SNOOKER: Ronnie O'Sullivan and Mark Williams both staged amazing comebacks last night to gain 9-8 wins and places the semi-finals of the UK Championship in York.
O'Sullivan's fightback was remarkable as he had been completely outplayed by Ebdon in the opening session. The world number seven had produced a magnificent display of composed break-building to lead 6-2.
Ebdon recorded two centuries, a 136 and a 112 which could have been a maximum 147 if he had not run out of position on the last red.
The first four frames of the evening session were shared. But then O'Sullivan found overdrive, with breaks of 74, 70 and 73 to level at 8-8. The second seed ended the comeback with a run of 85.
"It was a funny sort of game," said O'Sullivan. "I never got going at all this afternoon, but tonight Peter missed a few balls and I took advantage. At 6-1 down I thought I was history. He was playing so well and scoring so heavily that I just wanted to make the score respectable."
O'Sullivan meets Williams for a final place against Stephen Lee or Ken Doherty, who meet in their semi-final today.
World number one Williams recovered from 8-4 down to beat five-times former title-holder Stephen Hendry, who made a flying start to the evening session. The Scot had been level at 4-4 after the afternoon's stint and pulled away on the resumption helped by breaks of 56, 66 and 58.
But the seven-times former world champion could not get over the finishing line and his Welsh opponent levelled the match again even though his only significant single contribution was an 81.
In the decider, however, Williams showed cool nerves to rattle in an 83 and move through to the last four as Hendry failed to make the most of a tremendous opportunity.
"I thought I was very unlucky to be 8-4 down at the interval," said Williams. "I was still playing well and Stephen gave me some chances to get back into it."
SWIMMING: Andrew Bree yesterday became the first Irish swimmer to go under two minutes for the 200-metres individual Medley when he shattered Gary O'Toole's 1990 record by more than two seconds at the European Short Course Championships in Antwerp, writes Johnny Watterson.
Bree's one minute 59.89 second time in the morning, which earned him a place in the European final, was improved upon when he finished eight in the afternoon swim in a time of 1:59.18.
Lee Kelleher achieved a PB by two seconds in the 200 metre butterfly swimming 2:12.11 seconds for the distance while Michael Williamson and Julie Douglas also earned PBs in their events.
GOLF: Ireland lie in joint 17th PGA of Europe Team Championship at Atalaya Park on the Costa del Sol after the first day's play. Best of the Irish was Foxrock professional David Walker who posted a three-over-par 75.
