So, I'm in Leicester for the Champion Of Champions.

...and Mark is in the semifinal, playing Neil Robertson later today for a place in the final.

This story is from Thursday night, though.


I genuinely had the wildest, most amazing moment with Neil on Thursday night. We had a storm and heavy rainfall in Leicester, so I decided to get a taxi back to the hotel. That took a while to arrive, so the security people let me wait inside at the arena. Meaning I was one of the last to leave.

So, Neil comes out from the players' area, having beaten John Higgins earlier in the evening. And he goes right over to me and gives me a kind of hug (not a full on hug, but something kinda like a hug?), and asks if I wanted a photo. His exact words? "Come on, let's make Rob jealous."

(For info: Rob is a guy who comes to a lot of tournaments. He's a massive Neil fan. And I was with him once when I met Neil in Cheltenham six weeks back, meaning he knows that we know each other - I'm absolutely stunned that he'd remember that, though!)

So, we take the pic - which comes out great, btw - and I tell Neil (with a little laugh) that he scares me ahead of the semifinal when he plays this well. I also congratulated him on the win vs John, of course.

And... he tells me to just enjoy the semifinal, to have fun watching. He's completely calm about it, and I feel like he's basically saying between the lines that neither he nor Mark are stressing about it, so I shouldn't, either.

Just: what a moment! Not something I'd ever thought I'd experience!