Williams blasts scrapping of 147 prize

MARK Williams blasted the decision by snooker chiefs to scrap the maximum break prize and predicted it would stop players attempting a 147 at the Crucible.

Welshman Williams waltzed through to the quarter-finals of the Betfred.com World Championship last night with a 13-4 demolition of Stoke's Jamie Cope, becoming the first man to reach the last eight.

He made two century breaks, 106 and 109 in consecutive frames during the morning's middle session, but not at any stage did he think about going for the feat of 15 reds and blacks, followed by the six colours, snooker's ultimate individual feat. In recent seasons there has been a 147,000 prize fund on offer for the feat, which has only been achieved nine times in the history of the tournament. But that was scrapped this year in a cost-saving move, to the astonishment of former champion Williams who said: "I think it's terrible that there's not a 147 prize in this tournament. Even if it was 20,000 for a maximum break, it's got to be something for this tournament.That's what people come to see, big breaks and the possible chance of a 147. I'd never even think about going for one."

Judd Trump marched towards a quarter-final place as he sped into an 11-5 lead, two away from victory, against Martin Gould.

It was a different story between Graeme Dott and Ali Carter, with a higher tempo and Carter fighting back well to move 8-6 ahead, before Scotsman Dott pegged it back to 8-8 ahead of this afternoon's conclusion to the match.