Mark Williams is on course to land his fourth World Snooker Championship at the age of 50

Veteran Mark Williams shocked Judd Trump to reach the World Snooker Championship final against Sheffield-based Zhao Xintong and remain on course for a fourth title.

Williams, who won the title in 2000, 2003, and 2018, secured a famous 17-14 victory against world No 1 Trump to return to a fifth Crucible final.

The Welshman will take on Zhao eight years after they faced each other in round one of the qualifying event.

Williams, who was 7-3 down earlier in the match, found himself 10-9 behind when Trump responded to losing the opening frame on Saturday morning with back-to-back breaks of 71.

However, the 50-year-old Welshman then won four of the next five frames with the aid of breaks of 73, 84 and 62, with only a superb 64 from Trump in frame 23 preventing the damage from being even worse to take a 13-11 lead heading into the evening session.

The left-hander carried on where he left off in the final session with breaks of 67 and 65 to move 15-11 ahead, before Trump hit back with his 106th century of the season to close the gap.

That ensured a mid-session interval would be required but Williams went into the break needing just one frame for victory after responding with a century of his own.

When play resumed Trump took the 29th frame to keep his hopes alive and also won the next with a 116 clearance after Williams missed a red to the middle with his first chance to seal victory.

Trump had the chance to pile on the pressure after a superb red to the middle in frame 31, but missed a difficult thin black and Williams grabbed the opportunity in style with a clearance of 123 to seal victory.

Williams won his first world title in 2000 – when Zhao was just three years old – and his most recent in 2018, when he famously conducted his winning press conference naked – apart from a towel – to fulfil a promise made earlier in the
tournament.

“It’s unbelievable. Twelve months ago I wasn’t even here. I watched it in a caravan,” Williams said at the time, having contemplated quitting the sport the previous year after losing in the final round of qualifying.

Fans refused refunds

Snooker fans were refused refunds for what was meant to be the fourth session of the semi-final between Ronnie O’Sullivan and Zhao Xintong.

Xintong’s commanding 17-7 victory was completed with a session to spare, meaning there will be no competitive action on Saturday afternoon at the Crucible.

An exhibition featuring Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor, 40 years on from the latter’s victory in their famous ‘black-ball final’, took place instead, running from 2:30pm until approximately 4pm, including a short interval.

The World Snooker Tour said its box office terms and conditions meant it was “unable to offer ticket refunds or exchanges”, news which has not gone down well with spectators expecting to see seven-time champion O’Sullivan.

The WST said in a statement: “We are putting together a fantastic exhibition this afternoon featuring all-time snooker legends.

“We realise that fans come from all over the world to enjoy the Crucible experience so our intention is to provide the best possible entertainment in these circumstances.

“This is the first time in over a decade that a semi-final has finished a session early so it is a very rare occurrence and unfortunately beyond our control.”