Chris Clarke's comments on quarter final day

[<<] [>>] by Chris Clarke
7th July 2001 (World Championship)

An interesting day's play saw us reach the last 4 - with some expected names and some unexpected.

Dennis Bulloch had a nightmare start to the day when he lost the first to McBride after pegging out the wrong ball - he was trying to get to something like 2-back vs 1 and instead reached 2-back vs 1 and peg. However, the next two games went his way and he comfortably beat Martin Clarke in the quarter final to land a nice 50-1 wager for Nelson Morrow who had backed him to reach the semis.

Brown vs Clarke finished in under 3 hours despite going to three and the decider being +1. Clarke failed a cannon through rover of his peelee after rover and pegged one ball out. Robin went round and Clarke took a 34 yard double to lose next turn. Brown then went on to play Bamford who had lost his first game of the tournament to Ronan McInerney after Ronan had missed a rush only to hit a ball near corner 4 which was 20 yards away! Brown had the first break and Reg missed the lift, but Robin missed his 3-back pioneer with one peel done. Reg went to 4-back, but Robin hit in, only to fail 3-back. Reg hit and finished. The second was a more clinical Bamford win. Fournier beat Williams - I didn't see much of this.

The match that everyone was looking forward to was Fulford vs Maugham. Dave missed Rob's super-shot to 4 yards out of corner 2 on the north boundary. Rob missed this, as did Dave, but Dave hit Robs ball (was it a double?) and went to 4-back. Rob missed the long lift and Dave finished.

Shock horror in game 2 as Dave didn't choose Red and Yellow and went first with a super-shot. Rob failed to get outside corner 2, but Dave hit anyway and went to 4-back, leaving all 3 balls level with 6 on the west boundary, but his last stroke gave Robert a target of a ball and a half. Robert hit and went to 4-back, peeling Dave to hoop 3 and putting his 4-back ball in hoop 2. Dave lifted his hoop 3 ball and hilled off his lift. Robert finished.

Rob went first in game 3 and laid a super-shot which Dave hit and put the balls to 5 feet South of corner 2 and 1 foot north of corner 4. Rob shot at the ball near 4 from the end of b-baulk, missing and Dave missed his 13 yarder. Rob went to 4-back with an MSL. Dave lifted the ball at 2 and hit the short lift, but failed hoop one as the rain started falling heavily. Robert missed a 14 yarder and Dave missed a 5-yarder. Robert then hit an 11 yarder and finished.

That's all for now - I'm off to see if I can wreck my partners game in the doubles.