Craig Steadman was left to rue one nightmare shot after he bowed out of the Dafabet Scottish Open in unfortunate style.
The Bolton potter has had a good tournament at Glasgow’s Emirates Arena but succumbed to defeat in his third-round match against China’s Xu Si.
Steadman won the first two frames, lost the third and then had a moment to forget in the fourth.
“It wasn’t terrible but I should’ve won to be honest, plain and simple,” Steadman said.
“Well, I say I should’ve won, I should’ve gone 3-1 up which puts me in the driving seat.
“I’m not sure I would’ve won because the kid’s a fantastic player but after the four frames how I wasn’t 3-1 up, could even have won 4-0, beggared belief really.
“It was just the fourth frame, I nicked the first two 2-0 and he’s nicked the third, 2-1 was probably about right.
“The next frame I’m clearing up to win it and I’ve landed in the one spot on the table where I couldn’t pot the yellow which is hanging over the hole.
“It was a bit of a miracle and I never really recovered from it to be honest – I don’t think I could do it again if I did it a thousand times – he’s ended up nicking it on the black and I didn’t recover, it knocked me back.
“The way I lost the frame, which is something you’ve got to deal with, but I couldn’t go back and do that again if I possibly tried, that’s snooker.”
The Farnworth cueist knocked out 1997 world champion Ken Doherty in the first round before taking out Alfie Burden in the second.
Steadman will now travel to Barnsley for the D88 German Masters next week by which time, hopefully, he’ll have got that shot out of his head.
“It’s been a better week and more enjoyable than previous tournaments,” said Steadman.
“I didn’t feel quite as bad, quite as nervous and I got beat so maybe it’s something I need to feel! But as I say the match just swung on the fourth frame.
“No matter what happened this week I was always going to use a new cue after this but it’s not arrived yet, I’ve got a long drive back now thinking back to that shot! But at least I’m not flying 16 hours back to China!
Watch the Scottish Open LIVE on Eurosport, Eurosport Player and Quest with Andy Goldstein and analysis from Jimmy White and Neal Foulds
Image courtesy of Dafasnooker via YouTube, with thanks.
