Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)

PISTOL HAS UK TITLE IN SIGHTS

- BY SHANE MACDERMOTT

MARK ALLEN kept his UK Championsh­ip title charge on track last night.

The former Masters champion, 36, says he has “unfinished business” at the prestigiou­s ranking event after losing in the 2011 and 2018 finals to Judd Trump and Ronnie O’sullivan respective­ly.

And the world No.9 impressive­ly booked his place in a sixth UK quarter-final after winning six of the last seven frames to beat Kyren Wilson 6-3 in a repeat of their 2018 Masters final at York’s Barbican.

“It was another poor start for me,” admitted Allen (above). “I just like giving people two-frame head starts at the moment! I didn’t miss too many balls after that. I was very happy with how I played after that.

“I’m just in a good place. If I miss a few shots it’s not affecting me. I wish I did that a long time ago.”

Allen quickly found himself 2-0 behind after former World Championsh­ip finalist Wilson hit a break of 67. But the on-song Pistol fired in breaks of 96, 84, 80, 70, 70 and 60 and to keep his bid for the £250,000 top prize alive.

He now has surprise package Sam Craigie, the world No.47 who beat British Open champion Ryan Day 6-4, in tomorrow’s quarter-finals.

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