Judd Trump was celebrating the biggest triumph of his career after a thrilling win over Mark Allen in the UK Championship final.
New UK champion overwhelmed by success
Judd Trump was celebrating the biggest triumph of his career after a thrilling win over Mark Allen in the UK Championship final.
The 22-year-old saw an 8-3 lead almost wiped out by Allen at the York Barbican Centre before he clung on to clinch the title.
Allen got back to 9-8 after he fired in four century breaks in the match, including three in the space of four evening frames.
But the man from Antrim left a half-chance for Trump after missing a difficult red and the Northern Irishman had to squirm in his seat as Judd made a winning break of 91.
And Trump said: "To win it the way I did is a brilliant achievement.
"Mark pushed me all the way. It's a good job I had a big lead in that last session.
"It feels amazing. It was a brilliant game."
Trump was uncomfortable watching Allen make big break after big break.
"It was like playing a machine. I looked at him and it just looked like he wasn't going to miss," Trump said.
Disappointed
Allen had his runs of 141, 139, 129 and 125, to just one century of 109 from Trump.
But Allen's form dipped slightly in the middle of the match, which proved costly.
Allen said: "I played well towards the end. All credit to Judd for the middle part of the match. He played so well.
"I'm disappointed because I came here to win the tournament and I haven't done that. But if someone had given me runner-up before I started I probably would have taken it."
On Monday Allen had called for World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn to hand over responsibility for the running of the game and found himself facing the possibility of legal action from the veteran sports promoter who took offence at the personal nature of the remarks.
The row was defused to an extent when Hearn said he would happily meet with Allen at the World Snooker AGM on December 19, and Allen confirmed he would rather enter face-to-face talks than head to court.
It had taken special snooker from the 25-year-old, who has reported positive progress in his battle with depression, to even partially divert attention from his scathing criticism of paymaster Hearn.
Now he is looking forward to discussing their differences in a civil manner, rather than a civil court.
"He threatened legal action but hopefully it doesn't come to that," Allen said.
"If we can chat about it and sort our problems out between ourselves that's the way men should do it."
