Only eight players remain in the 2024 World Snooker Championship draw as we reach the quarter-final stage and four of them are qualifiers. Jak Jones, number 44 in the ranking, is the lowest ranked player still standing.

Four matches were played to a finish yesterday. The two matches played in the afternoon finished quickly, there was no MSI in either. The two matches in the evening were extremely hard fought, intense and brought the sort of drama that only the World Championship and its multi-session format can bring.

Here after are the reports on each of them …

Ronnie O’Sullivan 13-7 Ryan Day … the piece I wrote yesterday afternoon with pictures and videos.

Kyren Wilson 13-6 Joe O’Connor – WST report

WARRIOR FENDS OFF DEBUTANT O’CONNOR

Kyren Wilson scored a 13-6 win over Joe O’Connor to make the quarter-finals of the Cazoo World Championship for the seventh time in his career. 

The Warrior has a formidable record on snooker’s grandest stage. His steely all-round game is well suited to the gruelling test which the Crucible provides. Wilson is a three-time semi-finalist and was runner-up to Ronnie O’Sullivan in 2020. He’s still seeking a maiden World Championship title.

Wilson is now just one win away from a return to the hallowed single table setup, where defeated Anthony McGill 17-16 in one of the most dramatic deciding frames of all-time four years ago. In Wilson’s way will be either four-time Crucible king John Higgins or Northern Ireland’s Mark Allen, who is hunting a first world crown.

O’Connor’s Crucible debut ends in defeat, but he can take pride in his best ever Sheffield showing. The world number 30 defeated Matthew Selt 10-8 in a marathon qualifying clash to become this year’s only Crucible debutant. The 28-year-old had a dream first appearance, beating fellow Leicester cueman, four-time World Champion and close friend Mark Selby 10-6 in the opening round. 

The pair came into this afternoon’s concluding session with Wilson holding a 10-6 lead, after O’Connor fired in a break of 102 in the last frame yesterday evening to remain in touch. However, when play got underway today it was Wilson who extinguished any hopes of a fightback. 

The first frame was in the balance, before a long-range final yellow from the Kettering cueman helped him to clear to the pink and make it 11-6. Wilson then dominated the 18th to move one from victory. 

He had looked to be coasting over the line in the next, before an unexpected missed black off the spot. O’Connor couldn’t capitalise and spurned a red with the rest to effectively end his hopes with Wilson clinching the frame and the match.

“Sometimes it is nice to go under the radar. I had that all throughout my junior career, I was never fancied. I managed to come under the radar and win a lot of the events. It is irrelevant if people are tipping you or not, they can’t help you win. I try to ignore all of that. You have to put it to one side and focus on yourself. “

Kyren Wilson

Five-time Ranking Event Winner

32-year-old Wilson added: “I always seem to peak for Sheffield. I know the process I have to go through to get myself in form going into this event. It definitely helps if you hit the ground running and I managed to do that with my  win over Dominic Dale in the first round. As soon as you get a win here, you feel a part of the tournament. You get a feel for the venue and you settle in.

“Next I have either an all-time great who has won the World Championship four times (John Higgins) or the provisional world number one (Mark Allen). It is going to be a tough game, both lads are playing well. Hopefully it goes 13-12 and they are both shattered!”

O’Connor said: “I’m dissapointed. Kyren was the better player over the sessions and he did deserve to win. It is frustrating to not get out of first gear. On the whole, it is a great tournament and it has been great to be a part of it.

“The first match made it really. It was a bit of a dream to play Mark and to get the result as well. It has been amazing having all of my family and friends here. It is one to cherish.”

WILSON’S POST MATCH THOUGHTS

Kyren Wilson got his wish fulfilled as John Higgins beat Mark Allen by 13-12 with one of his trademark clearances … (WST report)

HIGGINS BEATS ALLEN WITH GREATEST CLEARANCE

John Higgins cried tears of joy in his dressing room after making what he described as the best clearance of his career to beat Mark Allen 13-12 in a sensational second round match at the Cazoo World Championship.

Draw / How To Watch

Legend Higgins has had moments of despair in recent seasons, particularly when struggling to convert winning positions, but tonight he rolled back the years to produce a moment he said he would remember forever. From the jaws of defeat at 62-0 down in the deciding frame against Allen, he doubled a red to a centre pocket to initiate a marvellous 71 clearance, reminiscent of his winning break against Ronnie O’Sullivan in the 2006 Masters final. The four-time champion raised his arms aloft to an enthralled crowd as the last ball went down, in the first Crucible match to go to the final black since Nigel Bond beat Stephen Hendry in 2006.

Asked where the clearance ranks in his career, Higgins said: “It’s the best. It will live with me forever. After everything that has gone before over the last two years, to stand up under the most intense pressure is a very proud moment for me. When I came to the table I knew that the double was my only chance, and when that went in, I knew it was on. I felt calm and I just tried to stay positive and keep pushing the cue through straight. This should do wonders for me because I know I can do it, and this is the hardest place to play.”

Scotland’s Higgins goes through to his 18th quarter-final in Sheffield and will face Kyren Wilson over 25 frames on Tuesday and Wednesday. Tonight’s result was particularly significant for the 48-year-old as defeat would have meant the end of an unbroken sequence of 29 years among the top 16 of the world rankings. Instead, victory lifts him to 15th in the provisional end of season list. Chasing his first ranking title since the 2021 Players Championship, Higgins is now the only player in the top half of the draw to have previously lifted the trophy, and will hope to use his experience and surge of confidence when he comes up against Wilson and then potentially David Gilbert or Stephen Maguire in the semi-finals. 

Allen remains top of the provisional list but his hopes of becoming world number one for the first time now rely on other results as Judd Trump and Ronnie O’Sullivan can overtake him. The Northern Irishman was disappointed to miss match-winning chances in the closing stages and will have to wait a year for another opportunity to win the title he covets most.

Leading 9-7 going into tonight’s concluding session, Allen took the opener, then in frame 18, he had a chance to clear from 55-1 down, but missed on 39 he a tricky pot on the last red to a centre pocket, and Higgins punished him for 10-8. Allen led 46-26 in the next when he failed to pot a tough red to a top corner, and an excellent 35 from his opponent drew him within one frame. Soon they were level, as Higgins made 64 in frame 20.

After the interval, Allen regained the lead with a break of 66,  and he had a scoring chance in the next but, trailing 33-13, missed a red with the rest to a top corner, letting Higgins in for 51 to make it 11-11. In frame 23, Higgins had first chance but was unlucky to not to land on a red when splitting the pack off the blue. Allen took control and eventually won it with an excellent pot on the last red along a side cushion.

Frame 24 came down to the colours, and after trapping his opponent in a snooker on the green, Allen was just three pots from victory at 41-37 when he wobbled the green in the jaws of a baulk corner. Higgins cleared for 12-12, but thought his chance was gone when he narrowly missed a long red at the start of the decider. Allen looked composed in a run of 62 until he failed to pot a red to a top corner with the rest, and could only watch from his chair as Higgins created an all-time classic Crucible moment.  

Higgins added: “I had a cry for about 20 seconds in my dressing room to let it all out. But then I said to myself that I need to be ready for tomorrow. I’m only in the quarter-finals, there’s a long way to go. I need to get better – I haven’t made a century yet in the tournament (his highest break is just 75). But I am in there fighting and staying positive.”

Allen said: “Credit to John, it was a great clearance. But I didn’t lose it in the last frame, I lost it earlier in the match because I had so many chances to go further ahead. I could have won around 13-7 if I had taken those chances. It’s one that got away. 

“As soon as John got the double I knew he was going to clear up. He is one of the very few players who can make a break like that. He should give himself a massive pat on the back for that and he should believe he can go on and win this now.”  

HIGGINS: MY BEST EVER CLEARANCE

Am I the only who got (painful) memories of this one watching it?

Yeah John you’re a “lucky bastard”! (sic)

Stuart Bingham 13-11 Jack Lisowski (WST treport)

Stuart Bingham came through a pulsating encounter with Jack Lisowski 13-11 to set up a quarter-final showdown with Ronnie O’Sullivan at the Cazoo World Championship.

The last time Bingham crossed cues with seven-time World Champion O’Sullivan at the Theatre of Dreams was in 2015. It was Bingham who scored a momentous 13-9 victory and he went on to beat Judd Trump and Shaun Murphy to capture Crucible glory and become World Champion. 

Recent times have been more trying for Bingham, who has fallen out of the top 16. He had to battle through qualifying to earn his place in the final stages this year, scoring a 10-9 win over Stuart Carrington and a 10-8 defeat of Louis Heathcote at the English Institute of Sport. 

It’s the first time that four qualifiers have made the quarter-finals since 1992, with Bingham being joined by Jak Jones, David Gilbert and Stephen Maguire in the last eight. 

Defeat comes as a bitter pill to swallow for six-time ranking event finalist Lisowski, who ends his season still chasing a maiden piece of silverware.

They came into the evening session with Bingham holding a 9-7 advantage. The Basildon cueman extended his lead to three by taking the first frame tonight, before Lisowski hit back to make it 10-8. 

Bingham was in control of the 19th, when Lisowski summoned a clearance of 51 to steal. He potted a tricky final black to pull within one at 10-9. 

The last before the mid-session came down to the pink, with Lisowski spurning a routine chance with the frame at his mercy and another from long range. Those errors were punished by Bingham, who nailed a double to the middle to move 11-9 up. 

Lisowski appeared to have put those misses behind him when play resumed after the interval. Breaks of 84 and 124 helped him to a quickfire two frames to draw level at 11-11. 

A hugely dramatic 23rd frame had looked to be going the way of 32-year-old Lisowski, until he missed a straight pink to the top right. Bingham stepped in and cleared the colours to move one away from the win. The six-time ranking event winner held his nerve to get over the line at the first time of asking, winning the 24th by a 75-0 scoreline to seal a famous victory. 

“I’ve been working on a few things with my coach Chris Henry. Something clicked after the second session and I felt really good going into tonight. I just have to get my scoring boots on and see where it goes,” said 47-year-old Bingham.

“We will see tomorrow how it goes. I watched a little bit of Ronnie’s match with Ryan Day. He gave him a fair few chances. I hope he plays like that tomorrow and over the next couple of days. Ronnie is Ronnie. I will have to touch up on my game and score a bit heavier to have a chance. 

“I’m going for my second and he is going for his eighth. We have our own pressures. He is maybe coming close to his retirement and I’m sure he will want to get to eight. To be honest, he probably should be on 12 at the moment. He does have that added pressure, but you can’t take anything for granted with Ronnie. He is the best player that has ever picked up a cue. You need to play really well to have a chance.”

Jack Lisowski is ahead on every statistic in this match … except the only one that matters, the final score. He was the better player yesterday, even his safety game was strong BUT when it really mattered Stuart experience and solid nerves made the difference. I won’t lie, I was hoping for a Ronnie v Jack QF for a number of reasons. It wasn’t to be BUT having watched Jack yesterday, and earlier this week, I thought that he might well win a ranking event in a not too distant future after all and if the gates open… who know?