This is WST report on Day 5 action at the Scottish Open Qualifiers in Barnsley:

Hallworth Books Llandudno Spot

Steven Hallworth made four breaks over 50 as he beat Ricky Walden 4-3 in a high quality match in the qualifying round for the BetVictor Scottish Open.

World number 70 Hallworth needs results this season to keep his tour card, and today’s performance against three-time ranking event winner Walden certainly keeps him on track.

Breaks of 66, 52 and 70 gave 25-year-old Hallworth three frames in a row to put him 3-1 ahead. Walden battled back to 3-3 with 121 and 87, and he had first chance in the decider, making 32. But Hallworth’s excellent 73 put him into the final stages in Llandudno in December.

Martin Gould made breaks of 104, 55 and 96 in a 4-2 win over Zhang Jiankang, while Scott Donaldson beat Jak Jones by the same scoreline, his top break 65.

Michael Georgiou made a 125 in a 4-0 thrashing of Farakh Ajaib while Welsh Open champion Jordan Brown saw off Barry Pinches 4-1. Sam Craigie came from 2-1 down to beat Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 4-2 with runs of 78, 54 and 70.

It was a good match indeed between Steven Hallwort and Ricky Walden.  In frame 5, Ricky made the only century of the match; it was his 300th competitive century and he became only the 25th player to reach that milestone. Knowing Ricky, who absolutely HATES losing, I doubt that this brought him any kind of solace!

No mention in this WST report of the fact that Chris Wakelin, playing at a swift 20 seconds AST, whitewashed Mark Joyce 🤔? Chris scored heavily as well: he had three breaks over 50: 52, 64, 60. Maybe he was too fast and his win went unoticed by whoever was supposed to write the above report?

Sam Craigie played OK, and improved as the match went on, but Thepchaiya was far from his best and that was obvious from the very start. He was missing pots he would usually get and didn’t look happy!

Another match that is absent from the WST account account is the last match on the day… thatt actually finished today. It lasted about 4 hours! Mark King beat Rory McLeod by 4-3. Rory is not the fastest player, but he was not the sole responsible for the late finish. Indeed this match started after the Jordan Brown v Barry Pinches match and that one was particularly slow-going as well: it took them nearly 3 hours to complete 5 frames. There was also a bit of “needle” in this King v McLeod match, and a lot of muttering from both players. It all culminated in frame 5, after Rory had the frame won having potted the green and Mark King stood up, indicating that he wanted to concede. Rory however wishes to play further. It all became a bit heated and Ben Williams had to step in. Rory then returned at the table and immediately missed the brown…

We are seeing more and more of those concessions when the opponent is still at the table and in a break. Of course, the said opponent doesn’t have to accept the concession but it’s still a disruption. There may be many reasons why a player wants to pot a few more balls even if no century is on. This is especially true for the player who is behind as Rory was. They may wish to get more table time, build some confidence or just keep their opponent cold in their seat for a bit longer.