Stevens cruises to comfortable lead

By Geet Sethi

SHEFFIELD, MAY 1. Kevin Bohn is perhaps even more nervous and dejected than Mark Williams, who surprisingly trails 10-6 against compatriot Mathew Stevens at the conclusion of the first day of the best of 35 frame final in the œ 1.46 million Embassy World Snooker Championship. Kevin Bohn... Who is Kevin Bohn?

Bohn is a factory worker who placed œ 140 - a week's wages - on Mark Williams winning the world championship by the year 2000. This was in 1989, when Bohn saw William's talent as a 14-year-old in an amateur tournament in Wales. At the time, he received 300-1 from Coral, a leading betting house in the UK. Bohn, who has made the trip to the Crucible Theatre stands to net œ 42,000 if Williams wins tonight.

Last year, Bohn waited in gleeful anticipation when Williams reached the final but the Welsh star let him down, losing 18-11 to Stephen Hendry, who captured a record seventh world title. This time, he was more hopeful. After all, Williams had already reached the final of six finals prior to coming to Sheffield and had successfully converted two of these appearances into title victories.

For a brief moment Williams, assured of the No. 1 spot in next year's rankings, faltered when he trailed John Higgins 14-10 in their 33 frame semifinal contest. But resorting to audacious and adventurous shot selection, the UK Champion had commenced a remarkable comeback which saw him winning seven of the next eight frames to storm into the final, a worthy 17-15 winner.

The sheer weight of achievement, the impressive manner in which he edged out Higgins and his opponent's relative inexperience - Mathew Stevens has won two non-ranking events, the Wembley and Regal Masters but has yet to win a ranking tournament - provided sufficient justification for the bookmakers to place him as the 1-2 favourite prior to the final.

Yet, the unpredictability of sport surfaced once again, with 22- year-old Stevens proceeded to establish a comforting 10-6 advantage at the conclusion of the second session. Bohn faces the prospect of going back from Sheffield empty-handed after all.

The poise, confidence and mental equilibrium exhibited by Stevens throughout the event has won him many admirers. While other cueists including Higgins and Williams had expended substantial mental energies in reaching the last four stage, Stevens progressed with little strain, cruising his way into the final with fluent victories.

In the opening round he outclassed Malta's Tony Drago 10-3, crushed Scotland's Alan McManus 13-4, ended the aspirations of an entire nation in eliminating Jimmy White 13-7 in the quarterfinals and then shrugged off Joe Swail's spirited resistance with the calm of a seasoned campaigner in the last four. The fourth frame in his semifinal saw him registering a 143, which eclipsed the 141 jointly held by Swail and Higgins and puts him in line for the œ 20,000 high-break prize.

Fresh approach

The key to his 10-6 advantage which he established with the aid of three centuries - taking his tally of three-figure breaks in the event to nine - and other runs of 77, 65, 78 and 73, lay in the freshness with which he approached the concluding stage of the event. On the other hand, Williams himself felt ``drained in the head'' after an inspiring though tiring 17-15 victory over Higgins.

The initial nerves and apprehensions were evident with Stevens taking a 27-minute scrappy opening frames but subsequently, the world No. 9 seized control of the match, taking a 3-1 lead with runs of 77 and 103. Williams, with still enough fuel in the tank responded with alacrity, winning the next three frames with equally impressive contributions of 57 and 123 before Stevens levelled at 4-4 with a frame-winning 65.

The first session concluded consuming two hours ten minutes. But when they resumed at 8.00 p.m. on Sunday evening, it became clear that Williams had failed in recharging his drained batteries. Stevens on the other had stepped up a gear, unleashing breaks of 78, 111, 114 and 73 to win six of the eight frames lasting one hour fifty minutes. Williams was partially successful in arresting his opponent's relentless scoring as he won two of the last four frames of the session with runs of 59 and 73.

Facing a 10-6 deficit as they commence at 3.00 p.m. on Monday afternoon, Williams will need to somehow re-discover the magic which enabled him to recover from an equally alarming situation against Higgins in the semifinal on Saturday. But by admitting ``feeling drained in the head'' the 25-year-old will also need to find some extra energy to commence his rally on the resumption. His words sum up the situation so far ``Mathew won a few on the trot and all I could do was try and stick in there. I'm trying to do my best but if I feel the same for the rest of the match, I haven't much of a chance.''

The result (final) best of 35 frames: Mathew Stevens leads Mark Williams 10-6. {62-50, 84 (77)-28, 33-56, 103 (103)-23, 18-65, 61- 76 (57), 0-123 (123), 75 (65)-35, 64-24, 84 (78)-37, 59-21, 117 (111)-0, 114 (114)-7, 6-79 (59), 73 (73)-22, 0-68 (68)}.

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