Well, this is the most unconventional season in snooker history, hindered by the coronavirus pandemic. A huge amount of work went on to make those tournaments happen and we must thank and be grateful to these organisers. There are plenty of memorable matches, finals, clashes throughout the year. WST conjured up a list of awards, such as Player of the Year, Snooker Journalists’ Player of the Year and Magic Moment of the Year. at the end of this season.
To my “End of Season Awards” then! This is the moment very few people have been waiting for.
I previously wrote my “End of Season Awards” editions sole on my own opinion. This time I made a number of polls so that many snooker can vote on a variety of topic over the past week. It’s good that you lovely lot did the work for me, so thank you very much. Below is the thread in case you need to check the full statistics.
Let’s get to it.
Rookie of the Season: Pang Junxu
Pang Junxu was the most obvious contender for Rookie of the Season for me. Not only did WST award the 21 year-old the same award, but the voters agreed with this as well. Thankfully, you agreed too.
Pang received his first two-year card after his performances on the CBSA Tour in 2020. Pang scored only nine centuries the following season, so he isn’t a ferocious scorer. He is one of the slowest players on tour, finishing 112th in the AST table. So he isn’t a typical “crash, bang, wallop” type of young player. But his performances stand out from the crowd after he finished 79th in the rankings.
He finished 37th on the one-year ranking list and reached the 4th round three times, most notably in the UK Championship. Pang caught a number of high-profile scalps, including Anthony McGill, Ding Junhui, Tom Ford, Barry Hawkins, Stephen Maguire and Mark Allen! He should be one to watch next season to reach the Top 64.
Notable nominees: Peter Devlin, Aaron Hill, Zhao Jianbo
Best Final of the Season: 2020 UK Championship
It’s quite interesting that the majority of voters chose this final, considering this final was not known for its high quality! More than a million viewers were watching BBC Two after midnight as Neil Robertson beat Judd Trump 10-9 in an extraordinary UK Championship final.
Four centuries and six +50 breaks were shared between Trump and Robertson. But this final was known for the decider between the pair. Both players were gone and struggling under pressure. Both players had many chances to win. Trump was at one point two pots away from stealing the decider from Robertson. But by his own admission, he bottled the final pink, leaving Robertson to clear up. WST regarded Robertson’s victory as this season’s Magic Moment of the Year.
Other contenders included Yan Bingtao’s Masters triumph over John Higgins, Jordan Brown’s shock title win in the Welsh Open and a hugely-attacking affair between Trump and Jack Lisowski in the World Grand Prix.
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Notable nominees: 2021 Masters, 2021 Welsh Open, 2020 World Grand Prix
Most Improved Player of the Season: Jordan Brown
There are many contenders that deserve this accolade.
Swiss Alexander Ursebacher leapt 21 places into the Top 64 for the first time. Joe Perry remarked that Jamie Clarke is one of the most improved players on tour after Jamie defeated him in the World Championship Qualifiers. Jak Jones is the most improved player on tour for me. He made his highest ranking points total in a single season of his career. Jones also made his first ranking quarter-final appearance in the English Open, beating Jack Lisowski and Matthew Stevens along the way. He’s the most consistent player out of the nominees.
But it is hard to argue with the achievements of Jordan Brown. He was just a few matches away from tour relegation last season, but this season completes an amazing turnaround. Shortly after his first quarter-final appearance in the 2021 German Masters, he made an incredible run to lift his first ranking title of his career. One could argue that beating Mark Selby, Stephen Maguire and Ronnie O’Sullivan in one sitting deserves to win any tournament! Brown did just that and beat O’Sullivan in the deciding frame in the final! His performances have catapulted him No. 40 in the ranking list, despite finishing his first year of his two-year card! Only way is up for Brown.
Notable nominees: Alexander Ursenbacher, Jamie Clarke, Jak Jones
Shot of the Season: Judd Trump
There wasn’t a poll for this category. This is because there is no contest what is the shot of the season. This exhibition “one-in-a-thousand” shot from Judd Trump was a sight to behold. It wasn’t even the shot itself that was so incredible. Barry Hawkins looked certain to win this match as he won his frames strongly while Trump was performing very poorly. This shot probably gave him a kick up the backside and Judd ended up winning the match from 5-1 down to 6-5. Trump, of course, went on to win the tournament.
Most Entertaining Twitter Account of the Season: Mark Williams
Mark Williams is the standout winner of this category. His dry wit, misspelt hashtags and blunt honestly has clearly attracted our voters. Not only that, his ability to put down trolls and hecklers is a joy to behold.
There are plenty of snooker players to interact with on Twitter but some have either spent minimum time on it or left social media altogether. Unfortunately, this isn’t too surprising as explained in my Snooker and Anti-Social Media article. Let’s behave better so snooker accounts with insightful content from players like Mark stay on Twitter. For example, analysis on other players, golf, kebabs and chips. That is sort of content we are after.
Best Run in the Tournament of the Season: John Higgins (Players Championship)
WST gave the Performance of the Year award to Mark Selby for his World Championship exploits. Even when this was announced, many people felt that John Higgins’s spectacular run in the Players Championship deserved more credit.
This poll was published before the winner of the World Championship final was decided, so that wasn’t included in the poll. But Higgins was literally unplayable at that tournament. He lost just four frames in the entire tournament, whitewashing Jordan Brown and Mark Selby. Higgins beat Kyren Wilson 6-1 in the semi-finals and thrashed Ronnie O’Sullivan 10-3. In the final, Higgins scored three centuries and eight +50 breaks. Considering this was his first ranking title in three years, it is amazing that it took this long! He completely blitzed the competition that week.
Notable nominees: Jordan Brown (Welsh Open), Judd Trump (English Open), Neil Robertson (Tour Championship)
Most Surprising Result of the Season: Aaron Hill bt. Ronnie O’Sullivan (European Masters)
Aside from Jordan Brown’s defeat of Ronnie O’Sullivan in the Welsh Open final, 33% say Aaron Hill’s victory over O’Sullivan was the most surprising result of the season. In fact, that match beat the tie between Lukas Kleckers and Mark Selby by just 0.4%. The tie between Jimmy White and Stuart Bingham wasn’t too far behind either.
Hill is one of the most highly-rated prospects after winning the EBSA U18 and U21 titles in 2020. The Irish rookie couldn’t have started the season better by beating O’Sullivan 5-4 in the second round of the European Masters. Hill did extremely well to close out the decider, constructing a 78 break in the final frame.
Perhaps another reason why this tie was most surprising was because of what O’Sullivan said earlier this year. O’Sullivan claimed in a scathing World Championship interview that younger players on the tour weren’t good enough and that he’d “probably got to lose an arm and a leg to fall out of the Top 50.” O’Sullivan went on to win that World Championship but it must be quite nice to some that he lost to a 108 seeded player a month after that comment.
Notable nominees: Lukas Kleckers bt. Mark Selby (Northern Ireland Open), Jimmy White bt. Stuart Bingham (Gibraltar Open)
Best Snooker Broadcaster of the Season: Eurosport
Eurosport has taken 55.7% of the vote of being the broadcaster has shown the best snooker coverage this season. This includes the punditry team, the presenters, the commentators, scheduling, events shown, etc.
It perhaps isn’t surprising that Eurosport has been so popular. Eurosport had coverage in almost every single tournament this season, compared to BBC’s Triple Crown for example. It is also brilliant and accessible for non-UK viewers. Presenter Andy Goldstein with pundits Ronnie O’Sullivan and Jimmy White proved to be a very popular team, though I’m not completely comfortable with their “lads club” attitude. Eurosport is very quickly becoming the home of snooker.
It is worth giving a special mention to the other broadcasters. BBC have always done the Triple Crown events well but their commentators have been under scrutiny for living in the past, outdated line-up and their apparent lack of research on lesser-known players. To their credit they had made an effort to show some variety. Seema Jaswal and Radzi Chinyanganya are completely settled and improved in their roles and Judd Trump and Jack Lisowski received positive feedback when they had a go in punditry and commentating.
ITV seem to take the best of both worlds for me. They’ve combined BBC’s professionalism and Eurosport’s expert knowledge and this resulted in a very oiled machine. Their tournaments have all the top players and it looks classy and prestigious. ITV is hugely underrated and they could turn the Tour Championship into one of the most sought-after tournaments in the calendar.
Notable nominees: BBC, ITV
Best Snooker Player of the Season: Mark Selby
A lot of people seem to be in two minds between Mark Selby and Judd Trump. Trump won Player of the Year and Fans Player of the Year. Selby has won Performance of the Year and Snooker Journalists’ Player of the Year. But Selby is your winner here with 53.7%, followed by Trump (38.1%) and Neil Robertson (5.8%).
Judd Trump has won 5 ranking events, reached two more finals, stayed at World No. 1 and is the leading century scorer this season. Trump is arguably the most consistent performer but he failed to perform as expected in the Triple Crowns. On the other hand, Mark Selby jumped to No. 2 in the rankings and had quieter patches in the season. However, he won 3 ranking events including the World Championship. For a lot of people, the World Championship is the one that really counts!
Though the World Championship has the tendency to be very overstated, I reckon Trump would swap his season for Selby’s without a doubt. Not to mention that Selby won more ranking points this season (£820,500) compared to Trump (£573,500). I would agree and say that Selby is the Performer of the Season too.
Notable nominees: Judd Trump, Neil Robertson
Yes, I can agree with most of that.
In the ‘Young Player’ section if you’re mentioning Aaron Hill and Peter Devlin, then surely also have to mention Gao Yang, who made two beautiful centuries on his first day as a professional, just a week after his 16th birthday. Naturally, he faded a bit during the season, but very nearly made it to ‘Judgement Day’ (would have been the youngest ever). He finished higher than Hill, Devlin and Jamie Wilson, who also showed potential.
Indeed, I had considered him. I could only fit four people in a poll I’m afraid!