Mark Williams reached a ranking event semi-final for the 70th time in his career with a 6-3 defeat of Liam Davies at the English Open on Friday.
The all-Welsh battle pitted a 51 year-old legend against an up-and-coming 20 year-old looking to emulate one of his heroes in the game.
Davies reached a maiden career quarter-final on the main tour thanks to a brilliant triumph over world champion Wu Yize in the last round.
The youngster, who graduated from Q School in May, initially kept Williams honest by sharing the opening four frames of the contest.
But experience told in the end with the three-time world champion compiling runs of 63, 95, and 112 after the mid-session interval to advance.
Williams, whose century in the last frame was his 700th on the World Snooker Tour, moves to with a couple of victories of a 28th ranking crown.
Yet the oldest ranking semi-finalist since 1986 admitted that he didn’t take great pleasure in ousting an emerging talent from his country.
“Tonight’s performance was good. It was really solid,” Williams told the World Snooker Tour. “I made a few good breaks.”
“The safety between the two of us was excellent. I played solid and got through.
“[But] I can’t say I enjoyed playing him, because it’s not long ago – only a couple of years ago – when me, him, and Jackson [Page] were in a club playing points.
“The three of us were playing against each other for 5p a point, where whoever loses at the end has to put it in a pot. Then we all shared the money at the end of the year.
“Look, if I never play Liam or Jackson again, I’d be more than happy. I’d rather play Trump, Kyren, or everyone.
“I’m at that stage now where I want to see them get on and see them win tournaments.
“Obviously I’m happy to be in the semi-final, but I’ve just knocked him out. He’s starting his career and I’m at the end.
“Even though I’m in it, it’s a bit disappointing. I’d rather beat anybody else.”
Next up for Williams at the season’s first Home Nations Series event will be Shaun Murphy, who denied Judd Trump in a 6-5 thriller at the Brentwood Centre.
Both players mixed some heavy scoring with unforced errors and each had opportunities in the 11th frame before Murphy scored a crucial contribution of 67 to clinch a berth in the last four.
Williams and Murphy share an even head-to-head record overall, but the former has prevailed from their two most recent affairs – including a 10-3 drubbing to win last season’s Xi’an Grand Prix.
The other semi-final, which will be staged first during the afternoon session on Saturday, is between Ding Junhui and Ali Carter.
Neither player has been particularly prominent at the business end of events of late, so it is a good opportunity for both to reach another ranking final.
Ding, who was fortunate to escape with an opening-round deciding-frame victory over Michael Holt earlier in the week, orchestrated a strong 6-2 win over Kyren Wilson in the last eight.
Carter, meanwhile, won the last three frames to deny Zhou Yuelong – inflicting a familiar sense of a missed chance for the latter.
Ding boasts a dominant head-to-head record over Carter, winning 15 of their 21 prior matches against one another in all competitions.
Both players are currently outside the top 16 on the provisional Race to the UK Championship standings.
With a top prize worth £100,000 up for grabs, this week could prove critical in their aspirations of securing an automatic ticket to the Barbican Centre in York.
Featured photo credit: WST
The man has a heart.
And a beard — since I no longer have terrestrial or cable TV, and am reluctant to pay for a streaming service, I’ve not seen Williams for a while — so I didn’t know he’d grown such a long beard.
Is it the oldest combined age for a semi-finals line up in the modern sports history?
I have no idea, but it must be up there.
Bowls could potentially have that record.
The 2022 World Championship last four of Trump, O’Sullivan, Williams and Higgins had a combined age of 173. This lineup in Brentwood is a combined tally of 181 years.
The all-time as snooker record could be the last four of the 1978 World Championship. Ray Reardon, Fred Davis, Perrie Mans and Eddie Charlton made up a combined age of 192.
Correction: The combined age is 194.
Carter has only beaten Ding twice in matches longer than best of 5. It’s their first meeting in a semi-final. They first met back in 2005.
Murphy and Trump served up and intriguing match last night. A number of quirky moments interspersed with a few excellent breaks and plenty of misses.
Williams is the 10th player and first Welshman to reach the milestone of 700 centuries.
After winning 3 frames in a row to make it to the SF, presumably Carter will have some confidence.
So far so good for Ding, including the win over Wilson, where it looks like Ding was pretty much in control throughout — still Ding has been inconsistent the last few years, showing that he’s quite beatable really — a good chance for Carter to make the final.
Hard not to see the winner of the Murphy v Williams SF being the favorite in the final.