Day 11 Snooker: World Championship Highlights

Welcome to highlights the from the World Championship. We start with

the news that the greatest player of them all, at Stephen Hendry, has

announced his retirement from the game. At the start of the game he

walked in ready to compete again Stephen Maguire. But the great

champion was unable to summon the magic of the past and it lost the

first session. The same pattern continued in that session true. We

joined as Stephen Hendry is at the table. We are about to see the

closing stages of the greatest career at the Crucible. From the

snooker he got Maguire in he would have hoped for something easier.

Look at what happens every time he misses. But Stephen looks as though

he is trying his best to get it to that third and final session. But

it is looking increasingly unlikely now. The match time is three hours

The pink is available. The blue is on its spot. You can see the

difference. 94% against eight it cent. Yes, and to win a match at

this stage with a session to spare would be a big help to Maguire,

because when you get to the semifinal they are even longer

matches. They can go on for three days. That is quite a difference in

the point score. Very one-sided. You could argue it is a two-day

match and he will win with a day to spare, never mind a session to

spare. Yes, and it is looking very much like that. So that Pinker puts

him 44 points in front. -- pink. Two Reds, two colours, more than

enough to clinch the frame. I am disappointed with Stephen Hendry.

He had to get through the qualifiers to get here. He played

Stuart Bingham in the first round and what a memorable moment he gave

us when he made the maximum break. Absolutely superb. Everybody had

been waiting to put that headline in - King Henry VIII. But that

pates title will not be is this year. And will it ever? -- 8th

title. And lessee does well in the PTC, he will have to try to qualify

again. -- unless he does. Let's hope we see Stephen back at the

Crucible. He will still be remembered as the king of the

Cristobal and whether anybody will ever win seven world title Sea is

highly unlikely. -- crystal ball. The rate has not got in but the

handshake will come. He says will play two Stephen Maguire as Stephen

Hendry bows out. The crowd wanted it to happen but it did not happen.

But it happened for that man and she is through to the semifinal. He

wins 13-2. After that heavy defeat, Stephen Hendry return to his

dressing room to compose himself before making the announcement that

after 27 used as a professional the end had arrived. -- 27 years.

not the best place but I will miss it. Is this your last match? Are

you announcing your retirement? you announcing your retirement?

I am definitely retired. I made my mind up three months ago that

enough was enough. Why stick to Korea was not going the way I

wanted it to go. -- my snooker career. If you are not putting the

work in, practising, not enjoying playing the small tournaments, it

was grinding me down. I have many commitments for the future in China

with an agent of mind. I can't do both. I would never be at home for.

What was your mental approach like coming into the tournament knowing

that decision had been made? I was very relaxed. I knew what was

coming. Consequently, that was why I was more animated than normal

when I made the maximum. I knew we would be my last time. A lot of

people say that this year compared to last year, you made a maximum,

put out the defending champion, how come seemingly playing so well did

you retire? Did I really played that well? I got the maximum and

had a not bad session. But apart from that, I did not play very well.

What do you think people will remember about Stephen Hendry?

Tiger Woods is one of my great heroes. They asked him the question.

He said, as long as you are in the discussion as to the best player is,

then you have done it right. -- as to who. 90 matches, 127 centuries,

three Max learns and seven world titles - Stephen Hendry least the

Crucible for the last time. -- three maximums. I was totally

shocked. He has obviously thought long and hard about it. It is a sad

loss for the game. I was delighted that I was playing Stephen Lee in

the quarterfinals. -- playing Steven Finn. -- in. I am sad that

he has retired. He has retired too early. But Stephen knows best. Good

luck to whatever else he does. Higher enjoyed by former world

champion Terry Griffiths. This was always on the cards are? Yes, I

think so. I thought Stephen should have possibly retired a little

while ago. But he has achieved so much and has won seven. But it is a

decision he had to make some time. I'm retired as I planned, when I

drop dead of the 16th. By Stephen has now made the decision. --

dropped out of the 16th. It is frustrating when you cannot achieve

your aims. Losing does not come easy to him. You caged Stephen in

his younger days. What made him so special? -- coach to. There are few

things. He was blessed with a skill and his will to win was frightening.

He was very similar to Steve Davis, two players who have dominated

again Foston that is what it was. In my early days with him, coaching

him, he would tell me not to ring him for three days after he had

lost. I would try to ring him. But he would not answer. He has

softened a bit since then. But it shows what winning and losing is

all about. Everybody says they want to win as much as anybody but

Stephen Hendry wanted to win more. And he has won more than anybody

else. Now we will look at the match between Neil Robertson and Ronnie

O'Sullivan. Robertson was in excellent form and O'Sullivan was

doing well. We joined it in frame Neil Robinson was trying to double

the red back at the table to move the dizzy your read on the right

side off the table. -- the difficult to read it. He is trying

to double it with a top-spin. -- difficult red. He is desperate to

try to get the red balls away from the cushion. But that is very

That was a pretty good effort. Ronnie O'Sullivan now with a chance

to seal the final frame of the Looking at the school board, the

Blue will be enough to leave Neil Robertson needing a snooker. What

has he done there? That is a lack of concentration. No wonder he is

smiling. That is two shots - the easiest of pots in the middle

pocket. He shows if you do not concentrate 100%, even somebody

like Ronnie O'Sullivan can miss. Amazing. Yes, and that reaction

from Ronnie there, he realises it is down to sheer lack of

concentration. He potted the read and thought he had won the frame. -

- red. To win the frame he has to get blacks of these two Reds. This

will hurt Romney if he loses this. If he plays the pink he can only

tie. If he is dead straight he is trapped -- going to have to try to

get up to there. He might need his extension. But the chance is there.

If this goes in, the only thing is the Brownies on the wrong side off

the table. If Ronnie loses this frame he will not sleep well

tonight. He will be back tomorrow He is having a look to see with the

balls are. The Brown for a left hander is a little awkward. It

would be eight bit risky to leave an angle on the yellow and then

It is all about how he gets from green to brown. If he was to pinch

this frame by 1 point and take a 5- 3 advantage, that would be amazing.

Yes, we always say that certain frames can become pivotal in a

match. This could be one. It looked for all money like Ronnie. If he

had said that blew up a thousand times you would not expect him to

miss it. Just a lack of concentration. It has bounced a

little bit too much. It has bounced just a fraction too much. He is

going to do well known to pot this brown and it good position on the

blue. -- will now. -- well. If he screws back he can't get that far

away from the cushion. The fervour off the table, the more difficult

If he wants to play the top-spin heating get it slightly further

away and leave the long blue. This is a big shock coming up for the

did Lee Potter from Australia. Can he popped his blue and get himself

on the thing? -- the did Lee Potter. Will he fluked the snicker? --

flick. The balls never forgive you. When you make an mistake it is

Thank goodness he has stopped to take breath here. He is a little

bit annoyed that he is still in this frame. -- annoyed but. This is

what annoys me about the mists roll. Neil has had an outrageous fluke to

cover it Andy Coulson is. I know that is the will but it is a bit

severe. -- and he calls it the Ms. -- it a miss. The last five minutes

have been absolutely incredible. Once again, Neil Robinson with

another chance. That was an average has bit of good luck. When he

flicked the snigger behind the pink. That is right in the centre of the

How has Neil Robertson one day a friend? Ronnie O'Sullivan had a

break of 58. He had the simplest of blues to take the school was all

square, he missed the sitter and Neil Robinson will be delighted. He

goes into an overnight lead. Those two will resume on Wednesday

afternoon. This afternoon's other match injured with Carter of

beating Jones. The Captain is in control heading into session to on

Wednesday. Finally to the quarterfinal match between two

Welshmen, Matthew Stevens and Ryan Day. Police were Ockham a player

whose has produced his best snooker for use in this Championship. --

please will come a player. Bidding for his first Crucible semifinal,

Ryan Day looked nervous before the match. From then he led 5-3 after

the opening session. Matthew Stevens leads 5-4 as we joined the

action at frame 10 with Ryan Day on He knew straight away that he had

missed that. He was so disappointed, the way he played into the bunch.

He was hoping to leave the Redbacks to the black but he screwed it. --

They say, don't get angry out there. Don't be disappointed and play with

your dessert wine and am anger. That is what Dennis was mentioning,

implying that read in the discipline of missing the previous

shot. -- in playing that red ball. Snicker is all about confidence. --

no go. Part of confidence is thinking positively. -- snicker. --

Those Reds are just covering each other. They are nicely placed but

slightly balking each other, I think. -- blocking. If they are all

covering each other he can play for the blue. He can go for a cannon.

He might try to run through for the black. Both black or blue are easy

to develop. That read in the middle of the bunch will not be available

in a couple of shots time. If you do not like the run through,

Matthew, you will have to screw back for the blue. He is going to

catch the pink. Such that was played to perfection. -- that was

played. He just had to be careful though. He is looking at that

little bunch of red balls. They seem to be blocking each other but

the one near the pink might be available. But he has played the

cannon and it is OK. But he might not be able to see the one in the

corner. It is touching. He is not OK. It is very awkward. He went

into those Reds in a very positive manner. He got a just reward. Being

a left-hander, he can play both It is touching so he must be

careful be read does not move. He He hit that nicely. But may have

gone a little too far for the red next to the pink. It will not do

This is not his highest break in this session. He made a 44 in the

first frame. His highest break so far in the match is 86 in the first

frame, his first chance. That was pretty impressive. This is slightly

These players are very reluctant to go for a colour if they lose

position. He struck that well. As good as he could have done without

putting a lot of sides been on. And it was too difficult for sides been.

He put a fraction on it, but any more and you can miss the port.

can leave himself either side of the Blues. -- pot. -- blue. He has

had a look at the two Reds to see if they are plant for a future for

It sounded like heavy contact. Matthew is certainly indicating

that. Yes, the red jumper of the bed of the cloth. So just whenever

you are getting yourself into a position to draw level in the match,

that happens. -- the Red jumped off. -- red. Can I am they take

advantage from that bit of misfortunes from Matthew? -- cannot

He can play this read. I am not He took a risk bear and now what he

will have to put -- pull out a good pot on the Blues. -- he took a risk

That looks pretty good. By saying it looks pretty good, maybe he's

gone too far -- I say it. He's not on one of the reds. So the chance

has gone. There is a plaque on but there is a lot covering the two-

balls cash plant on. -- plant on. It would be a risk here if he takes

it on. He's taking it on, best of luck, O'Brien. He needs a bit of

luck here. --, Ryan. Once again playing with in his disappointing,

he would never have taken that on at another stage of the match. He

was unlucky with that blue, if you look at it he has cut it thinly

into the middle pocket, the White House travel 25 feet and he is a

few inches out of position -- white has travelled. He has left Matthew

Stevens slightly awkward here. He is six points in front, Matthew.

Beautifully struck. Very easy. Takes the ball a bit better if

there's less pace on it. He will He's striking the ball better of

these two players at the moment. If you don't strike the cue ball well

He's 20 points in front now. Yellow and green and he will be safe in

this 10th frame. A while ago he was staring 6-2 in the face, he pinched

the last frame of the first session Slightly worrying times for Ryan

day because he has had his chances to extend that lead, but that face

tells you that he's a little disappointed with what's happened

in the last three frames of this match. He won three in a row but he

will lose three in a row. Matthew Stevens takes the frame and he is

Matthew Stevens is now on level terms and Ryan Day is definitely

looking a little wobbly. He is in trouble again as we rejoin the

Could pay dividends if it goes in. At the moment nothing's going for

him at all. You couldn't even call that a half chance, it was over

distance and under pressure. think at the moment he would love

to start this session again. He has got off to the worst possible start

here this evening. He has got to I know it's disappointing with

what's going on here, but your Farve -- 5-5. If you win the last

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 85 seconds

frame before the midsession Looking very much like this could

be Faulk frames on the trot for Matthew Stevens -- four. For most

of that frame it looked like Ryan day was going to win it -- Day.

Ryan Day has not been the same player as he was in the first

session. But as Dennis says, Just left himself slightly hampered,

he played that last one with his left hand. At least he doesn't have

He has picked off the high valued colours and now he is dealing with

the low-value colours, as we see that awkward striking. That puts

him 59 in front. He just needs this Matthew's highest break was a break

of 86 that he made in the opening frame. Ryan made back-to-back

centuries then, but no really big breaks in the last few frames. This

is a timely one for Matthew. Doesn't matter about that red. 46

is more than enough for Matthew is more than enough for Matthew

Stevens, four in a row and now he's in the league. Despite not having

played his best, Matthew added the next four to make it eight frames

in a row and Ryan is in danger of Well done. He's OK, the balloon for

goes past the green. -- blue ball. A nice century would help him go to

sleep tonight! He need something otherwise it will be a whitewash in

this session if he doesn't. No-one likes to see that. He's lost it at

the moment. He wants to snap that in two and I don't blame him. He's

trying his best, he's giving it everything and he just can't get

the stick through in a straight line. Your mind is doing one thing

and your head is doing another. It's embarrassing and it is not

great for him. That's a good work, embarrassed, because that's how you

feel when you're trying your hardest and you can't get it

through in a straight line. Matthew Stevens will not lift his foot off

the pedal. He has been in two finals here at the Crucible. One

against Shaun Murphy where he had a comfortable lead only to see Sean

Murphy plays some unbelievable snooker to pinch the title from him.

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 85 seconds

That was back in 2005 where Murphy What was that? That was a lapse in

concentration. No wonder he's scratching his head. It looked like

he threw his shoulder into it. Come on, Ryan. 10-six, you're still in

it. Is he going to risk it? There are four reds available and then he

has got the angle to pot the blue. But if he the canon he might cue in

Where is that green going to bounce to? He's OK I think. He did not

want to risk playing the Canon there. Believe it or not he has

covered it. He will have to take the one up to the corner, which is

much more difficult. But he's gone in the middle. I thought maybe he

was going to take it to the corner Removing this red clears the path

for the black in that corner. But it all depends on whether the

blackballed pop's past the other Rec. -- Black pots passed at the

other red. A keen shot coming up. - That's them all in place now. If

he's on this one to the left... There's one to the right corner but

He tried to bridge over the other red to take the one in the left

corner. We changed his mind because that was a really tough shot. -- he

changed. That is the kind of shot he would make nine/10 if he was in

full flow. There's an air of sadness here, it is never nice to

see any player struggling on the bigger stage of four. As Dennis

mentioned earlier, if Matthew Stevens wins this frame, which she

could do from this position, he could win all eight frames in this

session -- which he could do. is he going to get another chance,

Ryan? Matthew missed a very easy chance. Will he do it again? That's

all that Ryan can hope for., or he Where is the red going? Where is

the red going?! Can you believe it? He's not the best in the world with

a rest but he missed it to the right jaw and that's incredible.

Have a look at this again. Streak along the cushion -- straight along.

Matthew must be feeling it out there because will Ryan is friendly

with him. Here only had to stop for the yellow. -- he only. He missed a

green earlier on in this frame and that fluke after he missed that red

compounded things. We keep talking about Ryan but it is important for

Matthew to put this frame away. He will be feeling a little bit sorry

for his good friend, the way he has been playing here, but there's no

friendship out on the Green Bays. Matthew Stevens' best break in this

session is 59, you don't see that often, a player winning by such a

wide margin with that kind of break. Just looking at Matthew's breaks, a

44, 48, 46, 56, 49, 40. They have not been frame-winning breaks but

they have been more than enough to give him that possible whitewash in

this session. All eight frames. checks the score, he's 22 points in

front. Just the Red and Black will do the job if he's got the angle on

this red. He might have to go up for the blue, it depends. Slightly

overdone it. But if he plots the blue he is 35 in front with 35 left.

What does Ryan do now? He has got to get up and play in the morning.

There is no way you can go straight to bed in the hotel, you have got

to unwind after this. You can understand why he is shaking his

head. He has never experienced a whitewash in a session before. It

is quite a humiliating experience. Sometimes you have a session where

you feel like you haven't been involved in any of the match at for.

-- at all. He is such a nice lad, Ryan, he will probably have a smile

with his good friend when he shakes hands with him but how is he

feeling?! It is hard to explain. We have all been humiliated out there,

everybody suffers in the Crucible. But Matthew Stevens has won every

frame of this second session. He frame of this second session. He

takes a strong lead into tomorrow's final session. 11 -5. Ryan Day with

a huge task when they resume on Wednesday morning. We're almost at

the end of our coverage on what has been a dramatic day at the Crucible.

Snooker Extra is up next and you can see more of the match between

Jamie Jones and Ali Carter. We are back at 10 am to see the resumption

of that match and then on BBC Two at 1:30pm to C section two of Neil

Robertson against O'Sullivan. Day 11 will be remembered as the day

that snooker wave goodbye to its greatest ever player, and we can

say one moment of final magic from the legend that is Stephen Hendry -

Absolutely fantastic! There's only one Stephen Hendry. Congratulations

from Stuart Bingham and the referee. Well done, Stephen, you have done