UK Championship 2021 - 23/11 to 05/12. Eurosport and BBC

Murphy fighting his way back into a decider. Tense stuff now. Si Juahui was in the final of the first q tour event at the weekend but really, this is a match murph should be winning comfortably. Not been a great season so far.

He’ll be gutted, must have been just a loss of concentration, not a difficult shot. He had Si Jiahui on the ropes...

Si Jiahui inexperienced alright but some of his antics like constantly bouncing up and down from his chair when his opponent is down taking a shot and taking an absolute age to leave the table to size up what he’s left his opponent after a miss or safety make him a pretty dislikable watch... his coach would want to get a hold of him, he won’t win friends on the tour playing like that or friends / supporters in the audience...

inexperienced he might be but that’s pretty basic levels of courtesy.

referees could be having a word too it’s fairly blatant ..

Speaking of having a word, someone should have a serious word with Murphy the way he got on here after losing. It's his own fault. He sounds like a spoiled child not getting his way.

Bang out of order from Shaun there. Si is an amateur in name only, just like all the other guys struggling at the basement end of the tour and on the secondary tour, desperate to get back on and start earning a living. Shaun should have a word with some of those guys lower down the rankings, struggling for their future, to remind himself what real pressure is.

Aaron loses 2-6, wasn't too hopeful today. Was hoping he'd get a couple more frames on the board at least, at 2-3 there was a flicker of hope but not to be. Think that's his year done now, hopefully regroup and try to lift it for an almighty last effort in 2022!

Bad form... pretty disrespectful manner to speak about your opponent and then to go blathering on about your injuries and niggles as if you would have won otherwise...

Murphy, who tried to qualify for Golfs 2019 Open Championship.......... as an amateur.

Yeah, old format was great. A fella could not turn up and fluke it.. Had to be earned. Felt like a big tournament. Definitely was next after World Championship. They have ruined the UK championship in the last decade, all because of short attention spans or tv schedules???

Agree though that plant definitely not on from what I recall. Looked easily 2 inches off and not possible to make.

Michael White just with a poor positional shot after poor positional shot... leaving himself with more then he needs to do onthe following pot, and as I type it cost him again.

This story is certainly getting some traction anyway! Murphy on BBC radio 4 this morning doubling down. Willo, robbo, selby all backing him. Don't remember them making any fuss when James Cahill (a) beat Ronnie in the world championships. Maybe I missed it.

If shauns definition of amateur is not on the main tour, then by that strict definition he shouldn't have been able to qualify for the 2001 masters, under the then system, and go on and beat Marco Fu. Robbo has played in this event as an amateur before. They're just sounding like terrible hypocrites now.

They are so wrong about this on so many levels, i can't begin to count them. The way the whole tour is structured, part of it is maintaining a delicate balance between protecting the elite players (partly because they're who viewers want to watch) and giving lower players a chance. So, open draws, shorter formats might favour lower ranked but the elite benefit in many more ways, as in world championships seeding. The supreme irony in this situation is that the uk championships draw is different in that it's not really a draw but based on the rankings - ie 1 plays 128, 2 v 127 and so on. It's to protect the tournament from too many early shocks and ensures they get the easiest draws, something those complaining might want to consider.

When Shaun lost to James Cahill (a) in the 2018 Welsh Open, i don't recall him complaining then. And i wonder if he'd been beaten by Michael White, would he have gone on that rant? I'm doubtful anyway, but I'm pretty certain if he did, Willo would not be backing him up on it in that situation.

Hendry took some hiding

Jayus he did. I did not see the match but check the score 6-1 to Un-Nooh.

And it was not even a close 6-1. Hendry only got one 57 break - and needed a second chance to win the frame - 64 points from the frame.

Hendry only scored 66 points in total the whole match! I remember seeing him discussing why he wanted to come back and viewed it as a fresh start. But he also said he psychologists and that type of thing do not work for him. I think he needs to reconsider that?

Defending champ robbo, who was defending Murphy yesterday, is 0-1 against "amateur" John J Astley.

Edit: just about to go 1-1.

Great pink from Astley to go 2-1 ahead. I guess there must have been no pressure on him to pot it ;-)

Si Juahui has a nice draw now, Spaceman up next and a decent enough chance in that quarter. Looking at it, Murphy really could not have asked for a more benign draw.