Snooker: Liang Wenbo’s black day as he blows big championship jackpot
LIANG WENBO blew a £59,000 jackpot and the chance of making the 100th maximum 147 break in history at the williamhill.com UK Championship yesterday.
With a 6-2 victory over Elliot Slessor in the bag, the Chinese 26-year-old overhit a black taking him to 120 with the last six colours perfectly placed at York’s Barbican Centre.
And world No26 Wenbo then missed a very tough yellow to see his chance of scooping the rollover prize go up in smoke.
Wenbo said afterwards that he had not even been aware of what was at stake, either for his bank balance or the history books.
But the left-hander, who is based in Romford and was a runner-up in the 2009 Shanghai Masters, cheerfully shrugged off the setback.
He said: “It is not good, what happened. I got the last red and got nicely on the black with a good angle, but I just hit it too hard. Maybe I got excited.
“I still had a chance of cutting the yellow in, but I played it too quickly. I didn’t know how much money it was for, or about it being the 100th 147.
“But from about the second red I was going for the high break of the tournament, I knew it was a good chance. It was a bit unlucky.
“I know now it would have been £59,000. If there is a next time I will have to do better.”
Mark Selby, meanwhile, is hoping to hit all the right notes once again in York.
The world No2 is the defending champion, having beaten Shaun Murphy 10-6 in last year’s final.
And Selby still recalls how great the celebrations were after his triumph, going through his Frank Sinatra and Neil Diamond repertoire on the karaoke until 7am.
Selby, who plays 15-year-old Shane Castle on Saturday, said: “It was a great moment, celebrating a really important title win.”