Jimmy White scooped a million bahts (Dh108,000) jackpot in the plush surroundings of the Montiem Riverside hotel in Bangkok yesterday.
The former UK champion, 47, and six times runner-up in the World Championship, defeated Barry Hawkins 8-6 in the final. A three-and-half hours late night marathon was resolved when White, who only received a wild card invitation, won the last two frames after leading 6-4.
Earlier Hawkins got off to a flyer taking a 2-0 lead but once White had found his form, the contest swung one way and then the other as the two finalists went for broke. The runner-up was guaranteed 500,000 bahts but with the winner receiving double, the exchanges produced some high quality safety and break-building.
The highest break was a 61 which took White into a 5-4 lead and as hard as he tried, Hawkins could not get in front again after leading for the last time at the end of the fifth frame. White had only just scraped through the group stages, with Abu Dhabi's Mohammed Shehab among those to beat him.
"I had a great chance to win the second frame but fluffed it. I'm delighted to have won here," he said.
"I believe tournaments like this are here to stay."
jdee@thenational.ae
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Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
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Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
