Judd Trump may have lost the World Championship snooker final to John Higgins but he comes away with many more followers after impressing with his young talent and prodigious potting. He and his immediate circle will be more than aware that he is not yet the finished article with one criticism being that he needed to be so good at potting to rescue him from his poor positional play. He may have made errors to let Higgins win key frames but that is understandable and is something that can be improved. A lot of hard work and practice will be required to maintain his position as being talented is not enough and whilst there is every chance that he will become a World Champion in the future it is by no means a guarantee. To frame it another way: Which is the most likely outcome? Judd Trump never wins the World Championship or Jimmy White does finally win one.
   For all that once the emotion of the tournament has died down he will no doubt be proud of what he achieved at the Crucible as will John Higgins who will probably feel slightly vindicated after serving his ban.  Higgins has answered his critics in the best way possible and is still hungry for more with talk of matching Hendry's 7 crowns. Such talk is to be expected and whilst it is certainly possible for him to do so it will be extremely difficult as at 35 he has just been ran close by a 21 year old and there are more and more talented youngsters coming through and that's before you consider Ronnie O'Sullivan.
   On a sadder note the death of Ted Lowe was at least beautifully timed, if such a thing is possible, taking place before the final allowing a poignant moment for reflection from old and new players. He was the voice of snooker when I was growing up and it was nice to see him make a decent break of 90.