Pagett Shoots Out Bond
Andrew Pagett caused a shock in the third round of this year’s Betfred.com World Championship by beating Nigel Bond by ten-frames-to-nine at the English Institute of Sport after needing two snookers in the deciding frame.
World championship qualifying always throws up at least one Cinderella story and The Welshman, is now just one win away from making his Crucible debut with Andrew Higginson standing between him and snooker’s biggest stage.
Bond began the match well with a break of 98 in the opener before adding the next two frames to lead 3-0.
On reflection, frame four was a massive point in the match as Pagett broke his duck by taking it on the black with a 33 clearance.
Breaks of 53 and 78 in the next two helped Pagett draw level and although Bond went ahead in the seventh, it was Pagett who carved out a slender 5-4 lead after day one, with further runs of 51 and 75.
Day two was a similar story with The Shoot-Out king first out of the blocks, winning the first three frames to turn a one-frame deficit into a two frame advantage, including needing a snooker to pinch frame 12 on the black.
Pagett made the first significant contribution of the afternoon with a 61 in the next to trail by just one at the mid-session interval.
Bond restored a two-frame lead in the next after needing two snookers on the colours, the former world finalist used all of his skill and experience to get them and calmly clear from brown to black, delivering a crushing blow to his younger opponent.
Pagett responded superbly winning frames 15 and 16 to get back on level terms and with what was effectively a best-of-three frame match, he must have fancied his chances.
At that point though, the two had to make way for the evening session matches, and return to settle the outcome later in the evening.
When they did return, again it was Bond who made the quicker start moving 9-8 ahead with a break of 41.
It was not long before the two were level again as an 88 was more than enough to force the decider.
Predictably, the final frame lasted over half-an-hour and had all the elements of a typical decider and more.
The first scoring opportunity fell the way of the Welshman but he could only manage a break of 20 and when he broke down again on 16, it looked like his chance might have gone.
Bond stepped in and quickly moved along to a half century, but he too failed to clinch the frame, breaking down on 51.
A bout of safety play followed with neither player keen to make the final mistake.
In the end, it was Bond who forced the mistake from his opponent and with it the chance to take claim the match.
He potted the last red with a black to lead by 23 points with just the colours remaining and when he potted yellow and green a few shots later, Bond must have let out a sigh of relief, believing his name would appear in the draw for the final qualifying round.
Earlier in the match, Bond had stolen two frames when needing snookers and now it was Pagett’s turn as he laid the first on the brow, which Bond failed to escape from.
After potting the brown to leave the blue in a snookering position, Pagett forced the second required penalty from Bond before taking, blue, pink and black to stay alive in the tournament and pick up his biggest ever pay-day.
Overall, the better player over the two-and-a-half sessions won, with Bond managing just three breaks over 50 in nineteen frames compared to Pagett’s seven.
