Lines earns consolation victory after testing return to action
LEEDS potter Oliver Lines ended the day on a winning note at the Matchroom.Live Championship League in Milton Keynes.
Lines suffered 3-0 defeats to Jack Lisowski and Luca Brecel, before chalking up an impressive 3-0 win against Robbie Williams to finish third in the group, behind Lisowski and Brecel.
It was a tough opening match for Lines, who was swept aside 3-0 by world No 13 Lisowski.
And when the 24-year-old’s next opponent, Belgium’s Becel fired in a 138 opening break, the Yorkshireman could have been forgiven for wondering if he should have stayed in lockdown.
But Lines had his chances in the next two frames, but maybe it was lack of practice – his
usual training venue, Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds had been closed for the majority of the coronavirus-enforced lockdown – as the world No 82 spurned a couple of chances to win his first frame of the day.
Brecel went on to complete a 3-0 win, before the world No 38 tied 2-2 with Williams, the latter also drawing 2-2 with Lisowski.
Lines’s final chance to salvage a win came against Williams in his third and final match of the day. When his opponent opened with a 48 break, Lines may have feared the worst.
But he replied with 46, then came out on top after a tactical battle – with the two remaining reds – to claim the opening frame.
Lines’s last tournament was the Gibraltar Open in March – he reached the last 32 – when he beat world No 57 Williams 4-2.
But the Leeds cueman was starting to find his range, and produced an impressive 136 clearance on his way to a 3-0 victory.