Sixy snooker

Mark Davis won this afternoon's six reds final 8-4 against Shaun Murphy and can take plenty of confidence into the rest of the campaign.

From the action I saw, he played some the best snooker throughout the tournament. He deserves his title and the winning cheque for £40,000.

He's got history too. He won a six reds Championship back in 2009 and obviously enjoys the format.

The pros and cons of the idea of six reds - launched back in 2008 - have been debated at length this week among the snooker community, but for Davis it's nothing but good.

He looks to have continued the good form he showed to reach the Wuxi Classic semi-final, picks up a piece if silverware, enjoys a great pay day and will only grow in confidence

It's event worth winning, for sure, and great practice for the players ahead of next week's Australian Open, but what do we the public think of the format.

It was launched five years ago to give the game a bit of a lift at a time when it was really needed, but has been gazumped in the past two years by the launch of Barry Hearn's snooker revolution.

Variety is important in any sport and with a season so long, there's no harm in the event but some will enjoy it more than others.

I'm not the biggest fan of the format.

A frame of six reds snooker reminds me of the occasions where I've been playing a friend down the club and don't quite have time for another frame, but I'm not ready to leave yet either.

It feels like a watered-down format traditional game and stifles the excellence of break building.The slow-burning drama of the usual game is lost as well.

The format does of course have its merits. It fast forwards straight to be the business end of a normal frame, where we often see the most excitement and is easy enough to dip in and out of without as much concentration.

But as a format, I don't think it's different enough to the traditional game to draw in any new fans to the sport.

Let's get back to the ranking event action.