Ian JohnThe World Snooker Championship has barely been out of the news since it began on Saturday, but this time it wasn’t protesters that made the front pages, but instead perfection with a snooker cue!
That’s because this morning Kyren Wilson completed a stunning 147 maximum clearance at the World Snooker Championship in his first round game against Ryan Day.
Wilson, who is a 12/1 chance with bet365 Sport to win the World Championship this year, had been facing Welshman Ryan Day in a morning session on Wednesday 19th April, when he landed the clearance and put himself in line for a payday.
Tournament organisers had offered a bonus prize of £40,000 for a 147 to be made at the Championship, shared between any of the players that make the landmark break.
In addition, Wilson stands to pocket an additional £15,000 for the highest break of the tournament. Which also would be shared if another player or more were to match the maximum.
It was Wilson’s best moment at the World Championship since he reached the final in 2020, losing a one-sided match18-8 to Ronnie O’Sullivan.
In doing so he becomes the ninth player in history to record a 147 at the Crucible.
Evenly Poised
Starting their morning session at 10am today and scheduled to play 8 of the possible 19 frames in the match, the match was tied at 2-2 when Wilson took aim at the table and sunk a beautiful long first red.
He then followed that with a black, and repeated that process for all 15 reds, before clearing the colours to put himself in prime position for a nice windfall regardless of how he performs at the tournament.
As it was, the first session ended in Wilson’s favour as he took a 5-3 lead into the next session which gets underway this evening.
It will be pleasing for tournament organisers that the focus is back on the snooker after what was a somewhat bewildering occurrence on Monday.
Dramatic Scenes As Protestors Storm Crucible
After animal rights protestors caused a significant delay in the running of the Aintree Grand National on Saturday evening, a different breed of protestor made a name for themselves at the Crucible Theatre on Monday.
Two protestors from the climate protest group Just Stop Oil, stormed the floor where the two tables were positioned during the first round games between Mark Allen and Fan Zhengyi as well as the game between Joe Perry and Robert Milkins.
On the table on which Perry and Milkins were playing, a protestor climbed onto the table and emptied a bag of orange powder all over himself and the bottom half of the table and floor.
The other protestor tried to glue herself onto the table, but referee Olivier Marteel intervened to stop the woman before she could clamber onto the table and cause more damage.
Both protestors were arrested before being bailed by South Yorkshire police.until the 15th June.
After a 40-minute delay, the Allen v Fan match resumed play, but the damage to the cloth in the Perry v Milkins game was so bad that the table had to be reclothed overnight, with a subsequent delay in the completion of that first game.
The protestors have been charged with causing criminal damage and their behavior is the latest in a long line of Just Stop Oil protests that have targeted sports events, as well as the motorway network around the UK over the last 12 months or so.
“State of Shock”
Perry revealed in an interview that he had been in a “state of shock” at what had happened.
“You don’t expect to see anything like that happen anywhere, especially here,” the Londoner said.
“I didn’t know what to think at the beginning. Once it was all done and over, I tried to relax, but it was a bit unnerving at the time.”
The former World Champion Shaun Murphy said that he felt the incident could have significant repercussions within snooker, perhaps altering the cosy nature of the sport.
“I have been saying for a long time that security protocols and access are too weak,” he stated.
“Snooker is a soft target and I would hate it, but I see it as an inevitability for the relationships between fans and sport to change.”
“One of the lovely things about the Crucible is they say the crowd on the front row can literally reach out and touch the players or the table in play, but yesterday we saw it enacted in real life.”
Matchroom supremo Barry Hearn called for strong and more “clearer defined penalties” for people that cause disruption of this kind and that this penalties must be severe enough to act as a “deterrent to stop others.”
“Imagine the players and officials. Their first reaction will be fear. For the snooker players, we are in the sport and entertainment business. Our job is to entertain,” stated Hearn.
“Please let us get on with our work.”
World Snooker Championship Results
The first round draw for the World Snooker Championship took place at 8.45am in the morning the day after the qualifiers had been completed and saw some intriguing games drawn out of the hat.
The full list of matches, together with any completed First Round scores, as well as those games still in process are shown below.
World Championship – First Round Fixtures & Results
Seeded players seeding is shown in brackets. Players through to the second round are highlighted in bold.
- Ronnie O’Sullivan (1) 10-7 Pang Junxu
- Ding Junhui (16) 6-10 Hossein Vafaei
- Luca Brecel (9) 10-9 Ricky Walden
- Mark Williams (8) 10-5 Jimmy Robertson
- Judd Trump (5) 5-7 Anthony McGill
- Jack Lisowski (12) 10-7 Noppon Saengkham
- Robert Milkins (13) 2-7 Joe Perry
- Shaun Murphy (4) 0-0 Si Jiahui
- Mark Allen (3) 10-5 Fan Zhengyi
- Stuart Bingham (14) 10-4 David Gilbert
- Ali Carter (11) 6-10 Jak Jones
- Neil Robertson (6) 10-3 Wu Yize
- Kyren Wilson (7) 5-3 Ryan Day
- John Higgins (10) 10-3 David Grace
- Gary Wilson (15) 10-8 Elliott Slessor
- Mark Selby (2) 3-0 Matthew Selt
Round Two
- Ronnie O’Sullivan (1) v Hossein Vafaei
- Luca Brecel (9) v Mark Williams (8)
- Trump (5) or McGill v Jack Lisowski (12)
- Milkins (13) or Perry v Murphy (4) or Jiahui
- Mark Allen (3) v Stuart Bingham (14)
- Jak Jones v Neil Robertson (6)
- Wilson (7) or Day v John Higgins (10)
- Gary Wilson (15) v Selby (2) or Selt
Have The Odds Changed On Who Will Win The Tournament?
Ronnie O’Sullivan remains the bookies favourite to win the tournament with his odds shortening down to 10/3 with bet365 Sport. Mark Selby is 9/2 with Neil Robertson 5/1. Judd Trump and Shaun Murphy are both rated as 8/1 chances with Mark Allen 11/1.
Mark Williams and today’s 147-star Kyren Wilson are both 12/1 to land the trophy.
Check back later in the tournament as we will bring you a roundup of the early rounds action as well as the latest betting odds on the tournament.
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