'Strange season' as Kettering's Kyren suffers Crucible exit

The Kettering snooker star was beaten 13-9 by world no.12 Stuart Bingham at the Crucible.

The pair had been locked at 8-8 going into the final session of the second-round match on Monday but Wilson scored just 21 points in the first four frames as Bingham surged 12-8 ahead with top runs of 97, 76 and 52.

The first of those breaks had him on target for a 147 until he ran out of position on the third-last red and couldn’t leave himself a shot at the black.

That came after Wilson, himself, had been on for the maximum in the final frame of the second session on Sunday night before missing the 13th red.

After the interval, Bingham was on the cusp of wrapping up the match until he missed a tricky pot on the penultimate red when he led 66-27.

The frame came down to a tactical battle on the last red and an error from Bingham handed Wilson the chance to clear up and reduce the gap.

Wilson had an opportunity to pull another back in frame 22 but, trailing 37-36, failed to convert a difficult pot on the second last red along the side cushion.

Bingham cleared to the blue, which was enough for a place in the last eight.

For world no.5 Wilson, the defeat ended his streak of six consecutive Crucible quarter-final appearances.

And he said: “The momentum was completely with Stuart, the first two frames killed my spirit a little bit. He showed what a great champion he is.

“It’s so hard to win this tournament so anybody that has managed to do that is obviously a great player in their own right, people shouldn’t forget that.

“It’s been a strange season for me, I’ve had about five cues on the go.

“I’m comfortable with what I’m doing now so I’ll only improve and get ready for next season.

“I don’t think there’s anything different I can do at this event, sometimes you need a little bit of luck on your side, when you have that you can go on and win these tournaments.”

The new season of the World Snooker Tour gets under way with the Championship League in July.