As we enter the fourth day of my feature looking back at the best snookering moments of 2014, it's time to take a stop in April where my moment of the month was the huge shock in the opening round of the World Championships as Michael Wasley beat Ding Junhui.
With a lot of great and thrilling moments in April it was always going to be a very tough choice to pick one moment that was a stand out in this month, but I think overall I've made the right choice. Michael Wasleys stunning victory against one of the tournament favourites in Ding Junhui, produced one of the biggest Crucible shock results of all-time.
Firstly, coming through 4 qualifying matches down at Ponds Forge was a huge achievement in itself, especially as Wasley beat some fairly established names along the way and came through 2 deciding frames, in the first round against amateur Sydney Wilson and in the final qualifying round against Robert Milkins winning that decider on a re-spotted black which was a big enough moment in itself.
When the draw was made and young Wasley was paired with 5 times ranking winner for the season Ding Junhui, very few people fancied that Michael would even get close to Ding and that the main Chinese World Championship hope would have things his own way and ease into the Last 16. However, that was not how it turned out.
This is how the match did turn out over 2 sessions on April 20th and April 21st:
Michael Wasley 10-9 Ding Junhui -
The first session started off pretty well for the young man Wasley, after Ding got into the match with a break of 45 helping him to the opener, Michael then settled down with a break of 63 to get his first Crucible frame on the board and settle his nerves a bit. 2 chances were needed by Wasley in the third frame but he took them and was standing his ground well in the early stages of this contest. A nice break of 70 from Ding gave him the fourth making it 2-2 at the first interval. An early break of 57 from the Gloucester man in the fifth eventually got him over the line, but that really was as good as things got for Wasley in the opening session. From a position of leading 3-2, Wasley then succumbed to a small bit of Ding brilliance as he won all of the 4 remaining frames in the session, taking a scrappy 6th before making a break of 136 in the 7th, a run of 65 in the 8th and taking the 9th at the third time of asking, to take a 6-3 overnight lead. At this stage there probably weren't many snooker fans that thought Wasley could get back into it, despite Ding looking fairly frustrated at times during the match, having got to this stage you didn't really feel that he would let such a lead slip against a young Crucible debutant.
The first frame of the final session was quite a scrappy one but it was Wasley that won it and this clearly settled him down again and he also clearly believed that he could still win this game. A break of 135 from Wasley then reduced the deficit to just one frame and with the help of a 44 in the twelfth frame Wasley was able to square up the match and the huge upset was well and truly on. Ding though did what he'd done all season long though and produced some of his better scoring under pressure taking the next 2 frames with breaks of 73 and 64 to move 8-6 ahead and just 2 ahead. But whenever Ding looked like he would pull away Wasley just stuck at it and kept hitting back. This time he took both the 15th and 16th with the help of 41 breaks in each to take what turned into longer more drawn out frames. Because of this and another scrappy 17th that went the way of Ding, the match had to be taken off at 9-8 with just a possible 2 frames remaining in order for the evening session to start on time.
So, coming back to finish the match off at around 10pm on that Monday night, Ding was only looking for one frame to win the match, but he didn't get the chance in the 18th frame as Michael Wasley forced the decider and kept himself in the game with a faultless break of 103 under such high pressured circumstances.
The decider was out of this world in terms of drama with both players having plenty of chances, with Wasley leading early on before Ding clawed his way back into the frame and there wasn't much to choose between the 2 as the frame went down to a safety battle on the final red. It was Michael though that fluked the red and cleared to the blue to leave Ding needing a couple of snookers on the pink, and after a barrage of brilliant snookers Wasley was somehow able to keep escaping and hang on before eventually potting the pink to seal the match and a historic 10-9 victory, a match that he'll certainly never forget especially as it was his first ever match at the Crucible theatre.
It truly was a magical match and a magical moment for the young Gloucester cueist Michael Wasley to beat such a strong favourite on his Crucible debut having come through 4 matches already just to qualify and certainly a moment that is worthy of the April Moment of the Month title.
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