Premier League 2011 (week 6) - Ding wins in Stoke

Ding Junhui wins PL

Jimmy White collected his first points

"The Whirlwind" was playing better than he used to during the previous editions of this year's Premier League, but unfortunately for him he kept on not killing the frame in one visit. He hit breaks over 50 in each of the first three frames of the match he played against Ding and yet he only managed to win two of them. The forth one saw White losing position on 24, his Asian opponent coming for a 78 that would sent the match into a decider.

The other semi-final featured the names of Mark Williams and Ali Carter. Both of them are great players, but it is fair to say that both of them haven't had the best time during this tournament. It's true that Mark won Premier League's week two, but even then he didn't perform like a "Welsh Potting Machine".

Not a win-day for Williams

Last night although the match wasn't what we would call "high standard" it was a pretty intense battle of cues, interesting and quite entertaining.
The first two frames were very scrappy, but at the end of them the lads were all square at 1-1. With runs of 25 and 34 Carter succeeded to put his nose in front, but frame four saw Williams' 115 bringing the "snooker dispute" into a decider.

The clock was ticking and although Carter lost position after only 12 points, Williams left a red on, which brought the Captain the chance to hit a 31 break. With only 2 minutes and 28 seconds left the Welshman couldn’t do too much, Carter returning to the table to close with a good 41.

Ali Carter - so close to victory (again!)

The final started with the Essex-man hitting a great 96 that was breaking the ice for a 1-0 scoreline. However, it wasn't long before Ding returned the favour, runs of 28 and 38 drawing level.
What followed next was a very scrappy and messy frame. Both players missed incredible shots to seal their victories, both players made quite odd decisions about when to play safe and when not. In the end, Ding won the frame on the pink and so he was leading Carter 2-1.

The next frame and also the last one, showed us a totally different Ding - the Ding we all know and admire - with a clean break of 66 he assured his 3-1 victory over Ali Carter and ended a long night of cue battles.

Williams spitting his chewing gum into Andy's hand

After six weeks of road show, the provisional rankings look something like this: on the first place we have Ding Junhui with 10 points, followed by Matthew Stevens and Mark Williams, both with 9 points. On third place we find Ronnie O'Sullivan with 8 points, but also Ali Carter, the forth position being occupied by Neil Robertson, Shaun Murphy and Judd Trump, each with 6 points. John Higgins comes on fifth place with only 5 points, while Jimmy White, although the last on the list, managed to cash his first points of the tournament - 2 precious points, to be more precise.

The next stop for the Premier League caravan will be in Exeter, when Ali Carter will take on Judd Trump and Shaun Murphy will meet Neil Robertson.