Is it me or my telly, but does Dennis Taylor mumble ? It always seems much quieter when he is commentating.

A guy knocked on my door earlier, looked the double of a younger Dennis Taylor. Even spoke with the same accent.

Fu beats Murphy 6-4... the top half is wide open now.

Gould v Fu semi-final perhaps?

Disappointing end for Luca, the in off summed the match up really. Still rawer than he should be by now, game nouse wise I mean...

What did Ronnie Wood add to Eurosport's studio team yesterday evening, apart from being a celebrity, and a mate of Jimmy White?

I wasn't even sure he was with it some of the time!

Jimmy himself isn't a great pundit either.

Looks like Darren was treated to a bit of an exhibition by Robbo there - 97% pot success rate

Certainly was TC. 4 centuries in 7 frames, cannot grumble at that. Cracking view too

Certainly picked a good day for it Darren, glad you enjoyed it

Cheers Clarky. Only £6 a ticket too. Only downside, those ruddy seats weren't the most comfortable

Really? Wow, just £6 is great value!

Really want to go to a Tournament one day and with Sheffield being just one hour away there's no excuse!

Yeah was the early bird booking price. With booking fee and delivery it was £8 but still great value and The Barbican is a great venue and York is only an hour from us.

They gave away tickets to the PTC Finals in Manchester too. Some seats had stickers underneath and you won tickets to either the final or the semis. It was 4 seats from me. Darn it

They're extending the length of the PTC finals latter stages too aren't they? Instead of it being best of 7 throughout the SF will be best of 17 I think and the final best of 19. The theory being that with 100 grand at stake, just having to win four frames in the final is not hard enough work heh.

Isn't the whole point of the PTC a quick match ? It's like making T20 Finals Day over 40 overs a side

You could look at it that way or you could say with a normal PTC you've got to win 28 frames to become champion - under the new format you'd have to win 30 frames to win the PTC finals - so not much difference plus you get the benefit of a 'proper' final / SF

The more I watch that last black the more it seems that he was indeed put off by Joyce playing his shot just before he strikes. If it wasn't so close in timing I would dismiss it but I think it at least contributed. Obviously he should still be able to handle that but it was a unique situation for him. It does bring up this point about whether Joyce deserves criticism for not stopping by that point. Is it more professional to only focus on your own game, or more sportsmanlike to stop? It's a tricky one. I wouldn't say he should be blamed for the miss, as such, but I can see why some people think he should have stopped. I always hate to see people miss out (whether it's a 147 or just crucial frame for a title) by missing a straightforward shot. I suspect they always feel terrible about it even years later.

Personally I still see Ken's as worse because he was one of the best players around who had already dealt with some of the highest pressure scenarios. I reckon this will feel worse though because Ken can at least console himself with all the other successes he had.

My personal opinion is that, being two tables away, Joyce playing his shot at more or less the same time as Un-Nooh had any impact on him missing. I don't think he would have been conscious of it tbh as he has his back to it, it wasn't as if Joyce was in his eyeline.

I definitely don't think Joyce did it deliberately or even knew. It is certainly debatable if it made any difference, and even if it did you can't place all the blame there. Looking at it, though, he seems to glance over in Joyce's direction a couple of times looking annoyed. That may have just been his disappointment and he happened to look about but something about it makes me feel there is more to it than that. Also the noise from Joyce's strike happened literally as he was on the downstroke which is probably the worst possible moment. It's like in Andy Murray's most recent match when people where blowing horns just as he was about the hit the ball on serve. That was deliberate though.

You are probably right but it still leaves the question of whether it is good form to let someone about to get a 147 have silence and all the attention. Maybe because they are more common these days that is part of it.

Two tight games this afternoon - Fu making another comeback from 5-2 down?

At least the 2 egg look-a-likes (Bingham and Hawkins) are both out. I couldn't care less who wins now.

Such a shame the Higgins Robertson match wasn't a final. Would of been great. I do think the winner of this tournament is from this match.

Hazel looking ravishing as always.

Well done to robbo. Shame John looked like he got a kick on green. I'm still not a big fan of the reduced frames. I remember the original format of best 17 and final best of 31. Wish it would go back to that.

So I guess this is maybe Robbo's to lose. He is a class act.

Evening all, first time in here for a while. I haven't seen much of the U.K. Championship at all this year which is very unlike me as it is one of my favourites. So who is looking good so far? I'm watching Selby at the moment, I have a weird crush on him.