Chinese sensation, Ding Junhui, came from behind to beat John Higgins and lift the UK Championship.

It looked grim for the 14th seed at 7-6 down, but the 2005 UK Champion showed all of his battling qualities to prevail in what was an extremely entertaining final.

“It’s been a crazy week” Junhui said. “I can’t believe it. It’s brilliant. I am concentrating more. I had some bad shot selections but I…

Shaun Murphy reeled off four frames in succession to clinch a 7-3 victory over Ronnie O’Sullivan and win his first ever Premier League title crowd at the Potters Leisure Resort in Hopton-on-Sea, Norfolk.

Murphy’s triumph ended O’Sullivan’s five year reign of the event and he acknowledged the Rocket’s stranglehold of the Premier League after the game – “It would have been a great achievement for Ronnie to win it six years in a row and he deserves a lot of credit to win it five years in a row.”

Ken Doherty has admitted that he was surprised to learn of Sir Rodney Walker’s revolutionary plan to restructure the snooker calendar in 2010.

“It came as a big surprise and, without being too cynical, I hope it’s not just a ploy to get a few votes because of our AGM, which is on next week” said the 1997 world champion.

Walker’s proposal could see snooker visiting countries such as Brazil, Poland, Romania and Australia next year, but Doherty has questioned the timing of the announcement…

Pukka Pies is to follow in the names of Liverpool Victoria, PowerHouse, Travis Perkins and Maplin Electronics to become the new sponsor of the UK Championship.

World Snooker chairman Sir Rodney Walker expressed his delight at the deal: ‘Pukka Pies is a famous and successful British brand, which makes it an appropriate sponsor for one of our biggest tournaments.’

The Leicester based company, who also sponsor the main stand at Boundary Park, home of Oldham Athletic A.F.C., produces more than 50 million pies and pasties a year.

After what can only be described as an extremely disappointing season by Ken Doherty’s high standards last time out, the ‘Darling of Dublin’ has spoken of his love of the game ahead of the 2009/10 campaign.

Speaking to WorldSnooker.com, Ken summed up how difficult of a season it was last year “There were very few positives and a lot of negatives. I found going to the qualifiers very hard, not because of the conditions there, which are good, but because of the shock of not playing at venues.”

Snooker’s golden oldies will go head to head in a Senior World Championship event next year, after former world champion Joe Johnson and his business partner Dave Shipley came up with the idea of organising an 8-man event.

The Clubhouse In Cue Gardens at Odsal will host the two day event from the 5th of June in 2010 and will include three former world champions in the shape of Johnson, John Parrott and Alex Higgins.

Snooker looks set to trial a ‘Super6′ version of the game in the aim of attracting a wider audience.
“As an observer of snooker you cannot churn out the same diet year after year,” said Sir Rodney Walker, chairman of World Snooker.

“Look at what Twenty20 has done for cricket. It brought in a whole new audience, so what we have in mind we think would be appealing to a younger audience.”