Nick Metcalfe Snooker Column: Longer matches are the heart and soul of this sport

The magic of snooker has always been in the slow burning drama of marathon encounters. And the beauty of the end of the season is that we see a good month of them.

The Tour Championship in Manchester reminded us again that there's nothing quite like multi-session matches.

I mentioned on the Talking Snooker podcast before the tournament that I always forget myself at first when the switch is finally made, so accustomed have we become to bitesize affairs for months on end.

It happened straight away, as Judd Trump fell 4-0 behind to Mark Allen on day one.

Hey, have you seen the score? Trump's hopes are slipping away. What is it about that man and the Tour Championship? That poor record of his is set to carry on. Early exit time for the world number one.

Oh no, wait a minute. Hang on. Hold your horses. It's first to 10. Trump has time to recover here.

And of course that's exactly what he did, claiming a fine 10-8 victory.

Players have the time and the space for things to go wrong, and still win. There are intervals. There are the hours between sessions. Sometimes, there's a whole night between sessions. You need both your skills and your wits about you to come out on top in such intense surroundings.

Matches turned this way and that way at Manchester Central and it was a delight to watch.

John Higgins beat his fellow great Mark Williams in another fluctuating affair. Williams went 2-0 up. Higgins won seven frames in a row for a 7-2 lead. Williams then bounced back with four frames in succession to be just 7-6 behind. It was soon 8-8. Higgins eventually won 10-8. Momentum swings all the way. That's snooker. That's proper snooker.

A day later, we were all suffering an acute case of deja vu when Higgins recovered from 8-5 down to beat Mark Selby 10-8 and reach the semi-finals. That's exactly what Higgins did in last year's spellbinding final between the pair.

We also had a match go all the way to a 19th frame when Judd Trump met Shaun Murphy. World number one Trump had suffered a crazy long run of losing deciders, but he held his nerve to win this one.

It was compelling to see events unfold at this prestigious event. But while hailing the glories of longer matches here, I don't mean to suggest that you can't actually enjoy a best of seven or best of nine. Plenty of them are top value.

I can see why so many are served up too. Life is busy. It often seems like the fast forward button has been permanently pressed down these days.

Television wants a beginning, a middle and an end for many of its broadcasts. The TV people like presenting their programmes in a pretty package. It all makes sense.

And it works at times too. I really enjoy the Home Nations events for example. You never get bored for a minute. Story after story. It's a conveyor belt of narratives.

But in the long run, the shorter matches never really feel satisfying enough. A bit like Twenty20 in cricket compared with five-day Test matches. The quickfire business so often fails to reach the parts. It's just not nourishing.

Best of 19 frame clashes, like we saw last week, or the even longer matches to come at the World Championship will always be the proper stuff.

That's what snooker is really about, the heart and soul of the sport. That's what leaves us sated. It's a very welcome antidote to all that rushing around that we seem to swear by these days.

Take a seat. Put your feet up. It's first to 13 in a match that lasts three days. Relax. Savour it.

Right now, it's to the world qualifiers we go, before 17 magical days and nights at the Crucible. Part of the reason Sheffield in the spring is so beloved is definitely down to the long matches.

It's the very essence of this weird and wonderful game and I know how much you're relishing it all.

Zhao's brilliant treble has turned his whole season around

I'm old enough to remember when we were saying that Zhao Xintong was having an underwhelming season for a world champion.

That's been blown out of the water now, with Zhao seeing off Judd Trump 10-3 on Sunday to win the Tour Championship and seal a brilliant Players Series treble. Zhao also claimed the World Grand Prix and Players Championship titles in February.

It seems like the narrative has quickly changed, from the forthcoming World Championship being as open as they come to one that has a clear favourite.

There's no question that Zhao is playing magnificent snooker at this moment, and none of his rivals seem to have the answer.

Now for the biggest show of them all. Watching Zhao's progress there will be fascinating.

More Nick Metcalfe columns

• Crucible and Worlds a match made in heaven
• Can Ronnie O'Sullivan really do it again?
• Barry Hawkins: One of snooker's unsung heroes
• Nick Metcalfe ahead of the Players Championship
• John Virgo: Farewell to a snooker legend
• Ronnie O'Sullivan miles off the pace
• Kyren Wilson imperious in Masters win
• Could this be the greatest season of all?