First Semi Final - England A v Chinese Taipei
England A: Darren Appleton & Karl Boyes
Taiwan: Ko Pin Yi & Chang Yu Lung
Race to 9.
Lag: Darren v Ko. Ko wins.
Frame 1: Soft break makes 8 wing ball. Nice on the 1 ball. Chang fluffs it, leaves similar shot for Darren. Darren also jaws it out, down the rail. Pockets tightening up perhaps. Darren lucks a hook though. Ko jumps.. tries to cut the 1 but misses it completely. 3 to 4 may pose a problem. Karl nudges off the 7 to get nicely on the 4. They should clear. They do and lead 1-0.
Frame 2: Darren firm breaks and makes 1 in the side. Karl makes a tester 2 into the side. Only the 5 needs special attention as the 8 blocks it into its nearest corner. Karl with nice touch off the 4, gives Darren an ok shot on the 5, and it slides in. Should clear now. They do it smoothly. 2-0 England.
Frame 3: Karl makes the 3 ball. Hard long 1 to start, or combo onto 9. Darren's lining up the combo, about 40/60 I reckon. Misses it by 4 inches but leaves the 1 pretty safe. Chang plays safe and leaves distance and an edge. Karl rolls table length and it rolled off onto the 9. Ted Lerner says it must be the cueing, coz it was laser leveled. LOL
Taiwan look smooth, as we'd expect and get out of the blocks. 1-2
Frame 4: Chang breaks dry but leaves the 1 behind the 4, cut may be on. England use up their extension and Karl makes the thin cut, 4 gets kicked in too. Darren misses a tough 2 to the side, which would have been game. Ko Pin Yi should make it, but plays a shocker and leaves a big cut shot on the 2. Karl cutting like a Ginsu knife, but scratches in the side. 2-2
I called it early, Chang rolls too far on the 7, forcing Ko to carom into the 9, but they get away with it. 2-2 confirmed. Ko, "The Rollman" getting a couple already.
Frame 5: Ko makes the 5 ball and is on the 1. Gets lucky not to scratch, and ball sits in jaws, on the 2. He would have hooked himself if it didn't stay in the jaws. He's a luck-freak. Chang hooks him next shot. Ko misses a pretty easy 1 rail kick by 2 inches. England cruise through a pretty easy layout and lead again. 3-2
Frame 6: Darren misses his 1 in the side, dry break. A tester from 1 to 2. Chang jacks up and gets there, barely, a tester for Ko to get from 2 to 3. He makes it left handed and caroms off balls to hold for the 3. A nice positional shot from Chang and they should clear now. Angle on 5 is not good. Chang plays a lovely 3 rail positional shot from almost off the side rail. They clear and tie it up. 3-3
Frame 7: Chang makes the 1 in the side. Difficult 2 ball. Ko takes on the combo to the 6, misses the 6 but the 2 follows through... pretty lucky, again. Chang just makes a tricky 3 and doesn't get on the 4 well. Ko stretches and plays safe, but leaves a tricky cut on. Darren misses the cut, kicks the 4 in off 2 rails but hooks Karl on the 5. Karl jumps on the buzzer and gets it pretty safe. Chang misjudges the safe and leaves a long, but pretty easy 5 on. Darren misses by a mile... not sure he was going for it, leaves it safe. Ko plays safe, leaves a hard long cut. Karl tries a long bank 2 way and looks like he's left a shot. Chang overcuts it. Darren makes a nice very thin cut to the side and gets perfect on the 6. Karl gets him weird on the 7. Karl needs to make a long 8 down the rail, hits it nice and England takes the lead again after a crazy frame. 4-3
Frame 8: Karl makes the 1, 2 and 3 off the break and leaves a tricky 4 for Darren which he drills in. Tricky 7 and 3 or more rails to the 8 now for Karl to overcome. He makes the pot, goes 3 rails but a little short. Darren misses a tricky cut on the 8 but CB gets behind the 9. I think they'll jump. They do, and draw back for shape. 4-4
Frame 9: Po makes 2 balls, but they're hooked on the 1. They push. Eng refuse it. Chang kicks 1 rail with side and the 1 goes straight into the corner. He was playing for a safe. The layout is good and they are on line. The bakery boys from Taipei hit the lead for the first time. 5-4
Frame 10: Chang makes 1 in the side. 2 is not pottable. They push. Eng refuse it. Ko plays a nice safe and nearly gets the hook. Darren clips it but hits the 8, leaving a difficult cut carom to 7. They get lucky again, nearly hooking themselves when the CB double back and nearly kicked the 2 in. Darren's head about to explode. If the 2 wasn't there, they would have scratched. They clear up. 6-4 to the bakery boys.
Frame 11:... will continue in new post, to save people scrolling back.