Reigning Masters champion Shaun Murphy also moved into the last 16 with a 10-4 victory in a high-quality match with Crucible debutant Daniel Wells. Murphy, 42, is aiming to win a second world title 20 years after his first success but could face world number one Judd Trump in the next round. Against Welsh qualifier...
Ronnie O’Sullivan made his return to snooker and secured a one-frame lead over Ali Carter after the opening session of their World Championship first-round match. O’Sullivan, 49, had not played competitively since January when he snapped his cue and threw it in the bin following four losses in five matches at the Championship League event....
Booth then turned his attention to the biennial WTC, suggesting the tournament should run across four years rather than two. The WTC cycle runs for two years, with teams playing six series during that period – three at home and three away – 12 points are awarded for winning a match, six for a tie...
An emotional John Higgins says he “was in tears” on the morning of his first round match at the World Snooker Championship. Higgins’ father-in-law suffered a heart attack last week and BBC Snooker presenter Seema Jaswal consoled the player after his 10-7 win against Joe O’Connor. READ MORE: Emotionally ‘drained’ Higgins defeats O’Connor to advance...
Trump, 35, has won 30 ranking titles during his decorated career but his 2019 victory at the Crucible is his sole World Championship triumph. He defeated fellow Englishman Hawkins to win a second UK Championship title in December, a success that helped him to break the record for the most prize money won in a...
Gloucestershire were left to rue an over-cautious declaration when their County Championship match with Kent at Canterbury ended in a draw. Tom Price almost single-handedly injected life into what was becoming a tedious final day by reducing Kent to 49-4 with 22 overs remaining, but despite some middle order tremors, the hosts dug in to...
Dominant Nottinghamshire ran out of time and had to settle for a draw against Warwickshire after rain took out much of the final day of their County Championship Division One match at Edgbaston. Warwickshire, trailing by 274 on first innings, entered the final day on 163-6 second time around, with the visitors four wickets away...
Glamorgan resumed on 186-5, still 85 runs short of making Middlesex bat again, with the home side in a hurry to wrap the game up given the poor weather forecast for the afternoon. But Middlesex managed just two wickets in the first session despite Roland-Jones striking early on an overcast morning, as Kiran Carlson looked...
Leicestershire head coach, Alfonso Thomas, said: “We’ve done some really good things in this game. There’s always room for improvement, but I’m just so proud of the guys for how they’ve gone about things. “To a man, everybody in this team does his job and that to me is the sign of a really strong...
Zhao’s first-round display was one of the most impressive of any player during the tournament so far. The 28-year-old led 7-2 overnight and, after Jones took the first two frames of the morning, Zhao won the next three with breaks of 70, 55 and 87 to defeat the 16th seed from Wales. Zhao is competing...
Somerset batter Sean Dickson scored 77 not out as his side drew with Hampshire in the County Championship. Sean Dickson, Tom Abell, and the weather quelled any chances of a final day route to a positive result in either direction – with a total of 175 overs, or around five sessions, lost in the match....
Surrey are still looking for the first win of the season in the County Championship after their game with Sussex at Hove ended in a draw. Their hopes of putting pressure on their hosts on the final day evaporated when they lost their last seven wickets for 100 runs in the morning session. They still...
Captain Jonny Bairstow posted an unbeaten 86 as Yorkshire thwarted a depleted Durham attack to secure a County Championship draw at the Riverside. Bairstow shared half-century partnerships for the fifth and sixth wickets with all-rounders George Hill and Matthew Revis during the morning session as Yorkshire, who started the day on 132-4 in their second...
No play was possible on the final day of the County Championship game between Derbyshire and Northamptonshire because of rain. The match at Derby was abandoned as a draw in early afternoon, with the home side waiting to resume their second innings on 202-3, a slender lead of nine runs. Captain Wayne Madsen was left...
Jamie Porter helped wrap up a nervy first County Championship victory of the season for Essex on the final day against Worcestershire with the 22nd five-wicket haul of his career. The 31-year-old pace bowler, the leading wicket-taker in Division One last season, added three more wickets to the three he had taken the day before...