2016 World Championship (Day 1) - Crucible Curse strikes again. Bingham loses to Carter

The first day of the 2016 Betfred World Championship edition ended on a very tense and dramatic note, defending champion Stuart Bingham and "Captain" Ali Carter playing 19 frames of genuine snooker.

Despite the fact that Bingham made some pretty amazing comebacks from 5-1 down and then from 8-5 down, to which he added the fact that he took the lead over his opponent 9-8, he didn't manage to get across the line and lost by 10-9 in the decider.

The start of the match was a pretty balanced one as the lads took their turn into winning the first two frames, but then "The Captain" took off and flew all the way to 5-1.

Still, the end of the first session was finding Bingham getting really close to draw level as he used top breaks of 96 and 90 to trail 5-4.

When the lads retuned into the arena, hours later, Bingham completed his comeback by winning the 10th frame on the black, but Carter's myriad of breaks (69, 58 and 52) was re-establishing his control over the match's fate, at 8-5.

Once more the defending champion was being put in one hell of a situation and once more he proved he has stamina and kept on going, sustained by breaks of 88, 68 and 133 which were throwing him at 9-8 up, just one away from victory.


But Carter fought back. Oh my God he fought back! A perfectly cued 102 was calling for a decider, while a top break of 39 was used to get a slight advantage in front of his opponent, in the last frame.

As for Bingham, he missed two great chances, both of them involving the pink and the middle pocket, this causing him to lose the match, 10-9.

So, yet another first-time champion who fails to defend his crown at the Crucible.

But putting aside the Crucible Curse nonsense, Carter proved to be the better player and the one with more "coolness" into his veins.

On a totally different note, Marco Fu and Peter Ebdon had a pretty short and fast encounter, the Hong Kong man getting a 10-2 victory in his quest for a place in the next round.

Fu was the one who broke the ice, thanks to a break of 81, but when Ebdon levelled after the next frame, we thought this match was going on a more balanced direction. Wrong!

The first session ended with Marco in charge of ... everything basically. Breaks of 49, 111, 138 and 84 were cutting short the first session which ended 6-2 in his favour.

Must mention the fact that the 111 is actually this World Championship first century break and Marco's 400th century break as a professional snooker player. Video here.

The story didn't change much when the players re-started their match, Fu using runs of 36, 35, 71 and 71 to win 10-2 and get a genuine round of applause from the audience (including Peter).

Two other matches started during the first day of the #CrucibleDream, last year's runner-up Shaun Murphy facing the Scotsman Anthony McGill, while Stephen Maguire met with his good old friend, Alan McManus.

Murphy was the one to get the first frame of the match thanks to a break of 61, but McGill was sure to respond with a great 119 which got a 93 as a reply from his English opponent.

Still, the next two frames entered into Ants' pocket before Shaun could take three in a row (breaks of 76, 109 and 53 included) and go 5-3 up.

McGill was sure to reduce his deficit during frame nine with a top break of 70, thus the current scoreline is 5-4.

As for Maguire and McManus first session it ended on a 6-3 scoreline in favour of Angles who wasn't impressed by the fact that Stephen used top breaks of 77, 76 and 74 to go 3-1 up and added his own special set of 78, 54, 63 and 41 to get into the leading position.

Day 2 of the World Championship match schedule:

10am
Ricky Walden v Robbie Williams
Shaun Murphy v Anthony McGIll

2.30pm
Stephen Maguire v Alan McManus
Ronnie O'Sullivan v David Gilbert

7pm
Mark Williams v Graeme Dott
Michael White v Sam Baird