World Snooker Championship | Joe Perry comrades Robert Milkins in powder session reschedule the incident

Monday night caused quite a stir, almost literally, at The Crucible. Two environmental activists tried to express their vision of life by vandalizing the tables at the Sheffield Billiards Temple. A woman failed in her attempt at the match between Mark Allen and Fan Zhengyi, but Robert Milkins and Joe Perry were less fortunate.

After vacuuming and several other renovations, the tournament management decided that the match could not be played any more. Fortunately a few balls are hit in the first frame so the whole session can be moved up in the day. The remainder of the match, which was supposed to be played tonight, has been moved to Thursday morning at 10:30 am NST.

History of Wales

An added layer to this first-round match between two good friends: Perry won the Welsh Open in 2022, and Milkins did so this year. For the 48-year-old it was his second ranking title a year ago, “The Milkman” also booked his second ranking title in Wales this year, but for him it was his first victory in a TV tournament.

Bury opened well and took a 1-0 lead with an excellent break. In frame two, it turns out Milkins hadn’t set his sights yet, “The Gentleman” doubled the difference.

The 47-year-old Milkins continued to make substantial errors, as even his 59 points in the third frame weren’t enough. The black ball finally made the decision. After a few minutes, it was already time for the mid-session break, and all four tires went in the same direction; Berry.

Finally, Milkins reciprocates

And breaking 60 in the first frame after the break was not enough for Milkins, as Perry took the lead, especially with a nice double, and forced his compatriot to miss twice completely safely. It wasn’t long before he took the win in the opening session after just five frames.

The six finishes were a charm for Milkins, who after a good start seemed to still be getting himself into trouble. Perry couldn’t pay for the first time: 5-1. However, it was clear that the main winner earlier this year was not feeling well at all in The Crucible.

Bad luck

Then, the winner of the 2022 Welsh Open seemed to have put the five tire difference back on the board, a particularly unfortunate double luck from Milkins indeed. The Briton tried to pocket a red ball, and hit another red that went in with luck. However, the cue ball also went into the pocket in an unlucky way, turning all luck into bad luck.

The situation became dire for “The Milkman”, missing an extra frame could lead to an almost hopeless fight in the second session. The winner of this year’s Welsh Open – in which Milkins beat the most current player (Shaun Murphy) 9-7 – took the eighth score.

In the final frame of this late first session for the two, Perry simply played it safe. A 7-2 lead meant he only needed three frames on Thursday morning to win his first-round match. The winner of this match will face Shaun Murphy or Si Jiahui.

Gary Wilson Through the Eye of the Needle

At the other table, Gary Wilson defended a 7-2 lead against Elliott Slessor. The 28-year-old fought hard. The 7-2 deficit, which was 7-1 before, was converted to 7-4. Then, Wilson took over again, but Slessor reached halfway through the session and tied the score at 8-5.

For last year’s Scottish Open winner – and a semi-finalist at The Crucible in 2019 – the sign of winning in a particularly difficult frame is Wilson’s notoriously safe and difficult betting method. However, Slessor, who surprisingly defeated Zhou Yuelong 10-5 in the final round of preliminaries, once again showed how resilient he is. For the second time in a row, he took two tires in a row.

An error by the less experienced player of the two seemed to quickly push the 17th frame into Wilson’s way, but he forgot to pull the trigger. And suddenly the difference is just one frame. However, this frame was not as exciting as some had hoped. Wilson avoided a comeback from Slessor via Century Break and will face either Mark Selby or Matthew Selt in the next round.

On Wednesday morning, Jack Lisowski starts the second part of his match against Nobun Saengham at 6-3. The other match is between Kyren Wilson and Ryan Day.

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