2015 World Championship (Day 4) - Ding misses 147, O'Sullivan plays in his socks

The forth day of the Crucible madness was ... quite peculiar, to say the least as Ding Junhui missed the chance to record a maximum break for the simple reason that he didn't notice he was on one, while Ronnie O'Sullivan briefly played in his socks, for the simple reason of ... being Ronnie.

Ding Junhui resumed his match against Mark Davis, whom he beat by 10-7 despite the fact that Davis led 4-0 and 4-3 at the end of the first session.

The match started with Mark's first ever century break recorded at the Crucible (history in the making), a perfect 106, followed by what seemed like a 147 attempt signed by Ding Junhui.

Much to our surprise, after 13 reds and 13 blacks Ding screwed for the BLUE! Of course that the crowd practically exploded, while a stunned Ding Junhui slapped himself and realised what he's just done!

In the press conference after the match the poor soul confessed that he wasn't even aware that he was on a maximum break, for he was way too focused on getting the frame under his belt and maybe hit a century break. Ironically his break stopped at 97.

Still, this lapse of concentration didn't seem to affect from winning the match, despite the fact that he was far from his best.
 
The lads went hand-in-hand up until 6-6, from which point Ding opened a two-frame gap using runs of 31, 20 and 59.

Davis managed to pull back a frame with a top break of 42, but Ding went on and sealed the deal with breaks of 73 and 85 to set a Last 16 snooker meeting with John Higgins.

A very determined Ali Carter sentenced Alan McManus and his tartan outfit to a 10-5 defeat, basically continuing the performance from the first session, which ended 6-3 in favour of the Captain.

A beautiful set of breaks (52, 53) was going to open the scoreline of the second session and although Alan was sure to restore the three-frame gap after clinching the 11^th frame, Carter fought back with a 69 to go 8-4 up.

One more try was made by the Scotsman, a little black devil (aka. the black ball) winning him a frame (unfortunately his last), only to see Ali wrapping things up with runs of 32 and 76 (plus a huge smile on his face!).

After the match, the Captain said: "I have some good memories here – the only thing I have left to do is win it, and that’s what I’m here to do."

Also sitting comfortably in the land of victory is Mark Allen, who recorded a tremendous 10-3 scoreline over Ryan Day.

The players started their match today and it seemed like this was going to be Day's day (or so to speak) as he quickly took a 3-1 lead over the Northern-Irish player.

Still, after the mid-session interval, Allen fought back not only to draw level, but also to go 6-3 up by using breaks of 67, 81 and 101.

The carnage continued in the last session, Day's mistakes being punished with breaks of 63, 54, 58 and 92 for a 10-3 final scoreline.

So, poor Ryan didn't manage to win a frame since he led 3-1 before the interval of the first session - that's how dangerous Allen proved to be. His next opponent is Barry Hawkins.

But the match everyone was waiting to see was of course the cues-crossing between Ronnie O'Sullivan and Craig Steadman.

Things started with an unlikely safety shots battle which Ronnie won to go on and try his luck with a 147. 

Fans were a bit concerned when the Rocket asked the ref Brendan Moore what was the money prize for the maximum break, but he did carry on regardless. Sadly enough the break stopped at 104.

Howeveeeeeer, the highlight of the match was surely the fact that while Craig was potting, Ronnie took his shoes off! And he didn't stop there! No, sir! He even asked someone in the audience if he had a pair of shoes size 8! Imagine that!

So, for half a frame, Ronnie played in his socks, which clearly caused much amusement, but also raised a lot of questions regarding if he should be fined for doing such a thing.

After the frame was over, Ronnie borrowed the tournament director's shoes (thank you Mike Ganley!) and continued his snooker marathon.

By the mid-session interval the Rocket was leading 3-1, position retained by the use of breaks like 61 and 48, to which he added a dramatic 5^th frame won on the black for 4-1.

Craig's runs of 39 and 34 helped him pull back a frame, but unfortunately this was going to be the last frame he conquered, as O'Sullivan hit in breaks of 59, 45, 32, 54 and 75 to go 7-2 up.

Also ended on a 7-2 scoreline was the first session disputed between the Welshmen Mark Williams and Matthew Stevens.

So, after such a weird day is no wonder that we are looking forward to Wednesday and its matches:

10am
Joe Perry v. Zhang Anda
Ronnie O'Sullivan v. Craig Steadman (7-2)

2.30pm
Shaun Murphy v. Robin Hull
Mark Williams v. Matthew Stevens (2-7)

7pm
Joe Perry v. Zhang Anda
Judd Trump v. Stuart Carrington

* all hours are UK time