Snooker: England in pink in Bangkok

England cruised into the Castrol-Honda World Cup semi-final after beating Australia 10-5 in Bangkok yesterday.

Once again Peter Ebdon and Ronnie O'Sullivan proved to be England's dominant players with Nigel Bond's poor run of results showing no sign of abating.

The world's No 3 and No 8 players won both their matches while the No 5, Bond, the British Open champion from Derbyshire, lost to a teenager, Quinten Hann, after his team had established a 4-0 advantage.

Even Bond's solitary victory over the Australian amateur champion, Stan Gorski, was achieved after a struggle, Bond winning 60-55 on the final black.

However, even with the second favourites still not firing on all cylinders there was little danger of them not reaching the last four of the pounds 400,000 event.

Ebdon opened the match with an easy victory over Robby Foldvari. Ebdon's 96-break gave him the frame 104-13 and he later had runs of 55 and 32 to defeat Gorski 93-15 in the final frame of the opening session.

Ebdon, the Regal Masters champion was among a group of players who spent an afternoon yesterday waiting for an audience with Michael Jackson. The World Cup competitors, including world champion Stephen Hendry, visited the singer's Bangkok hotel to present him with a signed cue. But after they had waited for six hours, the singer disappeared into his suite on the 22nd floor.