By Elliott West
Introduction
With all to play for, for a quarter-final place, afternoon’s play began with a draw between two Welsh practice partners, Darren Morgan and Lee Walker. A whisper in my ear prior to this match, told me that Darren had been practicing, spending an hour a day in his club in Wales, taking his mind off his long-term project of building a new house. Lee, on the other hand, has been suffering from back problems. This prevented him from taking part in last year’s World Seniors qualifiers. Thankfully, he seems to be on the mend and has shown some form recently.
Afternoon Play
The match began with Walker frozen off the table. Morgan defiant, produced a brilliant 112 break and was richly awarded with various presses of the applause button by Dennis Taylor and John Virgo in the commentary box. With Darren on the offensive, frame 2 also went his way and it seemed likely that he was also going to take the third frame as well to inflict a whitewash on his pal. However, as we know snooker is not always that simple and when you have the winning line in sight, concentration is temporarily blurred.
Lee Walker seized on this opportunity and reeled off two successive frames to even up the match to 2-2. However with defeat on the horizon, Morgan grabbed at his chance to seal the frame and match in the decider, thanks to a Walker error. Perhaps not the best victory for Darren but positives can be taken away from this match, especially his fluency and high break-building in the first two frames. In the end, this match could have gone either way but the more hardened battler won the day.
In the second match of the afternoon, David Lilley was up against the Welshman, Philip Williams. This match was long and protracted with Williams, a doppelgänger for younger Dennis Taylor with his bespectacled appearance. Lilley, the more experienced of a player on the main stage, kept Williams at bay and Philip, despite several chances in this match, could never get going. In the end it was a result which most expected with Williams only able to capture one frame in this 3-1 victory for Peter Lilley.
With all to play for, for a quarter-final place, afternoon’s play began with a draw between two Welsh practice partners, Darren Morgan and Lee Walker. A whisper in my ear prior to this match, told me that Darren had been practicing, spending an hour a day in his club in Wale,s, taking his mind off his long- term project of building a new house. Lee on the other hand, has been suffering from back problems. This prevented him from taking part in last year’s World Seniors qualifiers. Thankfully, he seems to be on the mend and has shown some form recently.
The match began with Walker frozen off the table. Morgan defiant, produced a brilliant 112 break and was richly awarded with various presses of the applause button by Dennis Taylor and John Virgo in the commentary box. With Darren on the offensive, frame 2 also went his way and it seemed likely that he was also going to take the third frame as well to inflict a whitewash on his pal. However, as we know snooker is not always that simple and when you have the winning line in sight, concentration is temporarily blurred.
Lee Walker seized on this opportunity and reeled off two successive frames to even up the match to 2-2. However with defeat on the horizon, Morgan grabbed at his chance to seal the frame and match in the decider, thanks to a Walker error. Perhaps not the best victory for Darren but positives can be taken away from this match, especially his fluency and high break-building in the first two frames. In the end, this match could have gone either way but the more hardened battler won the day.
In the second match of the afternoon, David Lilley was up against the Welshman, Philip Williams. This match was long and protracted with Williams, a doppelgänger for younger Dennis Taylor with his bespectacled appearance. Lilley, the more experienced of a player on the main stage, kept Williams at bay, and Philip, despite several chances in this match, could never get going. In the end, it was a result which most expected with Williams only able to capture one frame in this 3-1 victory for Peter Lilley.
Evening Play
In the evening session, the 1977 UK champion, Patsy Fagan was drawn against Stephen Hendry. Fagan had vowed to win this match prior to play but he faced an opponent, who has recently been working hard with SightRight’s Steve Feeney, to improve his game. A wildcard entrant to the main tour after coming out of retirement, Hendry seemed far more motivated than he had done on previous World Seniors outings. Despite Fagan playing on the Super Seniors, he was no match for his Scottish opponent. Fagan’s only chance was in frame two when it looked like he had in the bag but Hendry managed to get two fluked snookers and won the frame on the black. Otherwise, Stephen dominated the match and produced an impressive 3-0 victory.
In the evening session, the 1977 UK champion, Patsy Fagan was drawn against Stephen Hendry. Fagan had vowed to win this match prior to play but he faced an opponent, who has recently been working hard with SightRight’s Steve Feeney, to improve his game. A wildcard entrant to the main tour after coming out of retirement, Hendry seemed far more motivated than he had done on previous World Seniors outings. Despite Fagan playing on the Super Seniors, he was no match for his Scottish opponent. Stephen dominated the match and produced an impressive 3-0 victory.
In the other evening match, Michael Judge faced Patrick Wallace. Both these players are evenly matched with both winning by playing the long and fought out game. In the end, this match aptly went to a deciding frame. With only one to play, Wallace grabbed his opportunity and held his nerve with a break of 85 to win the match 3-2.
