Neal Foulds snooker column: Mark Selby back to winning ways as we remember Clive Everton

After snooker said goodbye to one of its oldest friends, we were treated to a fabulous week on the table in Cheltenham which culminated in Mark Selby roaring back to form with victory at the British Open, going one better than when beaten in the final 12 months ago.

We really have witnessed some terrific action in September, with only a week earlier, another of the sport’s big hitters in Neil Robertson also getting back to winning ways when victorious at the English Open.

It’s good for the game to have so much healthy competition. Judd Trump dominated the early part of the season with an amazing run, and has already picked up over £600,000 prize money in ranking events alone, but one thing we know about snooker is that players hit their peaks at different times and both of those recent winners look to be right back to their best.

Neil said as much after his good run in Saudi Arabia, but he needed to back that up and most definitely has. He’s had a tough time of it, with big ranking points coming off his ranking all the time as results became harder to come by. Thankfully, he’s over the worst and his ranking should only go one way now. He’ll be a major force for the rest of the year and beyond.

Sublime Selby back to winning ways

The same can be said of Mark who didn’t have things all his own way in Cheltenham. There is no doubt that he is vulnerable in the early rounds of these short-format events when he can struggle to stamp his authority on matches. He could quite easily have lost to Pang Junxu and Yuan Sijun last week.

But if he’s still standing at the weekend for the longer matches, he really is a quite irresistible force. He boasts the patience of a saint and when you add that with his excellent scoring prowess, not to mention his superb tactical game, it’s little wonder he has such an outstanding record in finals.

When you consider all that, it makes Luca Brecel’s win over Selby in the final of the World Championship in 2023 even more special. So few have been able to do that to Selby over four sessions, and Brecel did it with all-out attack for two days.

Mark can suffer a crisis of confidence, which some may find strange given all he has achieved in the sport, but when he has belief and trust in his game, he is such a tough man to beat. The battles he’s fought away from the table, I’m sure, will make occasions like Sunday night even more satisfying.

With Neil and Mark in the mix, and John Higgins of course, the tour suddenly has a more competitive look to it. Judd won’t relent, Mark Allen played much better last week, and then there is Ronnie O’Sullivan who can never be written off. Suddenly, there are eight to ten players who you could fancy winning a tournament.

Higgins can take heart from valiant run

A word, too, on John, who I know will be disappointed to have lost in another final. He hasn’t won a tournament now since the 2021 Players Championship when he steamrolled all-comers in a one of the best performances we’ve seen. He doesn’t come to these events to compete. He wants to win.

But if I were in John’s corner, I’d be telling him to look at things differently. If he looks at this last week in isolation, there are so many positives he can take from it. He’s only just started playing with a new cue after his old one was damaged in transit, and within a couple of weeks he’s reached the final of a major tournament.

He had dropped out of the top 16, but he’s back in now with good points in the bank, and there's no reason why he can’t continue to make his presence felt this season.

Snooker says goodbye to old friend

It was fitting that that Mark and John were playing for the Clive Everton Trophy on Sunday, after news broke earlier in the week that Clive had sadly passed away. It didn’t come as a surprise to those of us who knew Clive, but it was still very sad all the same.

I had known Clive a long time and when I started commentating on snooker for Sky, it was Clive whom I worked alongside the most. He was always very generous with his time and in sharing his knowledge. He taught me a lot.

Clive was a great example of how commentary used to be. Less is more was very much in his mantra, harking back to the days when Ted Lowe was the famous voice of snooker. Nowadays the job has gone away from that slightly and perhaps Clive was the last of a dying breed. His belief was that our job was to let the snooker do the talking. Clive added to the picture, never took from it.

Snooker was a huge part of Clive’s life, from commentary to his magazine, and the sport fascinated him to the point of obsession. Not everyone gets to live their working life that way, but it’s nice when they can, and Clive most certainly loved working on his passion for so many years.

TV tantrums cause a stir

The role of television in snooker was also brought into the spotlight last week for reasons other than Clive’s passing, with world champion Kyren Wilson taking to social media to share as his frustration at not playing on the TV table for his last-16 match with Elliot Slessor, which Kyren went on to lose 4-2.

I do have sympathy for Kyren who, as world champion, deserves the utmost respect. But on this occasion, it was such a tough call for ITV to make, with three or four good-quality matches to choose from.

The decision was made for the match between Selby and Thepchaiya Un-Nooh to go on the TV table and it turned out to be a smashing contest. Those making the decisions, it must be said, got it right in the end.

Ultimately, this is an entertainment business and television companies, whoever they are, have a duty to try and provide the best entertainment product. No disrespect to Elliot, but had it been Kyren versus Thepchaiya, I dare say that would have been the chosen televised match. Lots had to be factored in and it is never easy.

One thing I will say is that there is always more to this than purely wanting to be on a certain table. Most of the players wear sponsorship logos and if you’re on the television table, it stands to reason that those logos you are wearing are more valuable. Many of the top players have commercial interests to look after and sometimes, it’s about more than just snooker with these things.

Thankfully, snooker has been the winner this past two weeks, at a time when the sport needed a lift having lost one of its most passionate supporters and a voice familiar to snooker fans all around the world.

Rest easy, Clive.