World Championship Day Two round up

Well was anyone worried that after that amazing opening day that day two would struggle to make headlines?With Mark Allen around we need not have worried on that score but unfortunately not for the first time this season they wont be for the right reasons,

Lets get the match out of the way first.The result will read that Cao Youpeng world no.81 produced a stunning display to knock out China Open winner Mark Allen by a scoreline of 10-6.Indeed the match finished in extraordinary fashion with Allen potting the black to seemingly  make it 9-7 only to see the white drop into the yellow pocket.Sadly this super match will be overshadowed by the press conference afterwards.

Speaking afterwards Allen although congratulating his opponent and admitting he had maybe underestimated him decided to launch broadside at Cao for "cheating" by not calling a push shot on himself in the opening frame of the session, a shot which was also missed by referee Paul Collier.This was bad enough on its own but he went further in accusing Chinese players in general and Wenbo and Fu by name of been guilty of similar crimes in the past.

With stuff like this Allen is beginning to get himself a reputation for speaking without fully engaging his brains cop on filter and surely has ensured himself a date with World Snookers disciplinary panel. at the very least.

For the record Wenbo had last night shown great sportsmanship by calling foul on himself in the deciding frame with John higgins last night.

In the other afternoon match Shaun Murphy didn't have it all his own way and takes a slender 5-4 lead into the second session with Jamie Jones.

This mornings session had seen a highly entertaining opening session between Stephen Maguire and the Crucibles youngest ever debutant Luca Brecel with the young Belgium overcoming some early nerves to close the session 6-3 down.In doing so he joined the exclusive club of those making a century on their debut and regardless of the result tomorrow this is a young man we wil be seeing plenty of in the coming years.

On the other side of the curtain David Gilbert and Martin Gould were serving up one of those hard fought classic matches you only get in the World Championship with Gilbert holding off a spirited fightback by Gould closing out the victory 10-8 having lead at one stage 9-5.

Those arriving tonight were surely expecting an early evening with Neil Robertson and Stephen Hendry enjoying 7-2 and 8-1 leads over their opponents Ken Doherty and Stuart Bingham respectively.

Robertson indeed closed out a high quality match 10-4 to progress comfortably but although hendry was to prevail by the same scoreline it was far less comfortable.Bingham to his credit came determined to try to the very end and won the first 3 frames of the night to make the score 8-4.Hendry struggling to find any sort of form was beginning to look vulnerable and the unthinkable was starting to look possible. This was short lived however as Hendry steeled himself enough to pot the last red following a poor binghan safety and closed out the match straight after the interval.

So there we have it Day Two over and Monday  afternoon see's the start of O Sullivan and Ebdon........Bring it on!!!!!!