Fu pots his way to the main trophy on the Rock

Marco Fu, from Hong Kong, thrilled an intense crowd of some 200 aficionados  with his potting ability when beating his english opponent Michael White in Sunday evening’s final  4-1 to take the first Dafabet Gibraltar Open Snooker Tournament Trophy and £25k first prize.

After  one frame - Marco took the lead over an increasingly frustrated Michael as he raced through the reds/blacks to have us all on the edge of our seats as he demonstrated how to close out a frame on the colours to record a 140 break. The skill - and bravery - of some of his decision making  was mind blowing.

During the Friday session,  regular spectators and some other matches had paused to watch as  Marco completed a maximum 147 - the fourth of his career. Friday too had put him in line for a further £3,500.

We were in the presence of sporting greatness.

Himself an English champion, Michael’s frustration  may have been caused by nerves against No. 14 world - ranked Marco Fu as he  had almost matched him break for break throughout the early stages - only to make errors when it was going well at crucial stages.

He ‘jawed’ the ball on some ‘straight’ shots and lost control of the white ball, going ‘in - off’ on several occasions - as did Marco a couple of times.

But Marco Fu knew how to close out the match and got across the 74 point  mark (half of 147) to knowledgeable applause - for Michael to concede the 4th and 5th.

Sports Minister Steven Linares was delighted with the success of bringing another international sporting event ‘to put The Rock on the sporting map of the world’.

Marco himself expressed delight to ‘experience Gibraltar, a really beautiful place - and I’ll be back’.  Two further editions are  planned as part of the six - event Kreativ Dental Clinic European Tour with the goal - a top 24 place in the Order of Merit finals in Manchester in March.

This  Dafabet sponsored  Tournament really was a marathon occasion and the final was the 179th. match played on the 10 championship tables set up in the Tercentenary Sports Hall over the four days since last Thursday. The tournament contested by  128 players eager to get among the cash - and more importantly the Ranking points.  Such

famous champion faces as Mark Selby, Peter 

Ebdon, Stuart Bingham, Nigel Bonds - Jimmy White were here, but were eliminated  along the way.