1st day at The Masters, plus words from the boss, Jason Ferguson!

Bingham wins first match at The Masters

Well, we've had some interesting results in the 1st day of The Masters, fans who only follow Snooker via BBC would think we had two surprises, but for me it was two expected results.

At the afternoon, Defending Champion Shaun Murphy lost a high quality match against in-form Mark Allen, 6-4. Allen had two centuries, Murphy had one and there was another five 50odd breaks in the match. Turning point came at the sixth frame, when Murphy missed a red three times and lost the frame as he was not snookered. At the time, he was losing 2-3 and all the frames have been won in one visit, so going 4-2 behind was harsh. And things got even worse when Allen made his second ton of the match to move 5(11)2 up one away from victory. Murphy still fought back as he made a ton pulling two frames back, but missed far too much in the 10th frame and Allen just got over the line.

In the evening, the most interesting match of the 1st Round in the papers proved it in the table, as Stuart Bingham top scored with a 120 - one of the only 3 breaks over 50 in the match - to win a very scrappy match against Ding Junhui, 6-4. You would expect this to be scrappy as they both have been struggling this season, but while Ding's bad run gets longer and longer, Bingham finally get up and running as he reaches the Last 8 of a tournament for only the third time since becoming Champion of the World. It's a bit weird that he has won the World Championship even before winning a match at The Masters, but well, it has happened before and could Bingham turn it all around and win The Masters? You would think so if he plays quarter of what he played in the last three matches of the World Championship last year.

Just before the action got underway at the Alexandra Palace, I caught up with the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) Chairman, Jason Ferguson, here's a bit our conversation:

Well, how many people in the World will The Masters reach? and how much did the audience for this and the other big events increased since you and [Barry] Hearn [Chairman of World Snooker] started working on Snooker?

It's difficult to break down numbers to The Masters but in 1985 18.5 million watched the World Final with [Dennis] Taylor and [Steve] Davis on the BBC, we now distribute through 25 broadcasters for our events, snooker is now watched by 500 million people.

How busy are you this part of the season, with all the big tournaments being played? And is there any ambition of having a tournament as big as The Masters between June and November, maybe overseas?

This part of the season is very busy, we always have ambitions for new events, but management of the calendar is becoming very important, now that the sport is much stronger we can work on a better rollout of the events, we are always subject to TV scheduling of course. 2016/17 season is looking great!

Yeah, next season will start the Home Series with an Open tournament in each country of the UK isn't it. Which channel will show these events, will the BBC keep the Welsh Open?
Under discussion, will keep everyone informed once finalised, but we do know more investment will go into the production.

Well, talking about The Masters again, what are your best memories from this event?

The best think for me is the feeling each time I arrive that its bigger and better every year, this year we have more seats, now 1960 and the atmosphere will be amazing.

Not long to go now. Thanks Jason, enjoy, I will be doing so!

My pleasure, best wishes for 2016!

The Masters continues, not long to go for The Rocket's return now, he plays Mark Williams at 1pm on Tuesday, follow anything from the Alexandra Palace through Ronnie O`Sullivan Brasil on Facebook by clicking here.