McGill Stays Ahead Of Maflin

Anthony McGill moved within three frames of a first semi-final appearance at the Betfred World Championship as he took a 10-6 lead over Kurt Maflin going into their concluding session.

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They resume at 7pm tonight with first to 13 frames to go through to the last four to face Judd Trump or Kyren Wilson.

Maflin started the second session 7-1 behind, and though he took five of the eight frames this morning, the Norwegian may regret missing chances to narrow the gap further.

A break of 87 gave Maflin the opening frame today and he won the next on the colours to make it 7-3. He made 62 in the next but couldn’t finish the frame off and his opponent eventually cleared from brown to black to steal it. That gave McGill a boost and he made an 86 to lead 9-3 at the interval.

World number 43 Maflin won frame 13 with an 87 and he took a scrappy 14th to close to 9-5. In the next he had a chance to clear from the penultimate red and got to the final pink before missing it to a baulk corner, only to enjoy a huge slice of fortune as the pink rolled across the table into a centre pocket to give him the frame.

Both players had chances in the last of the session, but it was world number 39 McGill who got the better of a safety tussle on the third-last red and secured his four-frame cushion.