Hawkins launches comeback in snooker semi

Barry Hawkins came roaring back this afternoon to draw level with Ricky Walden in a Betfair World Championship semi-final that looked to be going all the way to the wire.

From 9-7 ahead at the start of play, Walden pulled 12-8 clear at the interval, meaning he required five more frames to reach his first Crucible final.

But he could not find any of those after they returned, as Hawkins reeled off four in a row to tie the match at 12-12 heading into tonight's concluding session.

Walden had gone 11-7 in front after a slice of luck was followed by a masterful clearance.

A break of 62 from Hawkins was his first of 50 or above in the match, and came to an end when the white appeared to take a heavy bounce off the side cushion and nudged up to the black, forcing him to play safe.

Walden cleared up with 63 to take the frame on the black, opening a four-frame lead.

After his struggles in the opening two sessions of the four-session contest, Hawkins was scoring more heavily today, and 114 from the Kent cueman made it 11-8.

Walden went to the break with a run of 78, capitalising after Hawkins potted the white.

But Hawkins, who had clung to Walden despite finding it tough going in the first two sessions, then raised his performance a further level and returned from the interval to fire a 104 break.

A gruelling 56-minute frame went the way of the 34-year-old too, as he pinched it by driving in a long pink and adding a simple black.

And after narrowing Walden's lead to a single frame, Hawkins swept to a break of 66 to end the session with the match in stalemate.

They were set to resume at 7pm tonight, by which time the pair would know which player they were vying to tackle in the final, that begins tomorrow.

Fresh controversy surrounded Ronnie O'Sullivan as his last-four clash against Judd Trump was getting back under way.

The player who in 1996 was fined £20,000 for head-butting a tournament official behind the scenes at the Crucible, and who on Wednesday announced this would be his Crucible swansong after returning to the game only to make some quick money, was ticked off by referee Michaela Tabb for what the Scot perceived as a rude gesture during last night's third session of the match.

O'Sullivan, the defending champion, lost concentration and looked bored as the 23rd frame of the match became scrappy.

When he played a shot he found particularly poor he motioned with his cue between his legs and Tabb stepped in to issue a brief reprimand, with O'Sullivan then seeming to say "I wanna go home", albeit jokingly.

It was not a formal warning from Tabb and O'Sullivan denied trying to cause offence, apparently arguing his cue was sticky and he was trying to solve the problem.

He lost the frame but took the last of the night with an 89 break to move 14-10 in front, three away from his fifth World Championship final. He has won the title on all four of his previous appearances.

Discussing O'Sullivan's behaviour, seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry said on the BBC today: "He's always been very impulsive and he just does things if he's not happy with his game."

There was also a bizarre episode yesterday during O'Sullivan's match that saw tournament security officials have to remove a remote-controlled device planted inside the auditorium that was making flatulent noises.