‘Garbage’: Jack not happy after losing 3-1 lead in Maguire defeat

CHURCHDOWN’S Jack Lisowski admitted he “totally lost concentration” at a key moment as he let slip a 3-1 lead and lost 4-3 to Stephen Maguire in the second round of the Cazoo World Grand Prix in Coventry.

Glasgow’s Maguire went through to the quarter-finals of the £380,000 event after Lisowski built a 3-1 lead with a top break of 128 and looked to be cruising to the winning line in frame five until he missed the black off its spot at 47-0.

Maguire stole that frame with a fine 54 clearance and added the next with a 57 for 3-3.

Early in the decider both players missed chances, Lisowski failing on a tricky thin cut on the yellow to a top corner.

He later played a loose safety, which let Maguire in for a match-winning 77.

“Jack will be devastated, he should have put me to bed 4-1, I wasn’t in the game at all,” said Maguire.

“The balls don’t forgive you in snooker if you don’t put the other guy away. When it went 3-2 I felt stronger and he fell apart.

“I have been struggling on the TV table, I think that’s the first match I have won on it this season.

“I gave away the first frame which was pathetic, and I didn’t settle.

“But hopefully getting the win in the end will give me the chance to kick on.”

Lisowski said: “I missed that black at 3-1 and after that it was garbage.

“I totally lost my concentration which is typical of me, I have done it throughout my career.

“I fudged the chance and another one bites the dust.

“Finishing matches off should be the easy bit, but not for me.

“I have to figure out how to get these things tucked away.”

Lisowski played in the opening group of the Championship League event in Leicester on Monday and Tuesday, losing in the final.

He faced Graeme Dott, Liang Wenbo, Ryan Day, Gary Wilson, Tom Ford and Zhou Yuelong in the round robin event and finished fourth with three wins from six matches.

Lisowski opened with a 3-1 win over Yuelong (top break 79) but lost 3-0 to Wilson and 3-1 to Dott (top break 76).

Against Wenbo, Lisowski missed on 112 when he was on for a maximum in the final frame but won 3-2, having had a 94 in the previous frame.

He then had breaks of 103 and 52 in beating Day 3-1 and then went down 3-1 to Ford with a high break of 53.

That put him through to a semi-final against group winner Dott, which he won 3-1 with a highest break of 65 but in the final he lost 3-1 to Wenbo, who had breaks of 91, 90 and 136, Lisowski responding with 73 to win his solitary frame.

In next month’s quickfire one-frame Shoot-out event in Leicester, Lisowski will face Ben Woollaston in the opening round, with Rob Milkins up against Anthony Hamilton.