Higgins urges careful word choice

World champion John Higgins has urged snooker firebrands Mark Allen and Judd Trump to cut out the sniping.

Allen was this week fined £250 and warned as to his future behaviour after he swore during a rant directed at World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn during last month’s UK Championship in York.

Trump then angered Neil Robertson when he described the Australian’s play as “slow” and “boring” after their Masters semi-final.

Trump, the 22-year-old UK champion being groomed to fill Ronnie O’Sullivan’s shoes as snooker’s biggest draw, lost that match and Robertson went on to win the title.

But Trump reasoned that he would have beaten Robertson “easily” with his best form, a claim Higgins believes showed a lack of respect from the youngster to-wards the 2010 world champion.

Higgins puts the controversial remarks down to players being unable to shake off the buzz of matches before going straight into interviews.

The Scot said: “It happens. Often when you come off after a big match the adrenaline is still running. I’m sure they don’t want to keep on getting fined, so it’s something they’ll definitely learn from.”

Higgins wants to see more of Trump at his thrilling best on the table, and less of the type of re-marks which rankled Robertson.

“Judd doesn’t really need to say these things,” Higgins said.

“To say that if he played well he’d have beaten Neil easily, that’s being a bit disrespectful to your opponent. I think Neil Robertson thoroughly deserved to beat him, but Judd is great for the game. He’s bringing new fans and that’s good.”

Meanwhile, the row between Allen and Hearn has been defused since the left-hander’s outburst in York, and the punishment from the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association was accepted without question.

Allen and Hearn met last month to discuss their differences, and have patched up their relationship.

Allen had criticised the reformatting of various events on the snooker tour, including bringing early-round matches at the UK Championship down from best-of-17 to best-of-11-frame games.