Snooker Island Snooker Awards!

Thought we should vote on our own awards for a laugh, who needs the Dorchester!! If you have any categories of your own, please suggest.

Player of the year - John Higgins for me, would of voted him even if he hadn't won the world's for the 4th time, his consistancy since coming back has been incredible and unseen on the circuit for years.

Best newcomer - Jack Lisowski. Anthony McGill comes a close second for me, but reaching the PTC final, climbing to 52 in the rankings and taking John Higgins to 3-4 in the Welsh is no mean feat in your first season.

Best comeback - Mark Williams. An honourable mention here for Matthew Stevens after getting back into the top 16 for the first time in years, but Williams has just been immense this season and probably would of won the World Championship and the UK if it wasn't for Higgins.

Best break - Ding Junhui. Stephen Lee's break to beat Mark Williams after his four centuries was amazing, but Ding's break in the semi-finals of the world's was pretty special considering all the safe reds. Shame he didn't go on to win the match after that though. Ronnie's 147 at the world open was pretty smooth also.

Best match - Mark Williams v John Higgins, UK Championship, This match had everything, high breaks, misses, drama and a comeback, brilliant finish at the end by John.

Best new event - Snooker Shootout - Enjoyed the World Open and the German Masters but I feel that the Shootout brought Snooker to a completely new level and was enjoyed by people that weren't traditionally Snooker fans.

Best match - Mark Selby v Judd Trump China Open Final...Before this match if anyone had told me Judd Trump would have beaten Mark Selby playing close to his best id have Laughed in their Face because he just wasn't cut up to it but the way he competed and beat Selby in that match was sensational Great Final and Great Match

Best new event - German Masters not only the event but the table set up and the crowds was Brilliant for all 5 days although shootout was good it was not snooker this event showed everyone that there is a market for traditional snooker thats been un tapped in to.

Best new inovation-the Rolling Rankings coupled with PTC it gives young players a genuine chance to make a impact sooner as in the case of Lisowski and McGill under the previous system of 6 or 7 tournaments more than likely Both these players would have been in Q School next week.

Player of the year - John Higgins. World Champion and UK Champion amongst his title wins. Anybody who says he’s not the player of the year is still hating from what happened in Moscow. Whether he should be allowed to play is up for debate, the fact he has been the best and most consistent player this year isn’t.

Best newcomer – Jack Lisowski. He qualified for the Welsh Open, and gave Higgins a real push. His inexperience and his nerves were there for all to see, but the fact that I can’t off the top of my head remember any other players that have debuted says it all really.

Best comeback – Judd Trump. Though you might argue he’s always been a qualifier, so hasn’t had anywhere to come back from, in 2008 he had an immense run to the semi-finals of a tournament, knocking out Ronnie along the way. But 2009, when he played Mark Allen in the Wildcard Round of the Masters, it was Mark Allen who looked like the superstar of snooker, even if the scores were close. Judd hasn’t done much, ranking event/Masters wise since that. But this season he has qualified for most tournaments, and after looking a bit mediocre against Martin Gould at the PTCs, he suddenly, almost overnight, became one of the top-3 players in the world. World Champions Peter Ebdon and Shaun Murphy got despatched by big scores at the China Open, and Mark Selby playing as good as I’ve ever seen him couldn’t stop Trump. And it took John Higgins to beat him at The Crucible, and that was a narrow victory. Judd Trump is back.

Best match – A bit controversial, but I am going to go Williams vs Lee, the first round of the China Open. Yes, it was only a best of nine, but the standard was so high. Williams makes four centuries, and a 50-break and loses. It had drama, Mark Williams is sublime form goes 2-0 ahead, looking for all the world like a routine win, and suddenly it’s 2-2 at the MSI. It went before many great matches that happened in China. And it helped prove that shortening everything to a best of three match, doesn’t make snooker exciting.

Best new event - I have a feeling it’s the Sky Shootout. I only saw a couple of hours of that as I was out that weekend, but thought it looked a bit crap. When I got back from my weekend away, everybody was raving about it, it seemed no snooker fan had anything bad to say about it. The acid test was, not even Wild had anything bad to say about it, and he gets snake hissed if there is even the remotest change to snooker.... But as I didn’t see the event, hard to judge. So I’ll give it to the German Masters. Decent final, unique layout to the tournament. I just wish it had been a few days longer.