Kyren Wilson v Jak Jones: World Snooker Championship 2024 final – live | World Snooker Championship
Key events
Wilson 11-7 Jones (0-41) Tight to the upper cushion, Jones knocks a do-or-die red into left-center. Great courage. Now he can reap the rewards with so many reds out in the open. Maybe it’s not as simple as it looks with the four reds surrounding the pink overlapping each other, but it fires up a lovely little cannon in the cluster and it’s all in. Jones hits the balls and takes his break to 33 and counting. A BBC chart shows that he has had 69% of table time so far. Wilson looks thoughtful in his chair. The gap could narrow to three very soon.
Wilson 11-7 Jones (0-8) Referee Paul Collier collects the balls again and announces “19th frame”. Not the best break from Jones and he leaves it thin at left-centre but Wilson digs it out and the white goes into the loose red as it goes back down the table. That leaves Jones with the first chance of the frame. He places an opening red before Collier has to clear an error from the table. Ken Doherty jokes that it comes from Dennis Taylor’s rarely opened wallet and the crowd, all wearing headphones listening to the BBC commentary, stomp on this old classic. Jones isn’t laughing shortly after, though, as he misses an easy red on 8. But no opening appears and we are in cat and mouse to get into pack territory with four reds in a bowl and another two in the open. Kyren finally opens them, but bolts back to the top pillow. One mistake here and their opponent is in.
Wilson 11-7 Jones Jones adds the yellow to leave Wilson needing three snookers with four points, but the Englishman continues to play. Wilson takes the green and blue but all attempts to trouble Jones prove unsuccessful and the Welshman scores a blue from distance to close the frame. Job done. A break of 64, a few confident pots and the gap was down to four. Frame Score: 39-72 (64)
Wilson 11-6 Jones (32-65) Jones has the whites in check and just needs the last red well close to the left cushion to leave Wilson the snooker leader. With full concentration, he rather swings it, although he forgets about position and a missed table-length pink leaves his advantage at 33 with just 27 remaining. Perhaps memories of last night when Wilson won the closing frame from such a position. Jones’ break of 64 is certainly a settler and he is in prime position to close the gap to four.
Wilson 11-6 Jones (32-43) One obvious difference between these two is scoring on the ball. Wilson has slammed four centuries in the final so far, but Jones has failed to manage a single ton. The Welshman only reached triple figures twice in the entire tournament, which supports the idea that a century looks good, gets a lot of applause but only earns you one frame. Jones isn’t exactly in complete control, but he’s ahead in this opening and still riding on his break now at 42.
Wilson 11-6 Jones (32-2) Wilson takes the easy red over the middle pocket and screws back for black. Four reds and blacks followed, but on 32 he was out of position when trying to open the pack and had to take his medicine and play it safe. It’s pretty sloppy, rolling into the yellow and leaving Jones with a thin red, which he knocks out. It is also color slow.
Wilson 11-6 Jones Wilson’s break left one sticking out on the right and Jones slotted it home with aplomb. Great start. But I leave it with a medium length blue to the top right pocket and it wobbles in and out. Kyren is in and has some loose reds to work with.
Surprise from Kyren Wilson when he comes out on Completely and Utterly from The Chesterfields. Not exactly. According to the music thread I found, it’s Chase & Status.
Rob Walker is also in a suit and shoes. No doubt he ran a 10k this morning. Here comes Jack Jones to the strains of The Sterephonics.
We are close. Stephen Hendry and Steve Davies – 13 world titles between them and looking pretty smart – share their thoughts with Hazel Irvine. Rob Walker will soon be working the room and introducing the players.
Can you win from 7-0 down in a world cup final? John Parrott went 7-0 on Jimmy White in 1991 and was outscored 18-11, suggesting no. Yet we all know what happened in 1985. Dennis Taylor was actually trailing 8-0 against Steve Davies before Ted Lowe’s “nooo” on the shortened black of The Nugget in that famously decisive moment that allowed Dennis and his giant glasses to burst into stamping, finger-wagging euphoria.
The clock is ticking for this third session of four. Well, hopefully four if you want some green fun tonight. At 11-6 up, Wilson could be crowned world champion this afternoon if he wins seven of the eight frames. Not likely, although he did just that yesterday afternoon.
Preamble
For the second year in a row, a new name will be engraved on the World Cup trophy later today. Twelve months ago, carefree Belgian potter Luca Bressel struck for continental Europe, but this time the winner will come from two of the game’s dominant powers: England and Wales. From John Spencer (1977) and Ray Riordan (1978), winners of the first two editions of the Crucible, English and Welsh players have showered us with iconic World Cup memories. Those multiple wins for Ronnie O’Sullivan, Steve Davies and Mark Selby, Jimmy White’s constant heartbreak, Reardon’s digressions on the crowd, Doug Mountjoy’s red shirts, Terry Griffiths’ revelation that “I’m in the final now, you know” before win as a qualifier…
Ah yes, a win as a qualifier. That’s what Jack Jones is also trying to achieve this week after a gutsy run to the final that took him over Zhang Anda, Xi Jiahui, Judd Trump and Stuart Bingham, the latter two former world champions. It looked as if Jones had awoken from a bad dream when England’s Kieron Wilson opened with centuries and raced to a blistering 7-0 lead on the first day. But if there’s one thing we know about Jones, it’s that he doesn’t lie down easily. From an ironic raised fist to the crowd after putting his first frame on the board, the 30-year-old from Cumbran won the second session 5-4 to cut Wilson’s overnight lead to 11-6.
However, that doesn’t tell the whole story. Jones looked on the verge of hitting his cushion at just 10-7 when he broke 64 in the final frame of the day, leaving Wilson needing a snooker. But the Englishman found one, won a dramatic black ball exchange and ensured the gap was five.
Wilson, beaten by Ronnie O’Sullivan in the 2020 final, is the hot favorite to take the title from here, but Jones is not the type to switch. Can the fight continue in today’s afternoon session? We’ll find out soon!
