Benson and Hedges Masters: Hunter thinks about 'plan c'

Frames scores (Williams scores 1st): 84-1 64-51 83-6 64-53 82-79 56-74 7-107 56-67

Paul Hunter contemplated putting ‘plan c’ into action after losing the opening exchanges to Mark Williams in the Benson & Hedges Masters final at Wembley.

The Leeds glamour boy resumes his bid tonight to become the first player since Stephen Hendry in 1993 to retain his title with a 5-3 deficit on the world number one.

Twelve months ago and faced with a 6-2 deficit against Fergal O’Brien, Hunter returned to his hotel and with the help of blonde girlfriend Lyndsey Fell put ‘plan c’ into action.

His bedroom break did the trick and he came back to edge out Irishman O’Brien 10-9 in a thrilling conclusion to the tournament.

‘‘I’ve got plan c up my sleeve if things aren’t going to plan,’’ said the world number nine on the eve of the competition.

Things definitely were not going to plan when Williams blazed into a 5-0 lead.

The Welsh left-hander showed no sign of tiredness after his epic 6-5 semi-final win over Jimmy White on Saturday night.

Williams’ opening salvo maintained his dominance over the recently crowned Welsh Open champion.

He has won all six of their previous meetings, taking 30 of the 39 frames played between the pair.

But if Hunter needed any encouragement it could be gleaned from Williams’ recent record in major finals.

Since defeating Ronnie O’Sullivan 9-5 in the 2000 Grand Prix final Williams has appeared in four finals and lost the lot.

Indeed, he’s only converted 12 of his 25 final appearances into title victories.

And after his win over White, Williams admitted: ‘‘I hope I put up a better performance than I have in some of my finals.’’

Hunter was not without chances to open his account after a break of 79 gave Williams the first frame.

He lost frame two from 51-44 up helped by a fine Williams pot on the yellow and the fourth to a 43 clearance after Hunter failed to pot the fourth last red.

The fifth frame was a 36-minute epic with both players making Dutch referee Jan Verhaas earn his money.

Verhaas called Hunter for six successive misses and Williams for four as the finalists tried to escape from fiendish snookers.

Williams finally potted green to black to give him the frame by 82 points to 79.

It might have been worse for Hunter when he trailed 56-0 in the sixth but he got himself out of jail with breaks of 46 and 28 as Williams narrowly failed to pot the last red.

Hunter, who compiled four centuries in seven frames in last year’s final, made 69 to reduce his arrears still further and then made an ice-cool 34 clearance to the pink in the eighth after Williams had failed to pot the 13th red.

To retain his trophy Hunter requires seven of the 11 remaining frames. If successful he will claim a £195,000 (€317,000) first prize to go top of the season’s money list with £324,000 (€527,000).

Match resumes at 7.45pm.