Snooker
Former winners Wales sent out a warning to their Nations Cup rivals by completing their group matches with a 100% record in Reading yesterday.
The trio of Mark Williams, Matthew Stevens, and skipper Dominic Dale whitewashed Group B whipping boys Malta 4-0.
Earlier, World Cup winners Scotland cruised into the semi-finals by thrashing Thailand by the same score.
Wales will now play Group A runners-up Republic of Ireland while the Scots face Group A table toppers Northern Ireland.
A repeat of the 1999 final between Wales and Scotland could now be on the cards, though the Irish squads will probably have other ideas.
''We are not going to treat anyone lightly,'' says Dale, who defeated Joe Grech and then teamed up with Stevens for the match-clinching doubles against Grech and Alex Borg.
''But our performances so far suggest we are the team to beat. We certainly don't have to fear anyone.''
Despite Dale's declaration of confidence the bookmakers have installed Scotland's team of Stephen Hendry, John Higgins, and Alan McManus as 5-4 favourites for the title and a cheque for #47,000.
Wales are second favourites at 11-8, the Republic of Ireland's trio of Ken Doherty, Fergal O'Brien, and Michael Judge are quoted at 6-1 with Northern Ireland's squad of Joe Swail, Terry Murphy, and Gerard Greene 15-2 outsiders.
''It would be great to play Scotland in the final,'' said world No.1 Williams. ''And we will probably end up beating them again.''
Williams won his match against Borg while Benson and Hedges Masters champion Stevens defeated Drago on a re-spotted black in the opening frame of the game.
World No.6 Stevens is the only player with a 100% singles record from four outings while England's Stephen Lee and Da Hai Lin of China both won four games out of five. Details:
Group B: Scotland 4, Thailand 0: Frame scores (Scotland first): S Hendry beat P Phonbun 69-29, J Higgins beat J Wattana 80-36, A McManus beat N Noppachorn 78-53. Hendry and Higgins beat Wattana and Phonbun 79-0.
Wales 4, Malta 0: Frame scores (Wales first): M Stevens beat T Drago 71-64, D Dale beat J Grech 97-10, M Williams beat A Borg 79-24, Dale and Stevens beat Borg and Grech 57-36.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article