare for the fight of his life in the concluding evening session.
The Allen that returned to the roar of the Barbican crowd was a distant memory of his former self. Pumped by the ever closer tightrope of defeat and whispered words of his best friend Jordan Brown that he should go on and win the tournament, gave the Northern Irishman a burning desire and like a fox in a snare, he was determined to escape the jaws of defeat. Before the blink of an eye, Mark had rattled off a plethora of frames and brought the match back to 6-6. A relief for ticket holders who didn’t want this match to finish early with Ding previously only requiring four frames to claim victory and a looming fourth UK Championship title.
Allen produced a roaring performance that just kept on roaring. A sensational comeback that every snooker player dreams of and shattered his Chinese opponent’s dreams of returning to the big time after a three year drought of titles. Ding must of thought he was on episode of Mastermind with the length of time he spent sitting in his chair. Ding had to endure a barrage of breaks of 79, 60, 93, 132, 56, 59 and 109 before he even got a look in on the table and his century in the fifteenth frame would prove to be his last chance at the title. Ding became Allen’s mongoose, that was slowly strangled by his cobra actions.
Mark Allen has clearly come on leaps and bounds since he joined the Elite Sports Management team run that also works with Mark Selby and Jimmy Robertson. A management company that prides itself on helping players maximise their potential. It is always joyous to see when hard work pays off and this was shown backstage when Mark Allen went back to his dressing room after lifting the UK Championship trophy and was greeted and hugged by his partner Aideen, Bobby Lee, Curtis Braithwaite and close friends.
This was a title that meant everything to Mark and he was prepared to squeeze every drop of blood from his body to achieve it. It is a winning streak that follows his earlier victory at the Northern Ireland Open where he overcame a promising Chinese player, Zhou Yuelong 9-4 to claim the title in Belfast for a second successive year. Perhaps losing four stone in the summer. A weight that has literally been lifted and has earned him a cheque for £250,000, not bad for someone who was ranked 38th in the rankings three years ago and was clearly in the doldrums at the time.
The Turning Point
Mark Allen has clearly grown as a player in recent months, admitting his problems with excessive spending and weathering the storm with maintenance costs with his ex girlfriend, Reanne Evans over the daughter they had together. He has also answered his critics regarding his poor performance in finals despite playing well throughout a tournament. Allen is a class act and highly deserves his accolade of praise. A man who is steely, determined and prepared to fight relentlessly for his next title. This UK Championship win has shown that he is ready to claim his first World Championship title and become a Triple Crown winner, especially after winning all his UK Championship matches after coming back from behind.
