Clean-cut Robertson may be just what the game needs

SNOOKER WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP:NEIL ROBERTSON flew to Oslo yesterday as world champion to be with his Norwegian girlfriend, Mille, who was due to give birth at any time to their first child.

“Obviously there’s a lot of added responsibility now, not just here but for the people back home as well,” the 28-year-old Australian said. “I’ll try very hard to be a good ambassador.”

In the way he conducts himself Robertson always has been, not least when he rejected – as was revealed in 2005 – an approach from his compatriot Quinten Hann, who asked him whether he was interested in throwing matches for money.

Hann was suspended for eight years after a newspaper sting caught him agreeing on camera to fix a match, although in the event it was played honestly.

Robertson, following his 18-13 victory over Graeme Dott in the early hours of yesterday at The Crucible and the suspension of John Higgins pending an inquiry into a similar sting, has risen from second to first in the annually revised world rankings.

“It’s good to be number one, but you’d like to do it the right way, not because of something that might have happened off the table,” the Australian said.

He fully supports the prompt action of Barry Hearn, the chairman of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, in setting up an inquiry, stating that he is “one million per cent behind him”, not only in this matter but with his plans.

“He has already created a huge buzz and there’s absolutely no doubt that he’s the man to take us forward.”

Robertson’s triumph is particularly welcome in giving Australia a high-profile snooker hero, its first since the late Eddie Charlton, whose gritty steadiness kept him in contention for titles, albeit without ultimate success, in the game’s first decade or so as TV entertainment.

Of late, snooker has lost ground to pool, but Robertson’s clean-cut image, attractive style and new status should assist a renaissance if he could be displayed in top-class competition in front of Australians.

In his elation, Robertson said: “England can have the Ashes at the moment. I’ll take the world championship trophy anytime,” but he remains aware that he did not win in the grand manner and embraces the unanimous criticism of the playing schedule which, through starting at 3pm instead of 2pm, allowed only six of the allotted eight afternoon frames to be played, thereby leaving a potential 13 from just after 8pm.

“It was a tough, gruelling match,” Robertson said after concluding his win at 12.54am. “The timing makes it extremely tough on the players. It was very tiring.”

In the latter stages both missed innumerable pots that would have been comfortably within their compass earlier in the 17-day marathon of the mind.

“It was scrappy and probably wasn’t good to watch,” said Scotland’s Dott, champion in 2006 and now twice a runner-up. “Tiredness kicks in with every final, but this was by far the worst.”

Ultimately, Robertson had the will to prevail as he was able to keep his nose in front by margins ranging from one to three frames throughout a long day.

The crucial frame, he said, was the 44-minute 27th, which he won by potting the pink along the baulk cushion. “That was probably the best pot of my life,” he said. “In the end it wasn’t down to snooker skills. It was about stamina.”

It gave him a 15-12 lead and Dott, for all his grittiness, had little more to give.

Guardian Service