The Hindu : Sport / Billiards & Snooker : Hendry wins thriller

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 28, 2004

Sport

Sport - Billiards & Snooker

Hendry wins thriller

SHEFFIELD, APRIL 27. Stephen Hendry clinched a last eight berth in the Embassy World snooker championship with a thrilling 13-12 victory over qualifier Barry Pinches on Monday.

The pair was locked at 8-8 going into the final session of the second round encounter before Pinches took a 11-9 lead.

Hendry refused to cave in and hauled himself to within a frame of victory only to see Pinches draw level at 12-12.

But Hendry held his nerve in a tense decider to snuff out the Pinches' challenge.

David Gray scored a comprehensive 13-5 win over outsider Lee Walker to reach his first-ever Crucible quarterfinal.

Gray, the world No.12 resumed his match needing two more frames and was pleased to win an epic opener on the pink.

Walker, who defeated fifth seed Stephen Lee in the first round, lost his confidence and, although Gray was not exactly in top form, he did enough in the next.

The results (second round, best of 25 frames):

Stephen Hendry (Sco) bt Barry Pinches (Eng) 13-12 (68-55 (55 Pinches), 70-15, 53-62 (61), 55-61, 0-73 (69), 68-40, 84-16 (62), 60-51,35-59, 68-28 (67), 81-39, 58-79 (59), 44-57, 0-80 (80), 0-97 (97), 62-61 (62, 61), 92-27 (59), 36-66, 0-129 (122), 33-62 (57), 95-0 (95), 75-48, 84-0 (84), 15-66, 65-9).

David Gray (Eng) bt Lee Walker (Wal) 13-5 (55-13, 19-67, 65-43, 60-1, 63-34, 0-115 (79), 21-105 (56), 73-40,41-69, 100-0 (100), 50-48,74-12, 117-9 (65), 99-30 (73), 0-74 (70), 63-35 (54), 51-42, 61-14).

Graeme Dott (Sco) bt John Higgins (Sco) 13-10 (59-55, 70-0, 69-44, 53-72, 90-43, 65-60, 39-63, 18-61, 75-17, 49-84, 72-0, 80-43, 71-39, 54-64, 0-82, 74-7, 22-79, 63-33, 68-0, 0-89, 52-74, 4-130 (130 break), 63-24)

Ian McCulloch (Eng) bt Alan McManus (Sco) 13-6 (1-59 106(106 break)-0 68-31 98-23 82-8 113(113 break)-0 82-0 84-0 66-73 26-67 23-103(103 break) 66-57 68-30 81-6 0-89 50-45 67-1 0-81 71-63).

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