It’s Semi Finals time here in Sheffield, and we are down to one table.

It turns out to be quite an extraordinary World Championship this one, full of surprises and great stories, as the favourites continued to tumble.

In the last 16, Alan McManus ousted Ali Carter, Kyren Wilson beat Mark Allen convincingly, Ding sent Judd Trump home  on a 13-10 score, and, of course, Barry Hawkins beat Ronnie in an epic match.

If you ever want to see bad attitude at the table, watch the last session of the Carter-McManus last 16. I know that Carter had a very tough time and he is an emotional guy, but he was totally out of order at times. If Ronnie had done half of it, the media would have crucified him, and it would have been all over the papers, but Ali isn’t Ronnie … so they kept it rather quiet considering. That said, the next day, Ali himself acknowledged that he hadn’t handled the situation properly, and credits to him for doing so. We should all remember that players are not robots, and emotions run quite high sometimes, especially here in the Crucible cauldron.

Judd also managed to attract attention for the wrong reasons. Having hinted before the Championship that he was “going to win”, he was outplayed by Ding Junhui, quite convincingly, and got into a row with Dominic Dale on twitter during the match. Dominic had tweeted that Judd’s poor cue ball control was being his downfall in this match and Judd took exception of it, branding Dom “clueless”. Sorry Judd, but, IMO, Dominic was absolutely right.

Barry Hawkins is a badly underrated player and he’s extremely strong tactically and mentally since he’s worked with Terry Griffiths. He proved it in the way he beat Ronnie and , again yesterday, coming from 9-1 down to peg back Marco Fu 12-11. Marco who, amazingly,  is coached by Wayne Griffiths, Terry’s son, managed one of the best dishes you’ll ever see to win the match 13-11. Wayne wins the battle of the coaches this time!

The hero of the last days however is Alan McManus, who, at 45, is back in the SF for the first time in 23 years! Having beaten Ali in the last 16, he sent John Higgins home with a 13-11 win in the QF. John Higgins later admitted that he felt the pressure and cracked, whilst Alan didn’t. John of course had seen the draw open for him and must feel that he missed a golden opportunity to to make it 5. But Alan it is and I can tell you that the atmosphere in the arena was incredible yesterday evening, the crowd was largely behind Alan, even among those who were sat at the other table.

Alan is a very knowledgeable person, intelligent and curious of all things, an excellent pundit, a very decent photographer … and what a player! He also writes very well and I recommand everyone to read his blog

So now we have two qualifiers battling it out in the SF, Ding Junhui v Alan McManus, and two seasoned pros,  Mark Selby v Marco Fu.

It’s the first time since 1978 that two qualifiers meet in the SF round at the Crucible, and the qualifying system was very different then.

It will also be interesting to see if Mark Selby’s decision to withdraw from the Players Championship Final and the China Open will prove to be the right one for him: it might well be, he looks fresher than anyone else remaining in the draw.

All detailed results are on cuetracker.net

Ronnie’s bid for a sixth World Title in 2016 came to an end yesterday evening, as Barry Hawkins beat him by 13-12 in the last session of the last 16 round.

It was an absolute thriller of a match, both players playing to a very, very high standard. Both players gave it absolutely everything they had and should be commended for the way they played. The way Ronnie fought back to close the gap from 12-9 down to force a decider was absolutely fantastic. How Barry played the decider, after losing the last three frames in next to no time, was equally remarkable.

This was a real treat for the fans and by far the best match of the tournament so far, even of the season in my opinion. It’s really a shame that those two had to clash at such an early stage because both showed a form that could win them the title. I now wish Barry the very best and would be delighted if he can lift the trophy next Monday.

Here are the statistics after 24 frames, it’s telling it all:

Detailed results and scores can be found on cuetracker as always, this is an excerpt:

Scores (Barry Hawkins first) : 74(54)-23; 0-139(139); 102(102)-25; 0-88(88); 31-107(103); 90-21; 62-21; 60-0; 73-68(68); 1-118(118); 74(74)-1; 0-82(82); 106(65)-0; 0-89(89); 0-78; 81-0; 3-98(93); 68-55; 26-71(70); 68(54)-30; 94(94)-0; 0-124(124); 0-92(88); 52-64(63); 70(56)-15

Centuries: Barry Hawkins: 102;  Ronnie O’Sullivan: 139, 103, 118, 124

Referee: Brendan Moore

As you can see, Ronnie made 12 breaks over 60, in winning 12 frames and still lost the match. In his postmatch, he made a good and unbiased analysis of how this could happen.

Here is Ronnie’s postmatch press conference, very balanced, even positive I’d say

A few pictures of the match, courtesy of Tai Chengzhe, thank you Tai.

If you haven’t seen the match, or want to watch it again, here it is:

Session 1:

Session 2:

Session 3:

I was sat in the arena for this match. I remember having no expectations. I knew that Ronnie had been unwell mentally after his first-round match and I was amazed that he was playing at all. The key in that match was that Ronnie was not able to win the close frames;

The last 32 round of the World Championship 2016 concluded yesterday and it’s fair to say that it already brought its fair share of surprises.

For the first time ever under the current format, both last year finalists went out in the last 32, Stuart Bingham losing by 10-9 to Ali Carter, and Shaun Murphy being beaten 10-8 by Anthony McGill. Shaun had put an an end to Anthony’s brilliant debut last year in the QF … sweet revenge?

But that’s not all.

Neil Robertson, seen by many as one of the hot favourites for the title was beaten, fair and square, by a brilliant and mentally solid Michael Holt.

Alan McManus got the better of Stephen Maguire, who had just squeezed in the top 16 by reaching the SF in the China Open. It’s been a while since Maguire managed to win a match at the Crucible.

Ding Junhui of course is a qualifier but everyone knew how dangerous he could be, and he proved it by sending Martin Gould home, on a 10-8 score. To be fair to both players, this was an excellent match.

Sam Baird saw off Michael White, who later revealed that he was suffering from depression.

Finally Kyren Wilson – who Ronnie tipped to become a great of the game – beat Joe Perry by 10-9 in another high quality encounter.

So that makes it 7 qualifiers through to the last 16 … so much for Peter Ebdon’s prediction that they would be too tired to compete. In fact many of them appeared match sharp and putting a lot of pressure on their seed opponent who came here cold and without any ranking points in case of defeat.

Among the seeds, Judd Trump, Ronnie and Ricky Walden were really made to work.

Judd looked in big danger after the first session, trailing 6-3, but he fought back and somehow, after he won frame 12, to trail only 7-5, his opponent Liang Wenbo completely lost his way whilst Judd grew in confidence and started playing the way he can.

Ronnie was never behind but David Gilbert played extremely well and managed to put him under pressure. Towards the end of the match Ronnie was showing signs of frustration and anxiety. But he hold it together. The after-match is another story …

Ricky Walden eventually came out the winner of a turgid affair against Robbie Williams. I think both players were happy it was over, and so was the audience most certainly.

The other seeds, Mark Allen, Barry Hawkins, Marco Fu, John Higgins, Mark Williams and Mark Selby had an easy passage. Marco Fu and John Higgins in particular looked sharp and at ease, whilst Barry Hawkins and Mark Selby looked vulnerable despite a comfortable winning score.

Marco Fu, by the way, is already though to the quarter finals, having beaten Anthony Mc Gill by 13-9 tonight, and he will be Ronnie’s opponent, if Ronnie progresses.

All detailed results are on cuetracker.net