UK Championship (2011) - Walden leading Allen after first session

Walden takes the lad after 1st session

The second semi-final of this year's UK Championship saw its first session end with Ricky Walden taking the lead 5-3 over Mark "The Pistol" Allen.

Although the Englishman was behind most of the time, he suddenly fired away to pull back two frames from being lead 3-1 and continued his run to cash the next two as well in order to put his nose in front.

The match started with Walden missing a red to the right middle pocket as he was reaching a 44 break, Allen using this chance to collect what was left on the table until the pink and added to its previous break in order to take the opener.

A nice clearance of 124 points made things equal, as Walden won the second frame, but until the interval kicked off that was about it for the 2008 Shanghai Masters champion.
Allen used break of 85 and 54 to fly 3-1 up and get himself in a very comfortable position just as the mini-break was starting.

Mark Allen has some catching up to do

At return, Walden was a different man. Although he missed frame ball at 60, Allen also made a mistake as he was reaching a 36 break by potting the cue ball, hence his opponent managed to pull back a frame.

The next one was going to complete Ricky's comeback, a 66 clearance making the scoreline go 3-3. But the Englishman didn't stop there. He fired in runs of 98 and 127 to blow up his opponent's hopes of closing the first session in the lead.
And so, the first part of Allen v. Walden snooker encounter ended up on a 5-3 result in favour of the last named one.

The battle of cues will resume tonight from 7pm (UK time), the winner (first to get nine frame under his belt) getting a place in Sunday final next to Judd Trump.