FERGUSON GETS HIS OWN BACK

WPBSA chairman Jason Ferguson played the diplomat in the always formal and extravagant award ceremony following the China Open final. Usually the representative of the governing body or World Snooker would take their place among the line of dignitaries on the arena floor.

But with the proceedings accorded such significance by the Chinese, and with face to be maintained, Ferguson realised that there were one too many people to be accommodated and gave up his place to make sure that the various sponsors were kept happy.

He got his own back, though – as staying in his seat in the front row meant that he could photo-bomb most of the pictures featuring the winner, runner-up, various trophies and assorted VIPs.

DEFOE WINNER TWISTS THE KNIFE ON WILSON

The post-final party at the China Open took place in Beijing ex-pats hangout Paddy O’Shea’s, but there was to be more misery for Gary Wilson after his 10-2 final defeat to Mark Selby.

The Geordie arrived just time for the start of Premier League Tyne-Wear derby between his beloved Newcastle and bitter rivals Sunderland.

And Wallsend’s Wilson could hardly watch as Jermain Defoe twisted the knife with a superb volleyed winner for the Mackems to inflict a fifth derby defeat in a row on the Toon.

KEEPING UP WITH REAL MADRID

The major European football leagues have a big following in China, and there was a moment in the China Open snooker final when all of the Chinese media suddenly started taking pictures of the screens showing the score between Mark Selby and Gary Wilson.

Enquiries revealed this baffling activity was in fact because the score in the snooker at that time (9-1 to Selby) was the same as the score in the Real Madrid La Liga match (9-1 against Granada). At least that wasn’t quite the end of the scoring for Wilson.

SELBY AND MAFLIN RECALL JUNIOR CLASHES

Mark Selby and Kurt Maflin may not have played too often as professionals, but their semi-final meeting at the China Open brought together two 31-year-olds who have been crossing cues for more than 20 years.

Maflin reckoned he had first played current world champion and world No1 Selby at the age of about nine.

And Leicester Jester Selby said: “It is easy to forget, but if Kurt is just older than me it can only be by a few months. He used to come to Willie Thorne’s for the junior competitions with his father.

“And I think I played Kurt in the final of the England Under-15s once, if I remember rightly I won that one 4-3. We haven’t played a lot as pros, I do think Kurt is very talented and has underachieved given that, which he says himself – but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he made it to the Crucible for the first time this year, as long as he gets over the jet-lag okay.”

MILKINS STRAIGHT BACK ON THE BIKE

Rob Milkins was unlucky to lose against Mark Selby in the quarter-finals of the China Open, a loss that consigned him to the qualifiers at Ponds Forge.

With all the added extra pressure of having a possible Crucible place at stake at the expense of Stephen Maguire, Milkins – as Selby admitted afterwards – was probably the better player but let things slip from 4-3 up to go down 5-4.

However with his Ponds Forge odyssey due to start later in the week Milkins wasted no time before his Saturday evening flight home, and was hard at work on the practise table at the venue when Selby came in to work on some things during the mid-session interval of his semi-final with Kurt Maflin.

“I find it always takes me a couple of days to feel right after coming back from China,” said Milkins. “The set-up here is really good and no one is on the tables really once it gets down to the last few, so I thought I might as well get some practice in here.”

WILSON DODGES BEIJING CAB INVITE

The ‘Gary Wilson as former cab driver’ thing has had a decent amount of mileage ever since his good run at the UK Championships in York 18 months back – and it was given new life by his superb achievement in beating Ding Junhui to get to the China Open final.

A CCTV reporter – to be fair, the only one who had gone to a lot of trouble to research Ding’s opponent properly – was therefore not going to blow his big chance in the television interview straight after the semi-final.

“You used to be a taxi driver – how would you like to drive one in Beijing?” asked the broadcaster, alluding to the millions of cars on the Chinese city’s roads and regular gridlock. “No chance,” replied Wilson, whose days of needing to supplement his snooker income look to be well behind him for now.

KING OF THE MARKETS

Many players take advantage of a trip to the markets in Beijing and the other Chinese cities, and an unscientific survey revealed that Mark King is probably top dog when it comes to spotting a bargain and haggling for Britain.

Other partners in crime included Alex Davies, Jimmy Robertson, Davy Morris, Matt Selt and Rob Milkins – although the Gloucester player readily admitted he didn’t really hack it in the cut and thrust of market buying and selling.

DING HAS TO SHARE TOP BILLING

Ding Junhui celebrated his 28th birthday at the China Open, for which he was again presented with a cake by the media, and also delighted the crowd with his dramatic quarter-final victory over John Higgins.

But the home hero had to share the Beijing sporting honours on the Friday evening of his thrilling win over the Scot. The Beijing Guoan v Shanghai Shenhua derby football match earlier in the evening was variously described as like “Barcelona v Real Madrid” or “Liverpool v Manchester United” by locals.

It was pretty clear in the stadium there was no love lost between the players or fans in a bitter rivalry, but goals from Darko Matic and Erton Fejzullahu settled matters in favour of Beijing to send the team top of the Super League and get the weekend off to a flier out in the bars and clubs.

There was also a half-time presentation of a green Guoan shirt to Stephon Marbury, as big a sports hero as there is in Beijing having just led the Ducks to a third CBA title in four years in the basketball-mad city.

Point guard Marbury is a former NBA All-Star who played for the New York Knicks and the Phoenix Suns - but has now been in Beijing for four years.

CHINESE MEDIA DRAINED AFTER DING DRAMA

The incredible drama of the final frame between Ding Junhui and John Higgins saw the Chinese media well and truly put through the wringer. As the match ebbed and flowed with never more than a frame in it, Ding saved one life by levelling at 4-4 as the noise level rose to a crescendo.

But the last act saw plenty among the assembled hacks and TV crews unable to watch as the home hero was in first, then offered Higgins a chance to steal the frame, the kind of clearance for which he is famous and the sort of chance he has started taking again in the past few months.

Higgins broke down leaving a red over the pocket, only for Ding to go in-off on a black prompting more frenzied oohs, aahs, gasps and groans. The fluked last red for their favourite saw little sympathy for the Scot from the ‘neutral’ gathering, but by the time Ding had missed the green only for Higgins to do likewise they could not have taken much more.

So it was probably just as well they didn’t have to, as Ding finally put the match to bed.

TAXIS ARE TEST OF CHARACTER

One of the first things any of the snooker crowd learn on a visit to one of the major Chinese cities is that whenever you get a taxi – quite often, given the low cost and big distances involved – it is best to have got your destination and hotel name written down in Chinese characters beforehand.

Failure to do this can and does result in near-farcical disaster, which fast becomes less amusing when you can’t find a cab to take you back to base in the small hours because the driver can’t understand a word you say, and your Mandarin or Cantonese isn’t up to scratch.

Matters were exacerbated in Beijing because the cards supposedly fulfilling such a purpose handed out by the Sheraton had such small lettering that most cab drivers couldn’t read them, and spent ages squinting at it before shrugging their shoulders and making it clear they were none the wiser.

For anyone that has seen Beijing traffic, a proliferation of short-sighted cabbies is a worry too far and enough to drive anyone on to public transport.

DJANGO UNCHAINED BUT NOT UN-TRAINED

Managers of snooker players have to keep themselves amused somehow during tournaments, and Django Fung, who looks after Neil Robertson and Judd Trump among others from the Grove Academy, turned to his beloved table tennis in Beijing.

Fung is an accomplished player who now turns out for Essex veterans (over-40s) as well as league teams back home, and while Trump was catching up on sleep in the mornings until his exit on Thursday night, his manager was early to rise and escaping down to Beijing’s 3300 International Club.

There he received some expert tuition and training from Wang Gang, a former China international player and coach for some seven years in Italy.

RED LETTER DAY FOR ARTIST LI

Chinese artist Li Yan Sheng was at the snooker on last-16 night on Thursday, keeping a close eye on the two matches in the brutal top quarter – home hero Ding Junhui v Mark Williams, and Judd Trump v John Higgins.

The Beijing-born 61-year-old studied and now lives in Japan, and also a talented musician – Li plays the Chinese ‘guqin’ as well as the violin and flute – his reputation as an artist has been built on calligraphy, and still very popular paintings featuring traditional Chinese characters.

Having made the sensible decision he would rather see the snooker than watch paint dry, Li took his seat and enjoyed an entertaining evening’s play.

POOMJAENG TAKES A BOW

There were practice tables at both the Sheraton Hotel and the University Gymnasium venue in Beijing, and in the early part of the week those players who made the 15-minute taxi ride from the accommodation found it far easier to get on and prepare properly for a decent amount of time.

As the field was whittled down the pressure eased everywhere but Dechawat Poomjaeng was in at the venue a good hour and a half before his last-16 match against Gary Wilson, a match-up that offered both a great chance of reaching the quarter-finals.

Huge windows meant anyone walking past the tournament office and into the media centre could see straight into the practice area at the venue. Generally players tried to block out the distraction and focused on the job in hand.

But on seeing WPBSA chairman Jason Ferguson walk by, Poomjaeng immediately broke off and offered the traditional Thai ‘wai’ greeting of respect, clasping his hands together in front of his face and bowing low – a gesture immediately returned.

Perhaps more surprisingly Poomjaeng also offered the same mark of respect to a journalist walking by at the same time. Hacks could be thrown by this sort of unexpected curve-ball, but the individual in question just about held it together to respond in kind.