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.

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.