Home Nations £1m tournament

It was a cracking ending. Wilson was 5-3 down and even 69-0 down in the decider, and needed 3 snookers, but made it through!

Hope Noppon makes it tonight, as Higgins-Wilson might be a tad predictable. He's got this far, he could be on the brink of his own maiden ranking title win.

Home favourite John Higgins is out after a 6-3 semi final defeat to an inspired Noppon Saengkham. The Scot led 3-1 before Saengkham reeled off five frames in a row to seal a famous win.

Well done to Noppon who will start the new year in the qualification places for the Players Championship. Wilson can join him in the provisional 16 if he wins, but if he loses he'll go 19th behind Maguire and Lisowski.

Well, I'm pleasantly glad he made it

Wilson leads 6-2 after the first session of the final.
Noppon with a mountain to climb.

8-4 at the mid-session. Noppon at least pulled out a couple of strong frames to show he didn't fluke his way to the final. and hey. it's not over until the bald head shines...

Gary Wilson successfully defends his title beating Noppon Saengkham 9-5.

An excellent tournament overall.
Really enjoyed it.
Especially the semi finals yesterday.

Well, I did half-expect it would be Noppon's week, and Gary would congratulate him and how he'd been in the same place a year ago. Just as well I'm not a betting man then. Well done to Wilson, he showed grit several times through the week to turn losing positions into winning ones, not least that semi-final.

Hopefully Noppon will be able to build on that form in future tournaments.

Not easy to defend a maiden title the following year. Gary Wilson did exceptionally well.

Noppon played some excellent stuff throughout the tournament but came up against a relentless opponent in the final.
His time will come though if he carries on playing to the standard of this tournament.

Welsh Open qualifying begins today in the Metrodome in Barnsley and finishes on Saturday January 27th. The tournament then moves to Llandudno in Wales from February 12 -18. It is the tournament before, and the cut off point for, the Players Championship.

The qualifiers involving the top 16 will be played in Llandudno in February. It shared the same cutoff point as the Masters so the top 16 refers to the 16 players that played in the Masters, not players like Maguire and Gary Wilson who had to play today.

Maguire lost 4-2 to Si Jiahui, so he is out! Gary Wilson beat Mark Davis 4-1

Un-Nooh's poor run of results continued as he lost 4-2 to Daniel Wells.

Stephen Hendry took his tour card out of mothballs and entered, but he lost 4-2 to Ross Muir.