Snooker:Mark Allen and Graeme Dott were heading towards a thrilling climax to their quarter-final at the Betfred.com World Championship. The match had been deadlocked at 8-8 after yesterday's evening session, and a swift turnaround meant they were first on at 10am at the Crucible this morning.
Dott won the opening two frames of the concluding session with breaks of 65 and 54, before Allen hit back to draw level at 10-10 going into the interval.
Northern Irish cueman Allen reached last year’s semi-finals in Sheffield and the 24-year-old was aiming for another visit to the last four, while Scot Dott, 32, was champion in 2006 and runner-up two years previously.
With three more frames required for victory, the match had effectively come down to a best-of-five showdown, and a test of nerve.
Shaun Murphy was pulling away from his fellow English potter Ali Carter, moving to 8-4 after resuming at 5-3 up. He made a classy clearance from green to black in the frame before their interval to pinch it from Carter.
There remained a long way to go in that match, due to conclude this evening.