COUNTDOWN: Top 5 Home Nations Finals

I’ve mentioned a few times on this blog that the Home Nation Series is one of my favourite additions in modern snooker.

I love the prestige it adds to the events. We’ve heard multiple stories of the lack of homegrown talent. However, the fact that these tournaments are back on their home turf opens up a lot of opportunity to seek, encourage and grow some local flair. To emphasise this, each Home Nations trophy is named after four local legends, which is a wonderful touch.

Since it started in 2016, he embarked on a number of memorable moments. Both Liang Wenbo and Mark King won their first ranking titles during the Home Nations. Yan Bingtao and Cao Yupeng made their first ranking finals here. Lower-ranked players, such as Elliot Slessor, Joe O’Connor, Eden Sharav and Scott Donaldson made their first ranking semi-finals too. Almost ten maximum breaks were made since its inception. We also discovered that Ronnie O’Sullivan isn’t a fan of Crawley – who would’ve thought?

Though the Home Nations is relatively young, its produced some wonderful things in snooker. After hearing the reception in Belfast, it is a wonder why it wasn’t a permanent fixture before. Anyways…

Since we have the 2020 Welsh Open coming up, I thought I would do a brief countdown on Home Nations finals! I appreciate that there aren’t too many to choose from. Fifteen finals so far and nearly all involving the current Top 16 players. But I think I can manage! Long may this continue!

5. Judd Trump vs. Ronnie O’Sullivan (9-7, 2018 Northern Ireland Open)

This final had some interesting backstory. Ronnie O’Sullivan was on ruthless and relentless form that year. By the 2018 final, Ronnie won about seven titles during that period. He won five ranking events in a row, including the 2017 UK Championship. He won the lucrative non-ranker Shanghai Masters and defended his Champion of Champions title.

On the other hand, Judd Trump hadn’t won a title since lifting the 2017 European Masters trophy. Even before this tournament, Judd came under heavy criticism after his Champion of Champions defeat against Kyren Wilson. Wilson claimed said he tried to send the right message during that match that “maybe he wanted the win a bit more“. Even though Trump wasn’t happy with those comments, it was his play that did the talking.

The 2018 Northern Ireland Open was a tightly-knit contest. There was only a single frame between them throughout the match. This was until Trump won his ninth and final frame to lift the Alex Higgins trophy. O’Sullivan said that Judd deserved his victory due to his consistency. There were four centuries and ten half-centuries. Judd Trump saw this amazing win as a perfect response to the critics who said he was an underachiever.

This ranking win got the ball rolling for Judd, as we know. He later won multiple ranking events and became the Masters and the World Champion!

4. Ronnie O’Sullivan vs. Kyren Wilson (9-2, 2017 English Open)

We all know what Ronnie O’Sullivan is like. Usually when Ronnie wins a trophy, it follows an interview with Ronnie claiming that he didn’t play that great. Ronnie always strives for perfection and it does irritate me that he does say that either he didn’t play well or that he was in his D-game. So when he admitted that “You don’t play that well unless you feel you have to…that was as good as I could play amongst the balls“, you are guaranteed a masterclass. That’s what we got in this Home Nations final.

Let’s not forget that Ronnie was wearing protective footwear due to an ankle injury! In the final, he came up against another young prospect – Kyren Wilson. By this stage, Kyren had reached two ranking finals and winning one and just broke into the Top 16. O’Sullivan responded in magnificent style. By the end of the match, the Rocket made breaks of 132, 131, 127, 115, 96, 87, 77, 54, 50 to completely obliterate the Warrior.

There is another important accolade as Ronnie lifted the Steve Davis trophy. O’Sullivan also surpassed the six-time world champion’s tally of 28 ranking titles. It was an amazing, dominant and one-sided win that capped off a brilliant tournament for Ronnie. There is even a video on just that – check it out!

3. Neil Robertson vs. Cao Yupeng (9-8, 2017 Scottish Open)

There is always some magic when a first-time finalist comes up against a seasoned winner. Cao Yupeng was considered one of the most improved players at the time and had a very good run in the Scottish Open. He beat Ricky Walden and Judd Trump, while Neil Robertson ploughed through Xiao Guodong and John Higgins. Not forgetting that Cao made his first maximum in his professional career!

Now, this was a very exciting final. It was also a very agonising final too, depending on how you look at it. It is also a case study of hard it is to get over the line, the struggles and being unable to cope with the pressure. This final has this in spades. Cao Yupeng was cruising at 8-4 up, with ten +50 breaks. The underdog was dominating The Thunder From Down Under! But then things really started to crumble for Cao.

Cao was cracking under pressure big time. It wasn’t as if Robertson was hitting the big breaks either. He scored just two +50 breaks in the next five frames to win the title. The biggest turning point was when Cao failed to pot a long-distance pink at 8-7 up and I think that completely exhausted Cao. Neil said:

“I’ve never experienced that before in my life in a match of that magnitude where I’m out, basically, and then somehow I get another chance … From 8-4, I was counting on some nerves or jitters from him and I started noticing he was not timing his cue action as well … we should get more events in Scotland!”

Of course, Cao put his downfall to putting too much pressure on himself and that he needs to learn this to become a Top 16 player. Though he reached a second ranking final later that season, his progress came to an abrupt halt when he was suspended of being guilty of match-fixing in 2018.

2. Mark King vs. Barry Hawkins (9-8, 2016 Northern Ireland Open)

Evaluating a final isn’t just about the quality of the break-building. It’s about the occasion. The backstory. The journey full of ups and downs for one particular player. Sure, the match was at a very high standard, with three centuries and eight half centuries. But that wasn’t even one of the main reasons why this is one of the best, if not arguably the best Home Nations. Far from it.

We first have to talk about Mark King. A professional since 1991, King had a modest career, with two ranking finals, his highest ranking of No. 11 in the world and numerous Masters appearances. However, it wasn’t without several downfalls in his career. He once grew dissatisfied with the game threatened to quit snooker in 2013. He bemoaned his inconsistency in his game as well. But his biggest battle was combating his gambling addiction, which had an horrendous effect on his life and family relationships.

It was quite a journey full of successes and mishaps. He admitted that he borrowed money from his father to enter the 2016 Northern Ireland Open. After beating the likes of Liang Wenbo, Hossein Vafaei and Kyren Wilson, he faced 3-time ranking winner Barry Hawkins in the final. King defeated the Hawk in the deciding frame, becoming the first recipient of the Alex Higgins trophy.

You think that’s the end of putting this entry so high up the list. Well, you are very wrong my friend! His touching post-match interview with Colin Murray was so emotionally charged. There was so much blood, sweat and tears into Mark’s career and you can tell how much that trophy meant to him and to his father. The fact that his family were present makes it feel like a fairytale. In fact, this paragraph does not do the interview justice whatsoever, so PLEASE watch this clip. This is what battling through 25 years to become an overnight success looks like. It makes you love sport.

This nomination deserves to be No. 1 because of how memorable it was. But I picked my No. 1 because of the greater quality of snooker between two who are among the greatest break-builders of our time.

1. Judd Trump vs. Ronnie O’Sullivan (9-7, 2019 Northern Ireland Open)

The difference between the 2018 and 2019 Northern Ireland Open is an interesting one. In 2018, it felt like Judd Trump was on the road to redemption to win a title while Ronnie O’Sullivan’s confidence was sky high after winning so many in a relatively short space of time!

Fast forward to 2019 and Judd Trump was on the form of his life. Since his 2018 Northern Ireland Open victory, he ended up winning four ranking titles and two non-ranking titles, becoming the Dafabet Masters and World Championship winner in the process. Who really is top dog now? Can the best sportsman to play the game knock Trump of his pedestal? Will this be the start of Judd Trump’s rampage and snooker domination?

This final has the benefit of being so high on this list because I watched this final very recently. But this final had eye-catching, off-the-scale quality of play from both players. Ten +50 breaks, six centuries and two or three attempted maximums. Even when Ronnie stole a frame from under Trump’s nose, Trump responded with a 124 break the next frame. What!

Trump ended up winning a high-quality final and received a number of accolades too. He defended a Home Nations title, this is back-to-back ranking victories after the World Open and he became the first player to win three ranking titles in season after first WC since 1990. It’s madness.