Barry Hawkins was left with a sinking feeling after an ‘unforgiveable’ mistake at the end of his World Snooker Championship defeat to Mark Allen. A brilliant quarter-final was won 13-11 by the Northern Irishman, with Hawkins making two centuries and 10 half-centuries in a high quality affair. Allen himself crafted three tons and six half-centuries, ensuring plenty of one-sided frames but also great drama at the death.
The Decisive Frame
In a tight 24th frame, Hawkins fluked the last red and then attempted to roll up to the pink to snooker Allen on the yellow. The Englishman fluffed his lines and came up short, snookering himself and conceding six points. He hit the yellow out of the snooker but left it on, allowing Allen to clear up and win. After a long, closely fought scrap, it was an especially painful way to see the match slip away.
Hawkins' Reaction
‘Disappointing way to lose, I had a massive slice of lady luck fluking the last red, unforgiveable not reaching the pink, horrible way to go, really,’ said Hawkins. ‘I was obviously nervous, but no more than I have been before. It’s unforgiveable not reaching it. I was worried about over-hitting it, believe it or not, I didn’t want to twitch, throw a quick one in and push the white past. But I just didn’t go through the ball and it was a bit of a killer, really.’ On his feelings after the nightmare moment, he added: ‘I was just thinking “that’s it, game over.” I was gutted, obviously. What a way to lose! It’s a horrible feeling, knowing that you’ve played an absolutely terrible shot. If anything I over-hit them things, it’s just gutting, a sinking feeling. I was trying so hard after a long match and playing well for the most part.’
Allen's Perspective
On the emotional swings in the final moments, Allen said: ‘I wouldn’t have fancied going 12-12, my heart sank a little bit when he fluked that red out of the snooker and that summed up the match for me. Barry played very well but every bit of run went his way, I played 24 frames and I don’t think I had to say sorry once, so when that red went in I wasn’t overly surprised. But if you could have seen inner Mark when he didn’t reach the pink, you would have laughed because he was doing somersaults!’
Scoring and Tactics
Allen was very impressed by the scoring power of Hawkins, but he did enough to book a semi-final clash with either Wu Yize or Hossein Vafaei. ‘Barry’s scoring was very good and he never looked like missing. But as the match went on he started looking edgier as well,’ said the 40-year-old. ‘He missed a few as the match went on and I started feeding off that a little bit, knowing he wasn’t at his best as he was yesterday. Just to beat a player of Barry’s quality given how well he played in a best of 25 gives me lots of positives.’
Allen came in for some criticism from Stephen Hendry during his second round win over Kyren Wilson for a perceived negative style of play, but Hawkins saw none of that against him. ‘He didn’t play negative against me, he played most of the right shots and played them very well,’ said Hawkins. ‘Had me in trouble loads of times, he went for the balls I thought he would have gone for, scored as well as he normally does, great in the balls. I wouldn’t say he was negative at all. There’s a lot of pressure out there and he handles it well.’
Allen will now sit back and relax as Wu and Vafaei play two more sessions on Wednesday afternoon and evening before the winner joins him in the semi-finals, starting on Thursday evening.
