So John Higgins has been cleared of match fixing after a four month wait. It seems a distant memory since Barry Hearn appeared in the media the day after the News of the World printed the story along with the video footage that had been edited.

 Higgins in a statement said:-"I am pleased that Sport Resolutions and WPBSA have concluded, after a thorough and fair investigation, that I was not guilty of any dishonesty and had no intention to fix a match and no intention to do anything corrupt," . "If I am guilty of anything it is of naivety and trusting those who, I believed, were working in the best interests of snooker and myself."

Barry Hearn said, "It was a very professional, concise and clear judgment and we want to move on. I think it was made clear who the culprit is.

John  could hardly been found guilty of match fixing as no match was played in relation to any promises or statements made.

Pat Mooney seems to be portrayed as the villain in the story and certainly it did not reflect any glory on his position as Higgins's advisor  This chapter does not show the game in a favourable light when a member of the WPBSA start talking and negotiating with potential "Russian Mafia".. The WPBSA seems to have a checkered history of involving characters that do not have a honest to goodness track record. Hopefully Barry Hearn will provide the new broom although there have been many false dawns before.

It will be interesting to see if John can bounce back from this and not suffer from similar symptoms as Tiger Woods.