Category: Snooker

• 2019 champion beats Tom Ford 13-7 to book spot in last eight
• Trump admits to struggling with conditions of Crucible table

Judd Trump sealed his place in his 10th Crucible quarter-final after polishing off Tom Ford in the second round of the World Snooker Championship.

Trump – the 2019 champion – resumed two frames from victory at 11-5 and split the first four to seal a 13-7 triumph and secure a last-eight slot against either Jak Jones or Si Jiahui.

This article will be updated later in the day

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• World No 3 says partying has its place as he faces John Higgins
• David Gilbert through and Judd Trump close to last-eight spot

Mark Allen is adamant partying still has its place as he continues his quest for a maiden world snooker title at the Crucible on Saturday.

The 38-year-old from Antrim launched a dramatic health drive that led him to shed more than six stone in the last two years, and has been rewarded by a handful of ranking titles and a surge to third in the world rankings – and potentially to No 1 at the end of this tournament.

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• World No 1 ups the ante amid rumours of a rival tour
• O’Sullivan cruises into second round with 10-1 win over Page

Ronnie O’Sullivan declared ­himself open to offers amid rumours of a rival snooker tour and warned he would walk away from the sport if he believed his talent was being undervalued.

Leading players, including O’Sullivan, are understood to have been approached by Far East backers about the prospect of establishing a breakaway circuit from as early as next season.

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• Barry Hearn warns Sheffield over upgrading worlds venue
• O’Sullivan takes 8-1 lead over Jackson Page in opening match

On the day that Barry Hearn warned that Sheffield’s days of staging the World Snooker Championship could be numbered, Ronnie O’Sullivan roared out of the blocks in his quest to make Crucible history by becoming the first eight-time world champion in the modern era.

Facing the Welsh qualifier Jackson Page, O’Sullivan built an 8-1 lead in the first session of their first round match. He fired four half-centuries plus a break of 122 in the fifth frame to leave the 22-year-old Page next to no chance of rescuing the situation when they resume tomorrow. Page was in danger of losing the session to whitewash until he crafted a superb break of 142 in the seventh frame.

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• Former champion uncertain if he has played last Crucible match
• ‘I’m not considering my future really, just it’s a tough game’

The three-times champion Mark Williams admitted he does not know whether he has played his last World Snooker Championship match after he suffered a dramatic 10-9 defeat to Si Jiahui in the first round. Si continued his love affair with the Crucible as he followed up last year’s surprise run to the semi-finals by knocking out Williams in an epic clash.

Williams resumed with a 5-4 lead but it was the Chinese 21-year-old who hit the ground running on Tuesday, taking each of the opening four frames to go into the mid-session interval 8-5 in front. Williams then won four of the next five to make it 9-9 and set up a decider, with Si holding his nerve to close out a narrow victory.

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• Player slams World No 19 Vafaei for criticism of snooker venue
• Selby seriously thinking of quitting after first-round exit

The former world snooker champion Shaun Murphy has made an emotional intervention in the row brewing about the historic Crucible Theatre which was described as “smelly” by Hossein Vafaei on Sunday.

World No 19 Vafaei said the venue for the championships since 1977 “smells really bad”, the practice room is like a “garage” and the tournament should move elsewhere but Murphy described the Iranian’s outburst as “almost sacrilege”, and complained that he has “not helped the sport at all”.

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• Iranian urges investment for venue to retain hosting rights
• Judd Trump eases through with comfortable 10-5 victory

Hossein Vafaei strongly criticised the conditions at the Crucible after crashing out of the World Snooker Championship in a 10-5 defeat by former champion Judd Trump.

The Iranian described the Sheffield venue as “smelly”, compared its practice facilities to “like playing in a garage”, and questioned the treatment of players in the course of the marathon 17-day event.

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• Belgian falls victim to ‘Crucible curse’ and loses 10-9
• Gilbert wins four frames in a row to clinch surprise win

Luca Brecel fell victim to the so-called “Crucible curse” as the qualifier David Gilbert reeled off the final four frames to claim a stunning 10-9 win over the defending champion on the opening day of the World Snooker Championship in Sheffield.

The Belgian became the 19th first-time champion to fail to defend his title at the famous venue as Gilbert, a semi-finalist in 2019, surged back level with three successive half-centuries then dispatched a nerveless 65 which proved enough to secure a famous win.

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The ‘Tyneside Terror’ on his journey from child snooker prodigy to losing his tour card, before returning to the top at the Crucible

Gary Wilson was no longer folding crispy pancakes at the frozen food factory but he was a taxi driver when his long struggle to establish himself as one of the world’s best snooker players seemed an impossible dream. “That was the point where I started thinking: ‘It might never actually happen’,” Wilson says 13 years later. “I knew deep down it should and that, given the right circumstances, I would be good enough. But life doesn’t always work out as you want, does it? I was 25 and I thought I might be a taxi driver for a long time.”

There were times when Wilson was reduced to tears and, as he says, “generally, I’m not very emotional but that’s one area in my life where I’m very passionate. It’s my career and it’s been my dream for such a long time.”

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A potential pointer to future home arrives, Ronnie O’Sullivan eyes more glory and champion Luca Brecel returns out of form

For the snooker purists, it was the sight nobody wanted to see just days out from the most prestigious tournament on the sport’s calendar. Debate has raged for years about whether or not the world championship will eventually have to leave its spiritual home of the Crucible and this week, in the buildup to the 2024 edition, there was what felt a significant moment.

The world championship will remain in Sheffield until 2027 at least but the sight of Barry and Eddie Hearn, flanked by the seven-time world champion, Ronnie O’Sullivan, in Saudi Arabia to announce that Riyadh Season, a state-funded sports and entertainment festival, was to become an official partner for the tournament would have sent a shiver through the spines of those who adore the Crucible. O’Sullivan, never one to shy away from offering his opinion, went one step further. “I think Saudi Arabia could get hold of this tournament, grab it by the scruff of the neck and turn it into a Wimbledon or a French Open or US Open, and really make it a super event,” he said.

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