{"id":32241,"date":"2019-02-11T23:34:21","date_gmt":"2019-02-11T23:34:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/?p=32241"},"modified":"2019-02-11T23:34:21","modified_gmt":"2019-02-11T23:34:21","slug":"mark-williams-wins-thrilling-all-welsh-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/02\/11\/mark-williams-wins-thrilling-all-welsh-contest\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Williams wins thrilling all-Welsh contest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-32242\" src=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/mark-williams-1024x682.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"639\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/mark-williams-1024x682.png 1024w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/mark-williams-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/mark-williams-770x513.png 770w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/mark-williams-500x333.png 500w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/mark-williams-1155x770.png 1155w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/mark-williams-370x247.png 370w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/mark-williams-293x195.png 293w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/mark-williams.png 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-32242\" src=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/mark-williams-1024x682.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"639\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/mark-williams-1024x682.png 1024w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/mark-williams-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/mark-williams-770x513.png 770w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/mark-williams-500x333.png 500w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/mark-williams-1155x770.png 1155w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/mark-williams-370x247.png 370w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/mark-williams-293x195.png 293w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/mark-williams.png 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/noscript><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;font-family: Calibri\">REIGNING World Champion Mark Williams beat lowly ranked Cardiffian Kishan Hirani 4-3, in a gripping game at the Welsh Open.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;font-family: Calibri\">The lead changed hands on several occasions, with neither player able to exert dominance. In the end Hirani made one error too many, leaving Williams to cut a red into the bottom right corner for victory. <\/span><br \/>\n<u><span style=\"color: #000000;font-family: Calibri\">The story of the match <\/span><\/u><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;font-family: Calibri\">Blaenau Gwent-born Williams, ranked number two in the world, was the overwhelming favourite for the match, but he did not have it all his own way.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;font-family: Calibri\">Despite being ranked 120 places below Williams, Hirani pushed the \u201cWelsh Potting Machine\u201d to the end.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;font-family: Calibri\">After Williams won frame one with a break of 78, Hirani hit back, winning a tactical second frame before taking a 2-1 lead with a superb break of 126.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;font-family: Calibri\">The Cardiffian\u2019s inexperience began to tell once he had taken the lead, as simple errors cost him frames four and five, to leave Williams 3-2 ahead. <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;font-family: Calibri\">Hirani\u2019s game was not up just yet. He held his nerve to win a scrappy frame six and take the game to a decisive seventh frame.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;font-family: Calibri\">Both players made numerous mistakes in the final frame, with each having a couple of chances to take victory. <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;font-family: Calibri\">However, it was Hirani\u2019s safety error that left Williams to pot the red he needed to take him to the second round, where he will face either Martin Gould or Zhang Anda.<\/span><br \/>\n<u><span style=\"color: #000000;font-family: Calibri\">Reaction<\/span><\/u><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;font-family: Calibri\">Speaking at the press conference afterwards, Mark Williams said: \u201cIt was a tough game, he played quite well. A lot of his safety had me in trouble, he probably feels quite disappointed.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;font-family: Calibri\">\u201cThe first couple of rounds you\u2019ve just got to get through. It would be nice to win it, but I won 20 years ago so I can\u2019t grumble.\u201d<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;font-family: Calibri\">Despite his defeat, Kishan Hirani sounded upbeat, telling the assembled press: \u201cI just couldn\u2019t close the match out, but I\u2019m happy with how I performed with family down here. It\u2019s unbelievable to play in my home town, I only live five minutes away.\u201d<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;font-family: Calibri\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>REIGNING World Champion Mark Williams beat lowly ranked Cardiffian Kishan Hirani 4-3, in a gripping game at the Welsh Open. The lead changed hands on several occasions, with neither player able to exert dominance. In the end Hirani made one error too many, leaving Williams to cut a red into the bottom right corner for victory. The story of the match Blaenau Gwent-born Williams, ranked number two in the world, was the overwhelming favourite for the match, but he did [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":138,"featured_media":32242,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[92,17,579,4],"tags":[6346,604,578,580],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-32241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-city","category-home-lead","category-snooker","category-sport","tag-kishan-hirani","tag-mark-williams","tag-motorpoint-arena","tag-snooker-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mark Williams wins thrilling all-Welsh contest - The Cardiffian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/02\/11\/mark-williams-wins-thrilling-all-welsh-contest\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mark Williams wins thrilling all-Welsh contest - The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"REIGNING World Champion Mark Williams beat lowly ranked Cardiffian Kishan Hirani 4-3, in a gripping game at the Welsh Open. The lead changed hands on several occasions, with neither player able to exert dominance. In the end Hirani made one error too many, leaving Williams to cut a red into the bottom right corner for victory. 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