A Long day into Night
Joe Swail, Allister Carter, Anthony Hamilton and Neil Robertson booked their places in the semi final line up after fifteen hours of absorbing, and sometimes, highly dramatic snooker at Newport Centre on Friday.
Joe Swail muscled his way past Stephen Maguire, 5-4, in a match that lasted just on four hours. But the genial Belfast star was nearly forced to concede the match in a bizarre injury incident in frame six.
Swail was leading 3-2, when he attempted to stretch over the pack of reds to pot another red, he suddenly stood back from the table clutching his cue arm. He'd pulled a muscle. "The pain was unbelievable," grimaced Swail.
"After that I was afraid to really get into the ball and it hurt to grip the cue, but I should be alright on Saturday."
Swail won that frame to lead 4-2 before Maguire won a critical eighth frame after 51 minutes to level the match. In a very low scoring, tactical match, Swail held his nerve through a tension packed 36 minute decider to book his first semi final appearance since 2001.
Stephen Maguire's rueful comment was "I still couldn't beat a one-armed man, and that just says it all."
With the controversial roll-on, roll-off system already running two hours late, Allister Carter and Shaun Murphy took to the table.
This match proved to be a total contrast to the previous, full of brisk scoring.
Murphy took the opener after an early run of 47, but about forty minutes later he was 4-1 down after Carter thumped in breaks of 74, 73, and 39.
The 'Captain' started frame six brightly too, but missed on 56 and Murphy cleared with 62 to keep his hopes alive.
In frame seven Carter made 32, Murphy countered with 40, but then another visit garnered 38 points for Carter and there was no way back for Murphy.
Victory means that Carter has been in four semi-finals this season, out of six events.
Mark Selby and Anthony Hamilton were then introduced into the arena, but before they'd even shaken hands, controversy intervened in the form of Mark Selby's former manager George Bamby.
He appeared from the crowd wearing an anonymous baseball cap and top and approached Selby, attempting to hand him an envelope, accompanied by the words "You are officially served a writ and a bankruptcy notice."
Officials hustled Bamby away and removed the envelope, but Selby was visible unsettled.
Bamby gained some notoriety on the snooker circuit a few seasons ago, when he was instrumental in arranging the "Pot Whack" boxing match between Quinten Hann and Mark King.
The incident should take nothing away from a gritty performance by Hamilton, who battled his way through a marathon match, lasting 4 hours 22 minutes, to seal a 5-3 victory over the defending champion.
An unwanted stat went into the record books, when, in frame seven, there was a 29 minute period without a ball being potted. The frame lasted one hour 10 minutes, still 20 minutes short of the longest frame record, held by Shaun Murphy and Dave Harold.
Eventually at 10.15pm an alert Neil Robertson and a sleepy looking Marco Fu took to the table for the last match of the day. Several hundred hardy Welsh fans stayed on to watch, as Robertson turned on the style with 107, followed by 51.
Fu responded with 93, losing position with a possible 144 on the table.
The next two frames were shared before a couple of forty plus breaks saw Robertson over the line.
