CRITICS - CAN THEY BE A PLAYER'S BEST FRIEND?

It came a little out of the blue in the post-match Mark Allen/Michael White press conference when the Northern Irishman revealed how much he had been stung by comments made in a TV feature showed on BBC Wales earlier that day, in which a panel of Steve Davis, Ken Doherty and Shaun Murphy analysed strengths and weaknesses of the leading players. This BBC feature was in fact first shown at the Masters in January.

Davis started off by saying: “Mark Allen…not being disrespectful, but not necessarily Premiership, more Championship material”, and it appeared that it was this that had wound up Allen the most. Doherty was overall more complimentary but also labelled Allen “inconsistent” and pointed to Allen’s positional play and focus as issues.

Allen does seem the type of personality though that could turn this to his advantage. If such criticism makes a player go away and work even harder at their perceived weaknesses, it can do them a favour. He told Terry Griffiths how wound up he was before the White clash, and took it out on his young Welsh opponent.

Of course, Stuart Bingham was famously motivated and driven to succeed after a certain player accused him of having no bottle before an Australian Open quarter-final. It pushed him on, saw him collect titles and ultimately a brilliant world championship win beating three tournament favourites in a row in Ronnie O’Sullivan, Judd Trump and Shaun Murphy. The originator of the “no bottle” remarks? You’ve remembered it – Mark Allen.

MIXED FORTUNES FOR MAXIMUM MAN DING

Ding Junhui arrived in Cardiff out of form, but sporting a new bright red waistcoat. When it came to trying to engineer a change of fortunes, it looked like it was down to a straight choice between this and entering the arena with a lucky cat for the 11-time ranking event winner from China.

The 28-year-old Ding joined the huge Chinese community around the world in celebrating the nation’s New Year earlier in February, with 2016 marking the Year of the Monkey. And one tradition widely observed for the bringing of good luck is the wearing of red clothes. It got him to the quarter-final, but evidently it takes more than a sartorial tweak to stop a rampant Neil Robertson. Ding’s snazzy garment might have been the secret weapon behind a sixth career 147 maximum break in frame six, but it could not halt the Australian’s charge.

CARDIFF'S CHINESE STUDENTS LAP UP DING PRICES

Cardiff boasts a huge student population of many tens of thousands, and a good percentage of those are from China. The arrival of Ding Junhui in the city was quickly picked up on by Chinese micro-blogging site Weibo, and widely trailed and promoted in advance. The result was a strong turnout of extra fans supporting the 28-year-old at the Motorpoint Arena.

Some of those that pitched up were devoted snooker fans, and had either attended or would have liked to have attended tournaments in their home country. But as so often before, the issue of ticket prices for events in China reared its head. These fans reckoned they would have had to pay £50 or more for certain matches in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu or Daqing, and so by comparison the bargain £8 many paid in Cardiff represented excellent value. Some said it was cheaper to fork out a return train fare from Manchester and buy a ticket than it would have been to see Ding back home, where they rated him as one of the top five sportsmen.

Ding did his ambassadorial bit to make it a truly special occasion for his supporters, hanging around after matches to sign autographs and pose for pictures.

SMART WORK FROM BETVICTOR'S MCCANN

Inside Snooker likes a proper old-school bit of PR, and Charlie McCann of Welsh Open sponsors BetVictor provided it in the aftermath of the Ronnie O’Sullivan ‘146’ incident.

As a journalist you get bombarded with press releases of all types, and to be perfectly frank most of them are pretty uninspiring, badly written with little humour and unlikely ever to make it into a national newspaper. There are exceptions, Betfred are also strong in this area.

When O’Sullivan made the already infamous decision to snub the chance of making a 14th 147 maximum break in Cardiff for financial reasons, it was in a trice a much bigger story than if he had potted a 14th black and cleared up.

This can be a time for cool heads, both in the media and certainly for an event sponsor handed an unexpected boon and quickly deciding how to make the most of it.

As in this case if the sponsor is a bookmaker it is your event, if there is capital to be made you want it to be you that makes it (rivals will steal your show if you are too slow).

McCann’s experience told him that this was a story that would totally polarise the snooker, sporting and wider public and therefore could go huge. So how best to exploit the situation, in the best possible sense?

The key for bookies in their field is to appear generous while actually wanting to take all your money, it is a neat trick if you can pull it off. And McCann quickly decided with howls of disapproval starting to build over the Rocket’s action that there was a way of both appeasing punters who may have backed there to be a 147 in the match or tournament, and gain wider exposure.

He quickly put out a release saying: “Ronnie obviously has an issue over the £10,000 offered for a 147 break but we don’t think our customers who backed a maximum break in the tournament, or the handful who backed the Rocket for a 147 in the match should be out of pocket; we have paid out accordingly.”

Speed is important, and as a result this well-judged statement made it into several national newspapers in stories that ranged from back pages to news sections.

Simple like most of the best ideas, effective, hitting the right mark and tone and a good job well done (with presumably some happy bosses). And that was just Monday.

FINAL REFEREE MAIKE MAKES HER MARK

Speaking of Maike Kesseler, having paid her dues over the years and notably on the European Tour circuit the referee looked extremely happy and proud as she waved to the 2,500 crowd doing the Tempodrom ‘walk of fame’ in the spotlight down into the main arena ahead of the two players. This was a first ranking final for Kesseler, though she has taken charge of a semi-final in Berlin and also the final of a PTC event. If the reception at this stage of the tournament sends shivers down the spine of the combatants, imagine what it must be like for the referees who are even less used to it. I think it is fair to say we will never see football referees get this sort of warm, red-carpet welcome ahead of a big match.

FAMOUS BELGIANS LIST LUCA WOULD LOVE TO JOIN

Luca Brecel is bidding either in Berlin or in the future to enter that renowned pantheon of ‘famous Belgians’. Here is Inside Snooker’s own selection on what he is up against to crack it:

Tintin (and creator Herge); fictional detective Hercule Poirot; five-time Tour de France winner Eddy Merckx; legendary singer Plastic Bertrand of ‘Ca plane pour moi’ fame; the current Belgium national football team especially Eden Hazard and Vincent Kompany but not Christian Benteke; crap film king Jean-Claude van Damme; Audrey Hepburn (are you sure?); tennis champion Kim Clijsters, and last but not least Baroque painter Rubens.

JAN'S A DESOLATE MAN

Senior official Jan Verhaas, supervising for the German Masters, was a conflicted man just moments before the big walk-ons ahead of Sunday’s Tempodrom final. His beloved Feyenoord were locked in battle with deadly rivals Ajax in Holland’s Eredivisie, but duty called and there was Maike Kesseler to support as she strode out to referee a first major final in her home event. The big Dutchman admitted “my head isn’t really here” after carrying the trophy out to the table, and about the time Rolf Kalb was winding up the preliminaries Ajax scored what proved to be the winner, leaving Verhaas desolate.

WHERE DID THE SNOOKER GO?

With only nine ranking tournaments a year, you might have expected a bit more on the BBC Sport web site about the German Masters. Incredibly on the morning of the final there had been NO stories about the event proper. Yes, a lot of box office stars tumbled out in qualifying including Ronnie O’Sullivan, John Higgins, Neil Robertson and Ding Junhui; yes, the Berlin event was being televised on a rival broadcaster in Eurosport/Discovery. But that doesn't make a difference in other sports and to find absolutely no coverage at all was a real surprise. Back on Wednesday the world No1, the world champion, Judd Trump, Shaun Murphy and many others were still involved, and the semis threw up a guaranteed new ranking event winner. Worth a mention, surely.