JOHN HIGGINS was over the moon in Malta last night after landing the European snooker Open title at the expense of defending champion John Parrott.
The 21-year-old Scot rediscovered his best form after 13 months in the wilderness to inflict a 9-5 defeat on his Liverpool rival.
World number two Higgins overcame an attack of nerves when in sight of victory to claim the £60,000 first prize.
Higgins had produced the best form of the tournament during the first session to lead 5-0 and 6-2, but as Parrott attempted to come back during a tense final session Higgins began to suffer.
Parrott, appearing in his fifth European Open final in eight years, closed to within two frames and then missed a blue into a middle pocket, much to his dismay.
"It was an unmissable blue," explained Parrott. "My only worry was that by rolling it in I didn't want to snooker myself. As a result I took my eye off the ball and the rest is history.
"Basically though, the best man won. He might have twitched a bit at halfway but John was the one doing all the heavyscoring." Higgins' last major win came 13 months ago at the International Open in Swindon. Since then he has lost lost in two other ranking tournament finals and been plagued with uncertainty after taking delivery of a new cue.
"I am still not 100 per cent happy with the cue so I'm delighted to have won," said Higgins who goes to Bangkok later this week in good heart for the Thailand Open - the last overseas ranking event of the 1996/97 campaign.
"It could have gone 6-all and I was fortunate I fluked one of the balls. At 7-5 I just tried to be positive and tell myself I am two frames in front and in the driving seat."
