Mcgill and Higgins made to battle in bid to keep Scottish hopes alive
John Higgins and Anthony Mcgill were fighting hard to keep Scottish hopes alive in the World Snooker Championship on a sparsely attended day at the Crucible Theatre.
With Stephen Maguire losing 10-4 to Jamie Jones on Sunday, four-time world champion Higgins and 2020 semifinalist Mcgill were the last hopes of a first Scottish winner for a decade.
But both cuemen were being made to work hard by unseeded opponents in tight firstround encounters in Sheffield.
Higgins was due to play to a conclusion against China’s Tian Pengfei yesterday afternoon but a turgid first session on Sunday only saw seven of the scheduled nine frames completed and the knockon effect was that they were hauled off before being able to finish 24 hours later.
In that time, the Wishaw potter had turned an overnight 4-3 deficit into a 9-7 lead, leaving him needing just one frame for victory when play was due to resume following the conclusion of last night’s session.
The 45-year-old had lost the first two frames of the afternoon session and, although Higgins hit back in frame ten with a run of 71, his Chinese opponent took the next to lead 7-4.
But with his World Championship hopes hanging in the balance, the veteran dug deep to call on his trademark grit and claim five frames on the spin to claw back the momentum
and put him on the verge of victory.
It was far from vintage Higgins – invariably requiring two or three chances to kill off each frame.
Meanwhile, the evening session saw Glasgow’s Mcgill hit another gear as he turned a 5-4 overnight lead into a convincing 8-5 advantage against world No.35 Ricky Walden.
The 16th seed smashed in breaks of 83 and 130 in the first two frames of the session
before Englishman Walden responded with a run of 98.
But the Scot won the final frame before the mid-session interval to leave him needing only two more to move a step closer to repeating his 2020 heroics of a run to the semifinals.
Despite the world-class snooker on show, the Crucible was suffering from a lack of fan take-up of tickets, with only 83 sold for Monday’s morning session.
The World Championship is being used as a pilot event for supporters to return safely to sporting arenas – with the 980seat venue permitted to be up to one-third full for first-round matches, with that amount increasing throughout the tournament.
But restrictions on hotel and restaurant use, as well as the stringent Covid safety measures in place to even entre the venue, appear to have put fans off.
A spokesman for World Snooker Tour said: “It has been fantastic to be the first government pilot event and to welcome back limited crowds.
“The numbers later in the event are much bigger, with some sessions over the coming weekend and final close to sell-out.
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