Barry Hearn has confessed that the News of the World exposé on John Higgins and his manager Pat Mooney does not ‘look good’ for the 3-time Crucible winner.

Hearn, speaking after the News of the World published a story on world number 1 and last year’s World Champion Higgins, which allegedly shows him agreeing to lose 4 frames of snooker in exchange for a cash payment of £261,000, said:

“Obviously the guy is in bits and I can sympathise with him because it’s been his whole life – the guy is number one in the world”

Australians don’t do losing. From a young age they seem to be instilled with a fiercely competitive nature to triumph in whatever sporting arena you place them in. For a nation sandwiched between Taiwan and Syria in a list of countries by population they certainly exceed in pretty much every sport and have had world champions in tennis, rugby, cricket and golf.

One sport that has eluded them is snooker. But that all changed with Neil Robertson’s 18-13 victory over Scotland’s Graeme Dott on Sunday…

Snookers golden oldies featuring legends such as Alex ‘Hurricane’ Higgins, Steve Davis and Jimmy White will battle it out in the inaugural World Seniors Championship later this year.

Organiser Joe Johnson, winner of the World Snooker Championship in 1986, today announced that the tournament will have no less than six former world champions on show, with Ken Doherty, Peter Ebdon, John Parrott and Dennis Taylor confirmed to take part in the new event.

Ken Doherty refused to be drawn on his future in snooker after succumbing to a 10-4 first round defeat to Mark Selby in the World Snooker Championships.

Doherty, winner at the Crucible back in 1997, kissed the theatre floor after entering the arena to face Selby on Saturday, but it was the ‘Jester from Leicester’

The Dubliner, absent from snookers showpiece tournament 12 months ago,

Former World Snooker Champion John Parrott appears to be on the brink of calling time on his 27 year snooker career after he lost to Chinese teenager Anda Zhang in the World Championship qualifiers yesterday.

The 10-6 defeat leaves Parrott in the precarious position of 65th in the world, one place away from a spot on the tour next season and the 1991 Crucible winner was resigned in chances of competing again in the future.

“If I’m off the tour, it’s fairly certain that I’ll retire. I certainly won’t be playing any…”

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.”

Jimmy White rolled back the years to defeat Barry Hawkins 8-6 in the final of the Sangsom 6-red World Grand Prix 2009.

The six times World Championship runner-up picked up a million-baht (approx £18,200) for winning the Montien Riverside Hotel event in Thailand

White, who had only received a wild card entry into the tournament, chalked up impressive wins against Shaun Murphy, Ricky Walden and Mark Williams on his way to reaching the final.