UK Championship snooker 2020 LIVE - Mark Williams and Stephen Maguire in late action
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Updated 01/12/2020 at 23:35 GMT
UK Championship 2020 LIVE - With Ronnie O'Sullivan out, Mark Selby and Mark Williams are looking to join Judd Trump and Neil Robertson as the big guns in the fourth round in Milton Keynes. We continue over coverage as Williams takes on Ricky Walden from 7pm.
Mark Williams
Image credit: Eurosport
Right, that's us
Night night, see you at 12.45 tomorrow for more fun. Anthony McGill v Neil Robertson in the afternoon, Mark Selby v Bazza Hawkins in the evening. Boom!
Walden beats Williams 6-5!
He's had such struggles with his back, barely able to practise and with his cue action jiggered, but he's back now and he's earned the everything out of that. He plays Judd trump next. Good luck, old mate.
Williams 5-5 Walden (0-60)
Here we go! Another chance for Ricky, a good enough one for him to feel confident about devouring it. He's not giving himself time to think about things really, just clearing balls. He's nearly there - but there are 83 points left on the table.
Williams 5-5 Walden (0-25)
What a win that is for Pang Junxu - to go from 3-0 to 3-5 to 6-5, incredible. Apparently he played great too. Anyway Ricky gets in straight away, and it's about time for the "In a final frame you just want one chance" patter. So there it is. But on 21, he runs out of position and puts Mark behind the brown, not tight but uncomfortable. He misses first time, hits second.
Williams 5-5 Walden (0-0)
Good luck boys.
Around the tables
Elliot Slessor 1-6 Lu Ning (finished)
Stephen Maguire 5-6 Pang Junxu (finished)
Jamie Jones 6-4 Alexander Ursenbacher (finished)
Williams 5-5 Walden
Mark's been good since he was really under, and he's got to be favourite from here. But Ricky still had chances in that frame, so we're probably set for another scrappy arse-nipper. This game.
Williams 4-5 Walden (66-9)
In behind the yellow, Ricky foul-misses three times and when he hits it's too full, exactly what he was trying to avoid. Mark sinks it, absolutely marmalises the green home and gets down for a red which brings the black into play. A decider now looks inevitable. Come on!
Williams 4-5 Walden (29-9)
Mark falters on 29 and immediately receives a six-point snooker before the safety resumes. The reds are mainly gathered around the top right, with the hole covered by the black. Stop if you think you've heard this one before.
Williams 4-5 Walden (15-9)
It's not the Cruce but you still struggle to beat late-night snook. The boys play a lot of safety, then Mark clips the brown en route back to baulk and leaves a pot; Ricky goes at it hard, but misses. and Mark is right in trying to force a decider. Ricky looks a little peaky, a line that sounds best read in the voice of Bianca from Eastenders.
Williams 4-5 Walden (1-9)
A great pot from Mark gets him away, but all he can do thereafter is go in behind the yellow ... but he misses his snooker. That was careless. And another poor shot leaves Ricky with an easy starter into the centre. There's a whole stack of work to be done to turn this into anything approximating to a chance, but if you're at the table you're in with a chance ... and he overruns into the pack. End of break.
Around the tables
Elliot Slessor 1-6 Lu Ning (finished)
Stephen Maguire 5-4 Pang Junxu
Jamie Jones 4-4 Alexander Ursenbacher
Williams 4-5 Walden
That was a beautifully constructed contribution, his 106 surpassing the 81 he made in frame 1, roundabout three weeks ago.
Williams 3-5 Walden (75-0)
Mark pauses before playing a difficult pink, measuring the cannon into the reds beneath it beautifully. It took a fair lot to get him going tonight, but it's going for him now, the ball before frame-ball and frame-ball both rattling around the hole before dropping.
Williams 3-5 Walden (26-0)
Mark gets his long pot success up to a princely 29 percent with lovely red, clobbered into the corner. At 5-3 down in a best of 11, any time you're at the table is a chance, and he'll be considering this that.
Williams 3-5 Walden (0-0)
Long ting. They tap in and out of the pack for quite some time.
Around the tables
Elliot Slessor 1-6 Lu Ning (finished)
Stephen Maguire 5-4 Pang Junxu
Jamie Jones 4-3 Alexander Ursenbacher
Williams 3-5 Walden
A break of 56 brings Mark nearer.
Williams 2-5 Walden (61-12)
Mark hasn't looked at all like spurning this chance.
Williams 2-5 Walden (31-12)
Mark misses another long pot - his success tonight is 25 percent, which is very naughty. But Ricky does just as badly with a much shorter one and this time Mark gets to work. He's not looked good tonight, but he knows how to compete. He runs out of position though, and Ricky cuts home the tightest red imaginable. You can almost feel his confidence radiating through the screen ... and then he misses a plant, when there was a much easier pot available, by a fair way. I suppose he felt he should go for it because if it works it's the match, but it didn't and might well cost him the frame.
Around the tables
Elliot Slessor 1-5 Lu Ning
Stephen Maguire 5-3 Pang Junxu
Jamie Jones 4-3 Alexander Ursenbacher
Williams 2-5 Walden
Superb clearance from Ricky, 55 and the frame! He's one away!
Williams 2-4 Walden (14-64)
Ricky gets the next red too, clatters home the blue, and this is going to be three up with four to play!
Williams 2-4 Walden (14-50)
Goodness! Mark mishits a long one! Ricky takes a simple red, but the blue is tough ... and he misses it, but leaves nothing.
Williams 2-4 Walden (14-49)
Really good work from Ricky, this. His foot is on the throat, grinding. But then he overruns slightly and finds himself very close to two reds in the middle and can only press onto them. There's going to be a bit of this, and we look to be looking at another longun.
Williams 2-4 Walden (14-10)
Mark will feel he's got to win this one, and he gets in ... then splits the pack but misses the pot! He may live to regret that.
Around the tables
Elliot Slessor 0-5 Lu Ning
Stephen Maguire 4-3 Pang Junxu
Jamie Jones 4-2 Alexander Ursenbacher
Williams 2-4 Walden
Ricky clears the table, and Mark knows he deserved it for missing that red.
Williams 2-3 Walden (45-54)
Ricky's got this; great show after losing a near hour-long frame before the interval.
Williams 2-3 Walden (45-20)
He actually runs out of position, so gets to play a decent safety ... but Mark soon gets a go at a red that's close to the white but a long way from the pocket. He misses, then Mark misses a pretty simple one and this time Ricky takes him up on it. Mark is in trouble.
Williams 2-3 Walden (34-0)
A sensational long red, clipped in from close to but wide of the pocket, gets Mark away off the break and quickly sets about things. He's not one of those players who ever look like they\re cobbling it together, he looks smooth and brilliant until he misses.
Around the tables
Elliot Slessor 0-5 Lu Ning
Stephen Maguire 3-3 Pang Junxu
Jamie Jones 3-2 Alexander Ursenbacher
Williams 2-3 Walden
It feels like we'll be here a while.
Williams 2-2 Walden (54-63)
Here we go. Ricky makes for the yellow off the green, so it must go ... and it's there! Mark is not at all happy, tugging at his beard.
Williams 2-2 Walden (54-50)
This is getting like the last frame. was that really tonight? Mark plays off four cushions to find his best safety, rolling into the pack, misses by fractions, twice, then hits on his third go. He gets in next as well, but eventually forces a tight red to the middle, and Ricky is very quickly to the table because he knows he should undress it. The difficulty for him is getting the yellow, which is very close to the brown. He has a good look to see if it goes into its own pocket and the key shots here will be getting on it and dealing with it.
Williams 2-2 Walden (46-27)
Williams pots a Williams red and this is a decent chance - the balls look removable. He gets the wrong side of the blue and reproaches himself, but a superb red keeps him going, followed by a great pink into the middle. Another tremendous red becomes necessary - after each shot you think he'll be in position, but he's doing so well just to pot them. He has thrum in the blue and go around the angles, and though he couldn't have cracked it any harder, he can't enough of a bounce to get on the next red. Off we go again.
Williams 2-2 Walden (0-27)
Right, we're back. A shoddy break from Mark allows Ricky to clip into the top right, off the knuckle. That did not look like going down and he's quick to build on it, a yellow then onto red-blacks. He's looking very smart and of course as soon as that's so he overscrews and winds up at the top of the cluster with nothing on. End of break.
Around the tables
Elliot Slessor 0-3 Lu Ning
Stephen Maguire 1-3 Pang Junxu
Jamie Jones 3-1 Alexander Ursenbacher
Williams 2-2 Walden
Mark cleans house, and that will sting Ricky all the way through the mid-session interval, which they're now enjoying.
Williams 1-2 Walden (45-52)
Time elapses. It's been 35 minutes since the last red and we love it, but it's time now. A decent safety from Mark forces the error and the red goes into the yellow pocket, finally. He needs brown, blue and pink.
Williams 1-2 Walden (35-52)
Ricky leaves Mark a routine longun ... and he misses it! Of course he does! And ends up hidden behind pink and green, escaping well, then again when he's stuck in again.
Williams 1-2 Walden (35-52)
Goodness. Ricky earns points from a snooker, then sticks the red right against the black that's still by the corner. But Mark removes it and off we go again. Man.
Williams 1-2 Walden (35-47)
The fourth frame was like this in the Selby-Vafaei match earlier; Selby won it for 2-2, then reeled off the next four in short order. Meanwhile, Ricky moves one of the reds up the table and Mark has a shy, the miss not costing him the frame on this occasion, and after Ricky releases the second red, he lays a tremendous snooker, brown and green blocking the route to both balls. It earns him a shot at a red to the middle, but he plays it too slow as it turns out - the ball drifts left, when if he'd punched it, it was there. AND WHAT A POT FROM RICKY! He rattles into the yellow pocket, but can't change the run of things and the chase for the final red begins.
Williams 1-2 Walden (35-41)
Decent snooker from Mark, yanking the white close to the green pocket jaws and with brown and blue interrupting the route to the red. But a swerve does the trick for Rickey and round and round we go.
Williams 1-2 Walden (35-41)
The last two reds are stuck together near top cushion and top left, and Ricky looks to have got them off the blue ... but he catches them too thick and makes them even mire inaccessible. As punishment, he's put in a position from which he can only damage himself, so misses the reds then misses again, taking the white into the yellow pocket. As such, the chase - complicated by the black over the top right to which they're now both near - resumes. Meantime, Williams races off for a lag. He must really, really need to go because he is not generally a quick mover.
Williams 1-2 Walden (27-28)
A cracking red from Mark allows him to stick Ricky behind the brown, the yield four points but no opening. He gets in next though, salvaging a poor positional shot on the first red with a fine blue. But just when you think he;s taking control of the frame, he raps a black along the top rail that wobbles down ... and then up again. There's a nice starter out there for Ricky but a lot of work to do thereafter.
Williams 1-2 Walden (9-22)
Ohhhhhh! Ricky gets in and out, so Mark comes to the table looking to do some serious work. But he misses an easy black, then Ricky bridges awkwardly to take one on and Mark misses it too. It almost shoots over into the opposite pocket, but instead it sits there and has the black and red behind it; this is tricky, but Ricky clatters it home well. If his split goes well he's really in business, but he misses the blue and somehow leaves nowt.
Around the tables
Elliot Slessor 0-1 Lu Ning
Stephen Maguire 0-2 Pang Junxu
Jamie Jones 1-0 Alexander Ursenbacher
Williams 1-2 Walden
An excellent 53 sticks Ricky into the lead, and this is shaping up very nicely. If Mark loses, that red will stick with him.
Williams 1-1 Walden (42-55)
Mark takes on a long red, a calculated risk - basically, he thinks he'll pot it, a fair assumption. But Ricky does really well to clear as far as the final red, so here comes the key shot: the black that gets him onto it. He comes behind it, to take it away from the pink that's resting on it and into the middle ... it does down, just, and he only needs up to the brown. This is looking like a great skank.
Williams 1-1 Walden (42-16)
As I was saying, Mark misses an easy black, sending it up the table but leaving a pot. Ricky eschews it for a good safety that gives him a chance to cut home an opener. There a lot of work still to do, the three reds clustered under the pink looking particularly challenging, but he's in the balls. Until he finds himself behind a red that's blocked by another red, so the safety recommences.
Williams 1-1 Walden (42-0)
And he misses the first, a blue into the green pocket, leaving that aforementioned red. But he can't dig into the pack off the black, so rustles it on the way back up to baulk ... and leaves a long, long temper ... which Mark eases in so easily and gently. Beautiful. Next the black goes down, and this is looking a lot like 2-1.
Williams 1-1 Walden (33-0)
Ricky has a go at a red from low on it and can't sent it home, leaving a simple starter for Mark. Error. He cashes in quickly, racing to 33 but running out of balls from which to go into the pack. There's still on loose red, so key shots coming up...
Around the tables
Elliot Slessor 0-1 Lu Ning
Stephen Maguire 0-1 Pang Junxu
Jamie Jones 0-0 Alexander Ursenbacher
Williams 1-1 Walden
A break of 48 is enough for Ricky.
Williams 1-0 Walden (0-64)
After a protracted safety exchange, Ricky gets in next, and he looks in decent touch, carefully and deliberately removing balls. There are two difficult reds, one on each side cushion, but he won't need them by the time he comes to them.
Williams 1-0 Walden (0-48)
There's been very little fuss about this so far, but there are seven reds still in formation - Ricky is hedging, taking blacks with every red but picking about the fringes in case he misses. But then he pots a red without side, failing to take the white all the way around the black, and he might've taken on the pink, but decides that that's end of break.
Williams 1-0 Walden (0-32)
Williams takes on and misses a long red - he gets really close - but leaves it for Walden, who gets to work. He's taken four reds and black, and the balls are spread fairly well. He couldn't, could he?
Around the tables
Elliot Slessor 0-0 Lu Ning
Stephen Maguire 0-0 Pang Junxu
Jamie Jones 0-0 Alexander Ursenbacher
Williams 1-0 Walden
Consider the smack duly laid down.
Williams 0-0 Walden (58-9)
Mark rattles along sharply and looks in good nick. I'm not sure Ricky will be as free and easy with his attempts hereafter.
Williams 0-0 Walden (12-9)
Ricky gets going with a nifty long red but misses a pink into the middle, getting away with it. He then forces Williams to miss, twice, from an invidious position, before unsuccessfully taking on a nails red, into the middle from tight on the top cushion, that leaves one. Williams digs right in.
Here we go
Mark J Williams to break. Is he the least likely person to incorporate a middle initial?
Ricky Walden
Obviously we know plenty about Mark Williams, but Ricky Walden has been around a long time too. After some time in the wilderness, he's 45 in the world now, and has trouble with his back, Ronnie tells us. He also notes that Ricky has won ranking tournaments, and you don't do that if you don't have a serious a-game.
Vote Ron!
One piece of housekeeping
Joe Perry came back from the dead to beat Joe O'Connor 6-5. I think he was 5-2 down at one point, and needed snookers in one of the frames he won after that.
Evening all!
Off we go again!
The afternoon session is in the books
Join me this evening, at 6.45 GMT, for:
- Elliot Slessor - Lu Ning
- Stephen Maguire - Pang Junxu
- Mark Williams - Ricky Walden
- Jamie Jones - Alexander Ursenbacher
We'l be focusing on Williams-Walden, but there's plenty to enjoy.
And now it won't come back.
What can we do.
Selby continued
Er, my coverage comes back before I lost it, that is odd ... and then it drops out again.
Selby speaks
He says his eye, which was bothering him in a previous round, is fine now. And, er, then my wifi drops out so I don't get to hear what comes next. By way of consolation:
Around the tables
Jack Lisowski 6-2 Xu Si (finished)
Kurt Maflin 3-6 Kyren Wilson (finished)
Joe Perry 5-5 Joe O'Connor
Selby beats Vafaei 6-2!
A match of two (unequally sized) halves. Selby was poor to begin with and the balls went against him, but he came out for the second mini-session like an absolute boss, potting brilliantly and generally playing more positive snooker. He plays Bazza Hawkins in the last eight, which should be a lot of fun - if he starts then as he did today, he'll be nearly gone by the interval.
UK CHAMPIONSHIP TUESDAY SCHEDULE
Tuesday, 1 December
Evening (7pm)
- Elliot Slessor - Lu Ning
- Stephen Maguire - Pang Junxu
- Mark Williams - Ricky Walden
- Jamie Jones - Alexander Ursenbacher
When is the UK Championship and how to watch?
The tournament runs from Monday, 23 November until Sunday, 6 December. Eurosport will broadcast the event. Check here for TV listings, or alternatively here for details on how to stream the event live on eurosport.co.uk and the app. In addition to the live streaming, daily reports and highlights will be published online on the Eurosport website.
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