Wild blown away by Welsh dragon

Michael Wild

MOORSIDE snooker star Michael Wild suffered a night of abject misery as he bowed out of the Betway UK Championship.

His 6-0 first-round defeat at the hands of Welsh star Dominic Dale was as comprehensive as the scoreline suggests.

Wild, who showed his true colours earlier this season with his own 6-0 whitewash of Judd Trump in the International Championship, failed to find any fluency and the fact that his highest break was a meagre 21 said it all.

Yet it could have been so different had it not been for a disastrous end to a first frame he lost from a position of apparent invincibility.

When Dale went in off the brown, Wild led by 23 with only 22 on the table.

The Oldhamer was confronted by a long, awkward brown and as he tried to pot it the object ball jammed in the jaws of the pocket and collided with the white.

Looking on in disbelief, Wild saw the white ball go down and four pots later World number 32 Dale, ranked 67 places above Wild, had pinched the frame.

Wild, who had spoken of the need to make a good start, was clearly badly affected.

Looking nervous and devoid of confidence, he missed a series of pots he would normally make in his sleep.

Dale grew in strength, making a fine break of 100 in the second frame, and further efforts of 59 and 42.

As the Welshman grew stronger, Wild went worse and was clearly the more affected by a 50-minute delay to the start of the match as Anthony Hamilton and Peter Lines fought out a turgid 65-minute frame.

The pair’s match was adjourned with Hamilton leading 5-3.

Frames scores from Wild v Dale: 66-69; 0-100; 32-58; 1-74; 5-85; 0-105.