Ricky Walden held off a fight back from Marco Fu to win his first PTC title at the Bluebell Wood Open in Doncaster.
The Englishman opened up a 3-1 advantage despite Fu making a 113 break but saw his lead evaporated as the contest headed for a decider.
Hong Kong’s Fu had the chance to complete the turnaround but a 65 from Walden gave him the title.
Walden had worked hard for his trophy, having earlier in the day seen off David Gilbert, Mark Allen and former world champion Shaun Murphy.
Fu similarly impressed with deciding frame triumphs over Steve Davis and Ding Junhui, either side of a whitewash win over Wales’ Mark Williams.
The 35 year-old was going for his second title of the season having already picked up silverware at the Australian Open last month.
But Walden proved to be too good in the end as he earned the handsome £20,000 pay packet.
Walden has been an inconsistent player throughout his career but a pair of main ranking event successes, as well as appearances in the last four of both the World and UK Championships, upholds his pedigree.
At only 30, the Chester cueist is still in his prime and is a dangerous player at any event he participates in.
The event itself appeared to run smoothly enough but there were once again concerns over the excessive heat in the Doncaster Dome.
Some will argue that players should just get on with the job at hand and stop complaining.
But to be fair, conditions should be at least close to perfect in a professional sporting tournament.
The Dome is a much better facility than the EIS in Sheffield, the venue that was previously used but that has no seating, yet this issue should be resolved if the tour is to return there in the future.
Either way, the weekend belongs to Ricky Walden, who will go to Germany and the Paul Hunter Classic next week full of confidence.
The full list of results can be viewed by clicking here.
I think Doncaster is one of the best venues yet, you could see all the games at the same time unlike Germany / Gloucester where you are constantly moving around to see different games. Re the heat, I played 2 matches in a waistcoat and shirt and couldn’t feel any heat, the pros played in collared t-shirts so can’t understand the complaints. Someone mentioned they forgot to ‘open the roof overnight’ before the pros started so that was why it was considered hot. It was a million times better than EIS, but the next venue is Barnsley, apparently the chap who organises the new venues lives locally, a disaster if ur based in London, nothing going on down there at all…
That’s interesting mate. The open plan set-up does sound very good, although I heard there may have been some problems with crowd control (when there was a crowd).
Are you playing in any more this season?
There was no crowd control problems what I saw, just open access, never saw anyone walking up to the tables. At all events it’s like that anyway. Not sure when I’ll play again in these, the ones in the Midlands cost about £300 and the ones in Europe >£500. Most of the pros and the top amateurs seem to bring their practice game straight onto the match tables, without any warmup, and u need to do the same to have any chance of making any money, almost impossible for a rec player. Even some of the new pros are out of their depth (ones from Europe, esp). It’s one thing being a pro, another making any money out of it. Saw some matches that would put TV snooker to shame. Advice I’d give to anyone travelling to play is not to split immediately after losing but stay another day and watch the pros in action, get an idea of where ur game has to be to be competitive.