Sam Craigie crashed out of the World Snooker Championship qualifiers on Saturday in a deciding-frame defeat tainted full of regret.
The 32 year-old would have been a heavy favourite to beat amateur top-up Umut Dikme in the second round of the qualifiers at the English Institute of Sport.
But the Englishman got involved in a high-scoring scrap with the talented German and lost the last two frames to bow out in a 10-9 thriller.
Craigie, though, will surely lament his tardiness that could have ultimately cost him his spot in the third round.
The pair reached the mid-session interval of their first session with the scores tied at 2-2, but Craigie failed to return for the resumption of play in time and was duly docked a frame.
Although he still ended the first session 5-4 in front and later led 9-8, Dikme finished the contest with breaks of 103 and 72 to complete one of the biggest victories of his career.
While Craigie will head home wondering what might have been, Dikme moves forward to the penultimate round of the preliminary competition.
The 26 year-old’s task gets significantly tougher with reigning Northern Ireland Open champion Jack Lisowski standing in his way of a spot in Judgement Day.
Eight results from the third round were completed on Saturday, meanwhile.
Stuart Bingham and Matthew Stevens set up a mouthwatering Judgement Day clash against one another after recording contrasting victories over Wang Xinbo and Peter Lines.
Bingham gave rising amateur star Wang a humbling lesson with a 10-2 rout while Stevens was pushed almost all the way in a 10-8 outing against Lines.
Elsewhere, Hossein Vafaei ended the memorable run of 15 year-old Michal Szubarczyk – beating the young Pole 10-2.
Vafaei will look to return to the Crucible when he next takes on Gao Yang, whose progress from the opening round continued courtesy of a 10-8 defeat of Tom Ford.
Aaron Hill and David Gilbert set up a repeat of their epic Judgement Day fixture from a year ago by earning respective 10-3 victories over Yao Pengcheng and Leone Crowley.
Gilbert, who edged Hill 10-9 in the final round in 2025, was in particularly fine form, making four century breaks and compiling a host of other big breaks in a one-sided win.
Hill also played well and compiled a brace of century breaks to progress in a similarly comprehensive fashion.
“I’ll try my best not to think of last year,” Hill told the World Snooker Tour. “It doesn’t matter who you have on Judgement Day – you will need to play well.”
“If I do, then I fancy my chances. If I don’t, then Dave will punish me as he is a top class player.
“Hopefully karma is a real thing, and it might be on my side this year. Last year is probably the best thing that could have happened to me.
“I gained experience and strength and brought it with me to this season.”
Michael Holt is also through to the final round after beating Daniel Wells, with the Hitman to face Zhou Yuelong at the last hurdle.
Among the higher seeds from the qualifiers entering the fray on Sunday are recent World Open winner Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and former world champion Luca Brecel.
More information on the draw, including the schedule and results, is available by clicking here.
Featured photo credit: WST
I’d love to know how Craigie was late given he was already at the venue!
I heard from one if the referees what happened, and it’s not great. It doesn’t reflect well on either player.
But Umut Dikme played really well – a coming-of-age perfirmance.
There were some great performances, but not so many close matches, which is surprising at this stage.
So what’s the story, Lewis? Tell all, if you will…
Matthew Stevens trails Stuart Bingham 11-6 across all meetings, heading into their Judgement Day clash. Their only previous multi-session match was a 9-3 win for Bingham in the 2005 UK Championship.
Stevens has now beaten Peter Lines twice at this last 80 stage of the world qualifiers.