Day 1, Part 2 UK Snooker Championship

Hello again. Dur a sporting weekend in which Freddie Flintoff found a

new career David Beckham finds himself house hunting again.

England's rugby player found the all blacks try line and we are

finding our feet at the start of this Will yam Hill.com Championship.

John Higgins was doing that earlier on on BBC One earlier, he was

playing Michael Holt, the world number 29 and it was poised at

three frames apiece when we were forced to leave it. It is best of

11 frames. First to six going through and let us get straight

It is causing the players some Opening day of the tournament,

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Just make sure you don't leave He missed a chance there, he had a

great chance. He had John under You get the impression every time

he has a grasp on this match, So John Higgins, with that clear

raps of 51 had got himself back in HAZEL IRVINE: Oneast third 50 plus

break and it included a century of 116. The three time European

champion with his nose in front. That was a big my take. That is

what you mentioned. He had to watch This is a fabulous chance. Once

again, this match, it has been Michael Holt who has had the

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Could have played it better. He He has been consistent here, this

afternoon, John. Made a few errors. Missed a similar type shot to that

He had 42 break in the opening frame, then 116. 47 if frame five.

He is still at 93 % success rate. He is playing all right, but I will

hark back to the same point. Michael Holt has had some chances

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That was a very good 75 break from Egyptian jirbgs and it puts him 5-3

ahead. A very good break from John Higgins. Very soon thereafter he

managed to achieve that. Michael Holt is out of the way. Higgins

closes it out 6-3 and on his way to a current run. He has a date back

home in Scotland with his wife tonight. He is still an old

romantic. Well played John. I was on edge all through the match. The

table conditions were, the cushions were very very slow, it was hard

getting to grips with them. The two of us struggled, I think. But

obviously they will speed up. It is hard being the first match on, it

is good if you get through and you can feel as if you are part of the

tournament. But if you you lose early, it is not the nicest place

to watch everybody playing. Luckily for me I won, and I managed to go

up the road and celebrate my wife's birthday. She will have a better

bottle of wine after I have won! Tables slow, in the opening part of

the Championship. Was that something you were wear of when you

were watching the match?. Yes, John made more position a-- made more

positional errors than I have seen in a long time. If you are not

concentrating 100%, you can make error, but he showed the champion

as he came through. The important thing is to win it. In this

Championship in the past when it was best of 17 and 19 later on,

there was more chance for you to get you feet under the table, but

it is much shorter and the new look UK format. That is rite. There are

no dead frames in the way. Some of the frames in the early session,

you felt as if nothing much was happening. There is no hiding place,

very little room to breathe if you get off to a bad start, but you get

your chance, and I think it's a fair test, best of lerpbgs it is

the same of the Masters. Michael Holt, we didn't see much of him

playing there, did have some good chances and it could have gone

either way. That is what John Higgins is World Champion, he does

make the best of the bad games, or the average games, more so than any

other players. If you know your concentration level is not as it

should be in an early part of the a Championship, as a multiple World

Champion yourself, Steven, how do you write that? I don't think there

is anything you can do hopefully you have done the preparation

before you come to tournament and you are ready to win, no matter how

well you play. That is the mind set. You go down, you want to win the

match. You are not bothered about how well you play. If you expect to

play well, sometimes it doesn't happen. So winning the match is the

most important thing. Performance comes second. So the wine is on

John tonight! That was not the first match to be concluded. It was

Barry Hawkins who is the first man through to the last 16 day today.

He is the new Australian champion. He is 33 years old and he has gone

16 years without a major title, that came in Australia. He went up

in front of Liang Wenbo. Liang Wenbo playing only for the second

time in the TV stages of this event. Despite a good effort from him, it

was Hawkin, the porter from Dartford, who did steel himself for

the conclusion of this match. He topped thins off to go through 6-4.

The Hawk is flying. We will update you with the progress of a double

UK champion Ding Junhui. He had a rotten end to his season last time

round at the crucible, when he fell at the first hurdle. In fact, he

was so, well, hacked off to use a current phrase, that in his press

conference, he was fined thereafter for swearing, and expressing his

feelings. We didn't realise because our knowledge of Mandarin naughty

words isn't what it should be. He only had positive things to say

about this event. The 2005 UK champion Ding Junhui. I played

Steve Davis. It was a very good performance, all the way, down to

the venue and tournament. Some very good memories to me. I feel like

long time ago. It is so many matches and tournaments happen now.

Every year, you always playing, sometimes you don't have time to

get rest. Sometimes I need to be away, because OK for one, to do

some interview or play some guy, but between the tournament, I don't

want to do many things, so somebody else's, they just keep quiet. A bit

difference to when I am back to China. Quite hard to practise. It

is more easy in the UK, so that is why I am always back to the UK, and

enjoying the tournaments happening in the UK. But also, snooker is

getting bigger in China. Get the snooker fans coming more and more.

They love snooker. And they love all the players, they enjoy the

game. I like it. I am enjoying it in the Barbican Centre. There is a

lot of Chinese students. I have good memorys in York. So, day

facing -- Ding facing Ryan Day and for the Welshman who was once rank

as number six he has never been beyond the second round of this UK

Championship since 2004. He was completely out of sorts 12 months

ago, when Mark Selby thumped him 6- 0 in his opener. I would imagine

memories are still fresh in Ryan's mind, no doubt of that great win

over Ding at the crucible seven months ago. We will get into this

one. Ding set out very briskly, going to a 2-0 lead. Day has it

back to two frames apiece. We will join them in frame five.

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He didn't play that hard enough to Ryan is prone to miscueing

So in goes the pink and it is three frames in a row for the Welshman.

Good come back from 2-0 behind and he must be pleasantly surprised

with his game at the moment. He leads by one frame. HAZEL IRVINE:

And that is you right up-to-date. We are going to cross into the

arena now, live, to join the six frame -- sixth frame and join

Willie and Dennis. What is happening? Well Ryan made a pretty

That can han -- that can happen hen You have a sense, both players, are

playing well, you have a sense this could go down to the wire this

It has been a top match this, so far. That is what we expected.

Ding's English is getting better all the time. I went out with Ding

and all his friends, 15 people, and the place we went to, the street,

they come out of the shops to greet But he loves York, and he is twice

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The middle red will pot but he may What a fabulous effort. Unlucky for

HAZEL IRVINE: Nicely formulated break, but isn't that typical. You

do all the hard work. You are back to square one. Incredible match.

Ding was a positional shot away from being 3-0 up. It is back to 3-

3. It could go all the way. I was remining myself of the details of

that first match they played at the crucible. Day was 6-9, beg your

pardon, yes, he was 6-9 down and won the last four to beat Ding in

that match. I suppose the memory of that has got to play on the mind of

both guys at some point. Ding would know that Ryan, not Darren, Ryan is

very capable. Perhaps he is a good singer as well, we don't know! But,

in the frame before, I was watching, keeping my eye on it, Ding was

under pressure, was all over the place compared to what we see

normally. He is not as comfortable as we have seen him on a table in

the York arena. As long as Ryan sticks to his guns he has a chance.

How would you characterise the change in Ding's game in the last

couple of years? The season before last he was flying, he was winning

the Master, he had a stack of tournament victories in that period,

but it was quiet for him last time. I think two or three of the senior

players are finding it difficult to come to terms with how much snooker

they are playing. Maybe over the next two or three years might have

to evaluate how many tournaments they play in to get the best out of

their game. Ding practises so much, so maybe he has played too much.

What is fascinating, something like five out of ten major events are in

China in the current season. As Dennis alluded to, he is a

superstar there, but the pressure is very very intense on him there,

how does he respond to that, do you think? I would imagine that if it

is excitable type of adulation, that could be wearing. Day in day

out. It is OK if people are respectful from a distance. I get

the feeling they are on him all the time. He probably likes to come to

the UK, where everything is a bit more used, calmer, in that respect.

So I don't know what is going to happen to all the players in the

future when they have to spend more time out there. I think it is going

to be a very crowded season, all year round and it won't suit

everybody. But I think it probably suit Ding Junhui. Well, he has

taken the lead again. It is 3-3 apiece, I beg your pardon as we go

He did knock a red in previously in this match, rien day, it was more

difficult than this one, and he hammered it in. -- Ryan day. --

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Ryan Day. He knocked a gem in And it is getting a little awkward

now, they'll all covering each other. He will have to play a

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This is a bit of a test if he is to And the secret of that shot was

that he did not move, he was still It sounds very easy, keep your head

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still, but it is one of the But he knows plenty about maximum

breaks, he has made for maximum This match has chopped and changed

and it looks like doing is going to There is only one difficult red

that he will need, which is the He had to stun that came to create

That meant he could get high on the two reds and has given him the

chance to win this frame at one He will want to get as close as

possible to the final red on the cushion. He will need a colour from

it, it so he cannot just move it up He has an angle on the yellow to

Not quite. Once again, you can see how life leave the cloth was there.

The green is in the way of the one cushion escape. I do not think

there is an escape. He taps the table and the reason for that is

because the green is right in line for the escape shot and on the

right-hand side, the black is in the way. Twice across looks like

the only possible escape route. is bound to leave the red on if he

That is some shot! You will not see any better than that. To miss the

pink and then miss the black. That was not good, the bounce gave

That was a bit fortunate. fairness, you would have expected

Ryan has knocked a few pots like this in, but this is different

He had to hit it quite hard to stop other red stain over the left-hand

He might have to have a couple of goes at this. It is the second

He will have to get much closer to the blue. This is the natural angle.

Look how close it is to the blue. The black is in the way. He perhaps

could swerve around they black and miss the left-hand pocket in the

middle of the table. He needs side to miss the blue but in playing

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with side I think he comes to He could do with a little touch of

swerve on this but that is not easy You could say that that is a bit of

a result! Both players have had the run of the ball but that was a

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Well, fortunate and unfortunate. This frame could have gone either

way. Ding hammers the pink into the pocket and will be delighted to get

himself back into the lead. Ryan had a 40 break and Ding replied

with 59 and he's back into the lead. Ryan look by tears could come right

back after Ding made the 91 break He got plenty of power on this and

top spin, but it was the next shot that was the problem. I fancied him

to knock this one in but he got the kick. That cost in the game. Once

again, Ryan has lost to make games on the trot. Last time that he did

that, he won the next three. Both players are in terrific form. The

top break for Ryan was 90 and he has had three breaks over 40, so it

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has been a high standard. This The fact but it was touching ball

meant he could cope twice across and get the white as close as

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There is always a chance that you can't spring a red out of the pack

and towards the corner pocket, and that is what has happened here.

Ryan can get himself on to the That was terrific cueing but he was

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unlucky because he has gone too far. He took it on but he hit it far too

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thick, which meant that the kiss Ryan Day has a terrific reach. He

is about six foot three, and He played to cannon that red full

ball but he just skimmed past it. He will still have to play a cannon

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This has been an excellent match, we have never known for one minute

We thought we work in at quick match when Ding led by two frames

but it has turned out to be a fascinating tussle. -- thought we

Ryan has every chance now of He is one of those players way you

love watching him when he is in He has a good rhythm and has a

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He finished a little bit low on To make the century, he would have

to develop a few of the reds. That looks like the possible end of the

chance of a century, unless he can HAZEL IRVINE: It there I am afraid

we have to leave it, with Ryan A quick look at table number two.