Moment of the Month: December: James Cahill beats Ding Junhui on way to UK Last 16

My final moment of the year is upon as I look back on December and one of the best moments of the final month of 2014 and it was James Cahill's run to the UK Championship Last 16 at the age of just 18. Here is exactly what happened:

As we entered the UK Championships Stephen Hendry’s nephew James Cahill was only 18 years of age. His performances at the UK Championships were enough for me to want to give a player of such a young age some recognition for the tough players that he had to beat in order to reach the Last 16 in one of the biggest tournaments on the calendar.

First up, in the Last 128 James Cahill was drawn against a very solid player and a tough man to beat in the 30^th seed Mark King. James Cahill played very well though and Mark seemed to struggle a little bit in the match to get going. James took a scrappy opening frame before breaks of 47 and 84 helped him to a 3-0 advantage, already halfway to victory. Again James needed more than one opportunity in the fourth frame but he still dominated it to go into the interval 4-0 in front. Multiple chances were needed again in frames five and six but Cahill won them both to finish off a remarkably comfortable victory as he whitewashed King 6-0.

Next up in the Last 64 James faced another very steady, reliable player in the 35^th seed Andrew Higginson, and Cahill was going to have tough work ahead of him once again. Andrew won the opener with a break of 68, before a very long drawn out second frame went the way of James to level the match at 1-1. Cahill then edged ahead with a contribution of 64, though Higginson hit straight back with a 75 to pull the match level at 2-2 going into the break. Cahill went ahead again winning frame five with a break of 61, before Higginson hit straight back with a 76 to make it 3-3. Once again though, it was Cahill that went into the lead as a break of 51 was enough  to send him 4-3 in front but again Andrew matched him punch for punch as a 66 made it 4-4. A 58 from the young man though was enough to put him one ahead with two to play at 5-4 and runs of 34 and 33 had Higginson on the back foot straight away in frame ten, but this time Andrew had no response as James Cahill closed out another fantastic win to move into the Last 32 beat Andrew Higginson 6-4.

Awaiting Cahill in the third round was Chinese number one and third seed for this tournament Ding Junhui. Ding seemed to be in fine form at the start of this match knocking in a fine 134 to lead 1-0, but James hit straight back with a 100 himself to level at 1-1. All of the next three frames were pretty dis-jointed with both players having opportunities but in the end James got the better of all three of those frames to move 4-1 in front, and a 57 in the next put him a frame from victory at 5-1. As top players do though, Ding Junhui fought hard and hit back taking the seventh in two chances, before contributions of 60 and 55 helped him to close to within a frame of Cahill at 4-5. In frame ten it looked as though James Cahill had won it, leaving Ding needing three snookers on the final red but a foul and a free ball given away allowed Ding to win again and Cahill lost the safety battle on the green as the Chinaman made a 25 clearance to steal the frame on the black and take the match into a decider that he would’ve been a huge favourite for. In the eleventh and final frame Ding had the first chance making a 32 before missing and letting James in who made a 56 break to take control of the frame and when he got his chance on the final reds he took it to finally close out the match for the biggest win of his life beating Ding Junhui 6-5.

The Last 16 wasn’t to fair as well for Cahill however, as he played Mark Davis who proved too strong after the underdogs exploits from the night before, beating him 6-2 with top runs of 53, 63 and 68.

It really was a fantastic run on the big stage for James Cahill to win three huge matches in the second biggest tournament that he can play in, and to win the biggest of those matches against the number 3 seed on the main TV table at just 18 years of age was a stunning result, and definitely worthy of my moment of the month for December.

Those are my 12 favourite moments of the snookering year revealed to you and there are some absolute crackers in there, and tomorrow i'll announce my final order of the moments and decide on my best snooker moment of 2014.