Williams sinks Parrott's hopes

Snooker

Mark Williams, the 21-year-old Welsh left-hander who beat John Parrott to win the Regal Welsh Open last February, potted the world No 4 off the table again yesterday to emerge a 6-1 winner of their semi-final in the Grand Prix at Bournemouth in 1hr 49min, writes Clive Everton. A scrappy first frame and a fusillade of breaks, 74, 31, 54, 49 and 100, took Williams to 4-0 at the mid-session interval. Parrott's mid-frame 54 was responsible for him winning the fifth but the sixth slipped away in the exchanges on the colours. Williams swept through the clinching frame with a break of 70. Hopes of an all-Welsh final were high but Mark Bennett, the Newport betting-shop owner who had accounted for Peter Ebdon, Steve Davis and Tony Drago, failed to produce anything like that form in going down 6- 3 to Euan Henderson, of Scotland. Bennett, very much a part-timer, won the first two frames, but Henderson had breaks of 79, 66, 65, 68 and 70 in winning six of the next seven frames.