Neal Foulds snooker column: The Eurosport and ITV pundit talks Welsh Open, Judd Trump and Ronnie O'Sullivan

It’s with great excitement that we look ahead to next week’s Welsh Open, the first event of the snooker season to be played away from Milton Keynes. All involved at World Snooker, from security to event organisers, to referees and players, have done a terrific job in keeping the show on the road over the last 12 months, but a change is always nice and it’s quite poignant that it is at the Welsh Open where we will see the first signs of what is hopefully the beginning of a return to some kind of normality.

Of course, last year’s Welsh Open was the very last tournament snooker hosted with fans in attendance, before the coronavirus pandemic brought sport to a complete halt. Although this season’s renewal will again be held behind closed doors, heading to Celtic Manor in Wales for the Welsh Open will give everybody a lift.

Of all the things our fans have missed out in this past year, I think not being able to visit the many wonderful snooker cities and venues around the world has been one of the biggest losses. Belfast and Germany are the two I’ve missed the most and I think it would have been a great shame if snooker had been unable to take the Welsh Open home.

Belfast is a great city with a passionate snooker following that always delivers good crowds, and Wales is very similar with its rich history in the sport and all the wonderful players it has produced over the years. Furthermore, it’s worth remembering that unlike the other Home Nations events, the Welsh Open is a longstanding tournament that has been on the calendar for many years now and I’m sure the snooker will deliver next week.

I think this latest Home Nations series has been a shining light once again, with worthy winners, some terrific matches and a really high standard. I’d suggest that’s largely down to all the matches being played in the same venue and it has really helped in allowing conditions to be spot on and stay that way across all the events played in Milton Keynes.

Trump keeps marching on

Conditions and the familiarity of those conditions has definitely played a part in Judd Trump, in particular, and Ronnie O’Sullivan generally enjoying deep runs in many of the events staged in the same venue. In the case of Trump, he’s clearly the man to beat nowadays, but playing exclusively on the TV table is a huge advantage and is why it’s so hard to see him or O’Sullivan losing too many matches in the early rounds.

I really can’t emphasise enough just how different the outside tables play to the TV table and it continues to catch players out. When you have that to contend with while also playing the best players in the world, it can be an almost insurmountable task.

As for Trump himself, it was business as usual when he returned with victory at German Masters. He and Jack Lisowski will have been really disappointed to have been forced to miss the Masters following positive Covid-19 tests, but the world number one really is a winning machine and deserves everything that comes his way right now.

I have to say, that fourth title victory of the season didn’t appear all that likely as Trump battled his way through the early rounds before trailing 5-1 to Barry Hawkins in the semi-finals, but from that point on he was outstanding and simply blew Lisowski away in the final.

Trump seems to have this priceless ability to build himself up to peak in the latter stages of these tournaments, whereas some players have to play their best snooker to get into finals before struggling to match those standards on the big day.

The burst Trump produced from 5-1 down against Hawkins was incredible; you won’t see snooker played any better than that. Trump has an aura now, like all the greats have had, and I fear there are a lot of players who just don’t believe they can beat him. He’s a great champion.

A new champion is born but old ones fight on

Speaking of champions, it was wonderful to see a new one crowned at the Masters, if not a little bit disappointing to see an old one just fall short of winning another big title.

The event started dramatically with Trump and Lisowski having to pull out, and Yan Bingtao certainly did it the hard way, coming from a long way behind to beat Neil Robertson before edging out Stephen Maguire and Stuart Bingham and then again pulling off a stirring comeback in the final, this time against John Higgins.

On this season’s form, I don’t think too many people would have said Bingtao was a winner waiting to happen, but he’s very good at finding a way to win and Higgins will have been disappointed not to finish the job having played so well all week but failed to reach those heights in the final.

His defeat of O’Sullivan in the quarter-final was close to Higgins of old and while he’s not quite as consistent as he was, he’s still got the game to take on the likes of O’Sullivan and Trump on a going day. Can he win another major? I’m not sure. But he’s playing well again and that’s good to see.

As for Bingtao, it will be fascinating to see how his game develops now while Ryan’s Day win at the Shoot Out last weekend was another feel-good story. Everyone in snooker knows just what a class act the Welshman is, but prior to the Shoot Out, he hadn’t reached the last 16 of any event in two years.

The rankings don’t lie and that’s why he found himself plummeting down the list, but he picked up plenty of valuable ranking points on Sunday and he’ll be hoping that victory can breathe life into his career, just like it did for the aforementioned Hawkins a few years back.

Day has now qualified for the Players Championship, which will be a massive boost to him and was unthinkable not so long ago. Who knows what the rest of the reason has in store. He’s a great lad and I was really pleased for him.

Snooker leads the way as sport shows its worth

With the Welsh Open next week and tournaments like the Players Championship coming up, there's lots to look forward to and World Snooker really should be commended for everything they’ve done in recent months.

It’s been hard for every sport without crowds, but snooker led the way when resuming with the Championship League on June 1 – an event ITV4 picked up – and the sport has not let its foot off the gas since. I know there were calls for the World Championship to be cancelled back in the summer, but the event was a great success, and a memorable one, too, with O’Sullivan winning his sixth world title.

And it’s been more of the same this season with so many great matches covered on various television platforms. People need sport, especially in the midst of another long lockdown, and while we hope the return of fans is in sight, for now we’ll keep going as we are and try our level best to bring snooker to life in your homes.

On that point, congratulations to Channel 4 for bringing free-to-air Test cricket back last week. Even back when cricket was on terrestrial television, we didn’t see winter tours on that platform, so for us to be able to watch a marquee series such as this one is very welcome.

I love my cricket and have been watching as much as I can, for all the morning session is a bit too early for me when I’m working for the rest of the day. Sky have done a brilliant job with cricket over the years, and will no doubt continue to do so, but for children new to the game to have woken up and watched England win against this fine India side, in an absorbing Test match that went the distance, was just perfect.

Credit must go to Channel 4, and of course England who defied the doubters to pull off a famous win and let India know that they are in for a real battle in the coming weeks. The series is set up beautifully now and I’ll be watching as much as I can in-between my snooker commitments.

Sport is a wonderful thing and we are very lucky to have it.