The Crucible can be a daunting place for even the most hardened campaigners, so it was no surprise when debutant Joe O’Connor had a wobbly moment.
O’Connor’s wobbly moment came before the start of play, as he took a wrong turn when being introduced to the crowd.
You could imagine the thoughts going through O’Connor’s mind as he waited to be introduced by MC Rob Walker.
“Joe, don’t fall down the stairs. Joe, don’t drop your cue. Joe, do you have your cue? Yes. Okay, good, here we go…. oh!”
To be fair to Walker, he gave O’Connor every chance to make the correct entrance as he said: “And now to a player who is about to walk down these famous, famous stairs…”
Stairs? What stairs, thought O’Connor as he strode purposefully towards a dead end. Checking his stride, and styling things out, O’Connor turned 90 degrees to his right and headed down the stairs.
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‘Exceptionally good’ O’Connor pots stupendous double to take overnight lead against Selby
There was no stumble on his way down and there was no stumble on the table as he took charge of his match with Selby.
Breaks of 122, 67, 101, 74 and 61 saw O’Connor win the final five frames to lead 7-2.
O’Connor and Selby will return to play to a finish on Monday afternoon.