Ronnie reprimanded by referee

Ronnie O’Sullivan faced a Crucible ticking-off from referee Michaela Tabb but regained his focus to move within sight of a place in the Betfair World Championship final.

The defending champion lost all his concentration and looked bored as the penultimate frame of the night against Judd Trump became scrappy.

When he missed a ball he expected to rifle into the pocket he ran his hand up the shaft of his cue between his legs and Tabb stepped in to issue a brief reprimand, with O’Sullivan seeming to say “I wanna go home”.

He denied trying to cause offence, arguing his cue was sticky and he was trying to solve the problem. He lost the frame but took the last of the night to go 14-10 in front, three away from his fifth World Championship final.

Having begun the day level at 4-4 in the match, to come through two sessions with a four-frame cushion was a fine achievement for O’Sullivan.

Tonight he had breaks of 51, 62 and a closing 89 to punish Trump for a series of misses that suggested he was feeling the pressure of the semi-final occasion.

O'Sullivan swept through the opening frame of the night and made Trump pay for a missed blue towards the end of the next, clearing up the final three colours.

Trump needed to stamp some authority on the session and a 117 break, the first century of the match, went some way towards doing that.

Trump also had a chance in the next frame but touched the yellow with his arm when taking on a red with the rest and called the foul on himself. O’Sullivan potted the red and made 62 as he restored the four-frame cushion at 12-8.

When Trump took two of the next three to narrow the gap, he had the momentum going into the final frame, yet O’Sullivan disrupted that to end the evening on a positive note.

He may only have been joking when he said he wanted to head back to Essex, but O’Sullivan did not appear to be in the best frame of mind.

The four-time winner in Sheffield, who said on Wednesday he would retire before next season’s World Championship, admits the sport’s ringmaster Barry Hearn has the pulling power to ensure he is not lost to snooker forever.

Hearn, who has managed O’Sullivan in the past, has vowed not to stand in the 37-year-old’s way should the latest in a long line of retirement warnings be one he sticks to.

O’Sullivan said: “You never know with Barry, he’s always changing things.

“He might go, ’Look Ronnsy, I’ve got a little tournament for you, you can turn up, do two weeks’ practice’.

“And I might go, ’You know what, I’m up for that’.

“But I’m not up for the constant putting my life into snooker.”

To trade in snooker for a new career would be an extraordinary move, given his earning ability, but O’Sullivan insists he is tired of the sport that has brought him over £6million in prize money, and huge sums in endorsements.

He suggests he wants a quiet life, possibly in a field as relatively humdrum as property development.

“I don’t want to be a celebrity, I don’t want to be on the telly, I don’t want to do any of that sort of stuff,” O’Sullivan said.

“I don’t want to be a billionaire, I don’t want to rule the world.

“I want to have a purpose in life and there are other things out there that I’d like to do and I’m excited by it.

“I’ve been watching these property programmes where they buy a new house, put a new kitchen in... it sounds a bit easier than playing snooker.”

The quality of O’Sullivan’s tussle with Trump was not being replicated by last-four debutants Barry Hawkins and Ricky Walden in the second semi-final, with the pair limping through their afternoon session, Walden going from 6-2 to 9-7 in front despite his opponent remaining without a half-century break in the match.

Chester-based Walden fired in 106, his third century of the match, to lead 8-5, but then saw Kent cueman Hawkins claw his way back.

Hawkins had struggled badly yesterday, managing a top break of just 36, and his break-building trouble persisted as the match progressed.

Eventually he managed to improve on it, allowing himself a small fist pump during a break of 47.