This is WST report on what happened yesterday, 20 November 2023, at the 2023 UK Qualifiers:

Ding Sinks Wells To Reach Judgement Day

Last year’s runner-up Ding Junhui trailed Daniel Wells three times in the penultimate qualifying round of the MrQ UK Championship but hit back to win 6-4 and keep alive his hopes of winning the event for a fourth time.

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Ding goes through to the final round –  Judgement Day – and will face Robbie Williams on Wednesday with the winner to go through to the televised stages in York. The Chinese cueman won this title in 2005, 2009 and 2019 and was beaten in the final by Mark Allen last year.

Zhang Anda’s recent victory at the International Championship meant that Ding was knocked out of the world’s top 16 so he has to go through qualifying for this event. And he was in danger of defeat tonight when Wells led 2-1, 3-2 and 4-3. But Ding recovered with breaks of 96 and 89 to lead 5-4, then enjoyed a massive fluke early in frame ten when he missed an attempted long red, only for two other reds to drop into pockets. He took advantage by compiling a match-winning 64.

“It was a close game, Daniel played well,” said 36-year-old Ding. “From 4-3 I knew I needed to make some breaks and put him under pressure. The fluke in the last frame was so lucky. The safety was difficult and I saw the long pot and thought I could get the white back to baulk, but I totally missed it and the two reds went in.

“It’s down to me to stay in the top 16, I have to win matches not rely on other players’ results. This is good match practice and if I make it to York maybe I’ll be ready. I love playing at the Barbican – even if I’m not playing well I always feel good there. I was really happy for Zhang to win the International. He tries so hard. It’s good to see more players from Asia winning titles.”

Williams beat Matthew Stevens 6-5 by clearing from brown to black to snatch the deciding frame.

Thepchaiya Un-Nooh fired breaks of 117, 84, 87, 70, 135 and 76 as he beat Andy Hicks 6-2. He now meets Ricky Walden, who got the better of a dramatic finish to beat Marco Fu 6-5. In the deciding frame, Fu trailed 68-0 with five reds left, but got the snooker he needed and had a chance to clear, only to miss a tricky final pink with the rest. Walden slotted in the pink to secure his progress.

Wu Yize top scored with 136 in a 6-2 defeat of David Grace while Michael White made a 67 clearance in the decider to beat Si Jiahui 6-5. On a night of close finishes, Noppon Saengkham recovered a 41-0 deficit in the last frame to beat James Cahill 6-5 with a 78 clearance.

In the previous round, Ken Doherty, who has reached the final of this event three times but never lifted the trophy, earned a 6-3 win over Duane Jones with a top break of 95.

“I’m delighted to win,” said Doherty, who now meets Northern Ireland Open finalist Chris Wakelin. “I love this tournament. It’s hard to win matches these days because the general standard has gone up but my standard has gone down. I would love to get to York but it will be a very tough match next against Chris. I am under no illusions, I will just try to relax and enjoy it.

“When Jimmy White qualified for York last year, I was commentating on that match and when he walked in the hairs on the back of my neck stood up, I got a bit emotional. So to have a moment like that myself would be wonderful.”

Mark Joyce made a 77 clearance in the deciding frame to edge out Iulian Boiko 6-5 while York’s Ashley Hugill took a step towards qualifying for his home tournament with a 6-3 success against Dean Young.

And all the results are on snooker.org as usual

I can’t comment on any of it as I was traveling all day.

Of course there is also plenty in the news about Ronnie’s documentary. A lot of it not that interesting but this piece by Phil Haigh does explain what it’s about and what it brings:

Ronnie O’Sullivan offers intense look into his world with The Edge of Everything

Phil Haigh Monday 20 Nov 2023

Snooker fans have waited a long time to see Ronnie O’Sullivan: The Edge of Everything and their patience has been rewarded because it is so much more than expected.

Cameras followed the Rocket closely in the build-up to the 2022 World Championship and throughout his campaign in Sheffield as he hunted down a record-equalling seventh title at the Crucible.

A behind-the-scenes, access-all-areas look at the GOAT preparing for the sport’s biggest event and then living through the iconic tournament was what appeared to be in the pipeline.

The Edge of Everything delivered what was promised on that front, but the film is a lot more than just documenting a snooker competition; it heads all the way back to the start of O’Sullivan’s epic career, unveiling the pain and torment he has dealt with and still struggles with at times now.

Many of the film’s most remarkable moments come from the relationship between O’Sullivan and his father, Ronnie Sr, with that thread running through the documentary to the brilliant climax.

The relationship between elite sportspeople and their fathers is often integral to their story. The recent David Beckham documentary made that clear, while the endlessly headline-grabbing involvement of John Fury in Tyson’s career continues to rumble on.

It is Beckham’s production company that is behind the O’Sullivan film, but this is very different to the enjoyable but relatively tepid PR exercise on the footballer. Equally, the father-son relationship is far from the same across the two pieces.

The Rocket’s relationship with his father is very different to most and The Edge of Everything does not shy away from the details of Ronnie Sr’s conviction for murder and how that left his young son as a huge fish in the snooker pond but struggling to keep swimming.

The man once known as the Essex Exocet says in one scene that he would be a ‘loser’ without the input of his dad and the push to make him the best player in the world from as young as nine years old has ultimately been successful.

There is no shortage of pain and torment, though, as illustrated in a tearjerking message from Ronnie’s mother Maria at one stage, remembering how she had to tell her son his father had been jailed.

Pain and torment are prevalent on the snooker side of things as well, with O’Sullivan living up to the title of the film by appearing very much on the edge during the World Championship final against Judd Trump.

What is going through a player’s head and what is being said behind dressing room doors have always been fascinations of snooker fans as the cueists sit silently in their chair before disappearing out of the arena. We are granted a look behind the curtain at both and it is intense.

As Trump fights back at O’Sullivan in the showpiece we are given a glimpse into what it is like when a snooker player says they are ‘gone’ and it looks like a bleak place to be.

O’Sullivan describes the World Championship as an ‘evil tournament’ earlier in the piece and it is hard to understand that phrasing at the time, but as we watch him start to unravel it begins to make sense.

Whenever the Rocket claims not to care about the sport, we can now clearly see that is untrue, but it also becomes very obvious why he tries not to hand over the fate of his feelings to snooker.

The intensity of the piece is increased by the brilliant addition of a microphone on O’Sullivan while he is playing, picking up every utterance while he’s in the arena, even to the point of his breathing.

The incredibly unique pressure of snooker is expertly shown in one scene of near silence as Ronnie tries to solve a puzzle at the table. Only his breathing and muttered frustrations can be heard as focus switches between his furrowed brow and a packed Crucible crowd.

We also get to listen to the emotional chat between O’Sullivan and Trump at the end of the final as they shared one of sport’s longest ever hugs and the Rocket’s emotions poured out.

This is very much a Ronnie O’Sullivan documentary, but anyone discovering snooker for the first time should leave with healthy respect for the mentally punishing game, so vividly represented. 

If there is one thing lacking, and it is a minor gripe, but the fly-on-the-wall nature of much of the film means some things were brilliantly documented, but not questioned. 

The memorably feisty interaction between O’Sullivan and referee Olivier Marteel during the final was shown in detail, but there was no further explanation from either man involved, leaving us to wonder exactly what sparked the row as confusion seemed to reign.

It is the tiniest complaint, though, of a film that does not lack insight into the man, his life and the game that has made him one of Britain’s most fascinating sportsmen.

The complexity and intensity of O’Sullivan and his sport will have you gripped throughout and if you like Ronnie Wood quoting Anton Chekov, well, it’s got that too.

I hope being able to watch it in a not too far future … as I’m living between Belgium and Greece it’s not available to me at this moment.