Snooker World Cup 2011 - the quarter-finals

Wenbo and Ding take victory

The 6th day of the revived Snooker World Cup is over and so are the quarter-finals. The matches have been genuine battles for the spots the semis were offering and two of the four matches ended up on a decider.


The day started with China taking on the Republic of Ireland and although it wasn't really such a big surprise that Ken Doherty and Fergal O'Brien's team lost, it did touch our souls to see the poor Irishmen defeated. At the end of the day they did their best to come so far in the competition.

The Darling of Dublin, ends his run

Ireland wasn't able to win more than one single frame and that frame was a double one, so I take a bow in front of this very strong team. Also I can't overlook Fergal's strong character and his constant fight to get the snookers he needed during the second frame of the match. I don't know how many players would have battle for five snookers and obtain those five snookers. It was unbelievable. However, he ended up needing three more but there wasn't too much to do with the table, so he gave up. The scoreline was 2-0 for China.


After this frame came the doubles, which Ireland won, Ling Wenbo being in change of the last frame and hitting a break of 70 to book his team a place into the semis. Great performance from the little Chinese!


Wales and Australia were meeting at table number two and the story was about the same: one team takes the first two frames, then the adverse one wins the doubles. And to put more sense into this story, I have to mention I'm talking about Wales taking the lead 2-0, with a top break of 84, Australia managing to win a very scrappy third frame.

Matthew Stevens meditating on success

However, from this point on, our story follows another pattern as Neil Robertson and Steve Mifsud's team also won the next frame and were now just one point away from forcing a decider, 2-3. But this wasn’t the case, for Wales was too determined to cash the victory. So tiny runs of 25 and 35 made the dragons dream come true and sent them into the semis, with a 4-2 final result.


The third semi-finalist team to follow was going to have a very hard match to play. Only normal, if you ask me, for the teams involved into the next quarter-final match were Scotland and Northern Ireland, one the bests in this competition.


Surprisingly, the same 2-0 scoreline was reached, Northern Ireland being responsible for it, but Scotland didn't give up and succeeded to draw level with a top break of 64. Once more, Mark Allen and Gerard Greene's team put their nose in front (with a perfect 128 break by Allen), only to see Scotland's Higgins and Maguire responding by winning the next frame after potting the last black! Thrilling frame this was!
But the luck wasn't going to stand by Scotland's side very long, Northern Ireland closing with a break of 63 to earn its spot into the next round.

N. Ireland's team plotting the victory

All these being said, we've reached the last match. Another match that ended on a decider and whose result might have surprised many of the snooker fans. It featured England's Selby and Carter v. Hong Kong's Fu and Fung.

Generally the match was a pretty slow one, the teams sharing frames until the decider was inevitable. Mark Selby (for this was the guy in charge of the last frame) was in need of five snookers to overcome Fu's collection of points, and maybe inspired by what Fergal O'Brien did at the beginning of the day, he did his best in order to conquer those snookers. Unfortunately it didn't happen and so Hong Kong's team booked a place into the semis. Well fought!


Tomorrow we have a very important day, for both the semis and the final will the place. Crazy, I know! But craziness is the main word for this tournament, so I guess it's not too much of a surprise.


From 07:00 (UK time)


From 15:30 (UK time)


Unfortunately EuroSport won't provide coverage for the last day of the World Cup. Don't ask me why ... it's beyond my understanding. However, you can try these websites:
www.fromsportcom.com
www.ustream.com
www.livetv.ru