Fancy Hawkins to fire in a century here to set up a decider.
Jinxed him. Ended up having to take on a pink with the dreaded spider and jaws it. Big chance for Mark now to wrap it up.
Of the four players who dominated snooker from 1990 to 2013 - Stephen Hendry, Ronnie O’Sullivan, John Higgins and Mark Williams, who won 18 of 24 world titles and are the only multiple world title winners in that time, it’s perhaps surprising that there have only been two World Championship finals between any combination of those players - Hendry v Williams 1999 and O’Sullivan v Higgins 2001.
Williams is now on the verge of giving us a third, a full 17 years after the last one.
Both look like 20 is a struggle at the moment
Huge miss by Williams on an easy pink. Hawkins has a good chance to take us to a decider now.
What that tells us is the standard has gone down immensely from that era. When you see someone like Selby winning multiple titles you know its not a vintage era.
Hendry only ever faced John Higgins once at the Crucible hammering him 13-4 in the penultimate match of his career in 2012.
Terrible miss with a pink off the black spot by Williams with the match at his mercy. Looks like a decider now.
Awful shot by Hawkins. Awful.
Brain dead
Dont think that fat cunt Higgins would have showed that level of honesty
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Barry Hawkins take a bow
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Could easily lose the match with this shot now.
Pure class from Barry though as he has the blue replaced after it rolled into a more advantageous position as he was about to hit the shot.
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Higgins wouldn’t have snookered himself mate
Hawkins deserved a good run of the balls there after his sportsmanship.
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Correct. Between 1981-2006, 20 of the 26 world titles were won by players in their 20’s. Monday night for the 11th time in 12 years, the winner will be over 30 and most likely over 40. It’s not a very healthy state of affairs if you end up with effectively two 43 year olds (43 in Higgins case in two weeks time) competing in the final.
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Paul Hunter was a tragic loss to the game. Not only a terrific player but had the star quality that every sport needs. He could have been an heir to the Alex Higgins-Jimmy White-Ronnie O’Sullivan “people’s champion” lineage.
There’s really no younger player capable of taking up that mantle now. Judd Trump would probably be the closest but he doesn’t quite have the charisma or the air of being a loose cannon off the table needed.
This is epic lads.
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The Crucible coming into its own here.
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The closest Paul Hunter came was that 17-16 semi final defeat to Ken Doherty in 2003 when he let slip a big lead. Both beaten semi finalists of 2003 prematurely lost to the sport in very contrasting circumstances.
Big chance now…