Rob Hayes takes a look back over snooker’s 2009 UK Championship, which brought the sporting world to Shropshire for match action, heartbreak, and an enormous number of pies.

China's Ding Junhui celebrates with his mother Chen XiJuan as he lifts the trophy after beating Scotland's John Higgins 10-8

After nine days, 429 frames and nearly 10,000 pies, the curtain came down on snooker’s 2009 UK Championship in Telford, with Ding Junhui emerging as the winner of the trophy, £100,000, and most importantly, his own bodyweight in Pukka Pies (which he has kindly donated to charity).

There was the possibility that the recent political shuffle behind snooker could have had a detrimental effect on the tournament and detract from the ability that we know the players are capable of displaying and the entertainment they are capable of providing.

However the standard of play was extremely high, and there were underdogs, underachievers and impressive youngsters on show, making for an excellent contest.

Hero of the week

The hero of the week was without doubt Peter Lines. The world number 64 came through some tough qualifying matches, and when he beat last year’s runner-up Marco Fu with a comprehensive 9-3 victory, it was the shock of the round.

He then faced former world champion Mark Williams in the second round, and more than held his own, winning the deciding frame on the black ball to secure a place in only his second ranking quarter final.

He lost to world number two Stephen Maguire in his first televised match in seven years, but still came into the press conference with a huge smile on his face. The UK Championship saw Lines move up to 40th in the provisional rankings, and earn four times more than he did in the whole of last season, the perfect 40th birthday present for the Leeds potter.

Underachievers

Shaun Murphy could be considered in this category, as the defending champion only reached the second round, however he did lose out to the eventual winner, so the underachiever award goes to Ryan Day, as the world number six crashed out in the first round.

Best match

By far the most tantalising clash was the second semi-final between world number one Ronnie O’Sullivan and reigning world champion John Higgins. The prize for most controversial moment is also awarded to this match, as O’Sullivan came back from 8-2 down to force a deciding frame, and top referee Jan Verhaas was at the centre of a disagreement over the application of a law.

O’Sullivan unintentionally gained an advantage by fouling, and on first view, many thought Verhaas had made the wrong call, but it was in fact a loophole that has been overlooked due to the rarity of such an incident.

Best comeback

In a first-round tie between two of the game’s top younger players, Mark Selby produced the comeback of the championship against practice partner Jamie Cope. The Jester from Leicester came back from 8-4 down to win 9-8.

Special mention

Jan Verhaas deserves a special mention for his performance in the quarter final between Peter Lines and Stephen Maguire, as he replaced seven reds and two colours following a foul by Maguire. Video evidence showed that he was almost spot-on, and the Dutchman even got a warm round of applause from the Telford crowd for his efforts.

There is a real buzz around the snooker world at the moment, and the general consensus is that the imminent appointment of Barry Hearne as chairman of the board signals the start of something big for snooker. He made the right decision, coincidence or not, in choosing Mauritius over Telford last week, which enabled the focus to remain on the tournament, and it will be very interesting when he does take over to see if the game can be reshaped and revitalised.

Telford, and Shropshire as a whole, were great hosts for this prestigious tournament, and the crowds were brilliant all week. Up next on the snooker calendar is The Masters at Wembley on January 10th, where Ronnie O’Sullivan will be hoping to defend his crown.