Mark J Williams wins Player’s Player of the Year award, Rory McLeod receives Moment of the Year
The new World Number One, Mark J Williams, has received the Player’s Player of the Year award whereas the world number thirty-five, Rory McLeod, won the Moment of the Year award. The awards were handed over at the snooker world’s new awards ceremony which took place at the swanky Dorchester Hotel in London this past Friday.
Player based awards are the most prestigious in any sport because the admiration of your peers are probably the greatest compliment one can recieve.
The thirty-six-year-old Williams had his name written all over this award from the beginning. He has been very consistent this season as he won the German Masters title and with his other strong performances. Throughout the season he managed to gathered a total of 60360 points, which were enough to take him to the number one spot in the world rankings.
For the forty-year-old Rory McLeod it was also a great night, as he earned himself a Moment of the Year award and the moment in question was his shoot-out match with Tony Drago. It was a pretty dramatic frame and a match which only a few can forget. The first chance fell to Drago but he could only manage a break of 29 before missing an easy black. A few more chances were seen coming and going before Drago again got an excellent chance to seal the deal.
The match was almost through, as Drago had a lead of 57 points but suddenly McLeod, who is known for playing a slow game, bounced back with all of his zeal, energy and strength, and won the frame on a fluked black ball.
McLeod produced an excellent game to clear the table but he lost his nerves on the pink ball. Though he managed to get the pink later on, he missed the black again. On the last shot he played, he only had eleven seconds with the black safe but everyone was left flabbergasted when he fluked the final ball to clinch victory.
All the top players, referees, journalist and sponsors were there for the swanky ceremony, which proved a fitting end to one of the best campaigns the game has had so far.
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