Snooker: Ebdon and Dott face off in final

SHEFFIELD, England - Things got off to such a slow start here yesterday in the best-of-35-frames World Championship final between Graeme Dott and Peter Ebdon that it was not possible to play all eight scheduled frames in the opening session.

It was a toss-up which fans were in the majority: those who felt cheated at paying to watch eight frames and getting six, or those who felt robbed by paying at all.

Dott led 4-2 after the drawn-out, error-strewn stretch between 3pm and 6.24pm, when the session was curtailed to allow the players a break before the evening play got under way.

The opener became bogged down so quickly that it was re-racked within minutes.

It was ominous.

Ebdon eventually took the first frame with a break of 63, but Dott took the next with a 62 to top Ebdon's 52 and went 2-1 ahead with a 56 in a cagey third.

So far, so mediocre.

The fourth frame then lasted 47 minutes and 49 seconds. Ebdon knocked several superb long reds to start with, but failed to build on them.

Dott gave away 20 points from one snooker alone. The highest break was a 22, to Dott.

Ebdon had good chances to seize control but went in-off when leading 39-26, and again when 52-39 behind but still in with a shout. Dott clinched it on the blue, eventually.

He went 4-1 ahead with a 60 in the next before Ebdon hit a 61 to end the session.

Yesterday's early play was in marked contrast to the astonishing events on Saturday, when Dott and Ebdon secured their places in the final.

Dott started the third of his four semi-final sessions against Ronnie O'Sullivan at 8-8 and sprinted past the world No 1 for 16-8.

That left Dott needing only a frame in the evening, a target most expected him to achieve quickly, given O'Sullivan's crumbling form.

But "the Rocket" stole three quick-fire frames to reignite his hopes before Dott extinguished them, 17-11.

Before that, Ebdon had finished his own semi-final, against Marco Fu, in dramatic fashion.

He started Saturday at 15-9, but Hong Kong's Fu fought back to give Ebdon such an almighty scare that he ended the match in tears.

Fu levelled at 15-15, hitting breaks of 68, 100, 52, 75 and 103 in the process.

Ebdon's nerve held to edge 16-15 ahead, but Fu clawed back to 16-16.

A risky red gave Ebdon the start he needed for a match-winning 54 in the decider, and as it became clear he would not be caught, his eyes welled.

He said afterwards he would have been "a broken man" if he had lost.

O'Sullivan was gracious in defeat, and unlike last year, when he crashed out to Edbon in the last eight and said he might give up the game, insisted he will be back next season.

"I was pretty awful the whole match and deserved to get beat," he said.

"I missed too many balls, never made enough breaks, I never scored at all, my safety was bad, my long potting was awful.

That's not to take anything away from Graeme, he beat me comfortably."The fact that O'Sullivan gave away his cue to a boy in the audience at the end of play was not, he insisted, a symbolic goodbye.

"John Parris [a cue maker] needs to make me a new one and I've been asking him for a while," he said.

"I think he'll get wind I've given my cue away and do it now. There wasn't anything wrong with it. I just fancied a fresh start."

In the short term, that will be on the international pool circuit, particularly in America.

An announcement that he and Jimmy White have signed to play on a lucrative new-look tour is expected later this month.

SCORES - World Snooker Championship (Crucible, Sheffield)

Semi-finals:

G Dott (Sco) bt R O'Sullivan (Eng) 17-11 ; P Ebdon (Eng) bt M Fu (HK) 17-16.

Final:

(after six frames) Ebdon 2 Dott 4.

- INDEPENDENT