2012 Warld Snooker Championship

The **2012 Warld Snooker Championship** (an aw referred tae as the **2012 Betfred.com Warld Snooker Championship** for the purposes of sponsorship) wis a professional rankin snooker toornament that teuk place frae 21 Apryle tae 7 May 2012 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It wis the 36th consecutive year that the Warld Snooker Championship haed been held at the Crucible an the last rankin event o the 2011/2012 season.

Ronnie O'Sullivan won his fowert Warld title bi defeatin Ali Carter 18–11 in the final. Aged 36, an juist 55 days aulder than Dennis Taylor when winnin the title in 1985, O'Sullivan became the auldest Warld champion syne 45-year-auld Ray Reardon in 1978.

John Higgins, the defendin champion, lost 4–13 tae Stephen Hendry in the seicont roond.

On the openin day o the televised stage Hendry made the 88th offeecial maximum break, his third at the Crucible an the 11t of his career. He annoonced his retirement frae professional snooker follaein his defeat bi Stephen Maguire in the quarter-finals.  The toornament wis sponsored bi online casino Betfred.com.

## Tournament summary

### First round
*Debutants at the Crucible war Jamie Jones, Cao Yupeng, and Luca Brecel. It wis an aw the first time that Cao and Brecel qualified for the televised stage o a rankin event. Cao and Jones advanced tae the seicont roond bi defeatin Mark Allen 10–6 and Shaun Murphy 10–8 respectively, whilst Brecel lost 5–10 against Stephen Maguire.
*Brecel became the youngest player ever tae compete at the Crucible, at the age of 17 years and 45 days. He wis an aw the first Belgian tae play at the Crucible.
*Five Asian players competit in the first roond, which is a Crucible record. Four war frae Cheenae and ane frae Hong Kong.
*Mark Williams stated on Twitter afore the championship, that he hated the Crucible and wished that the toornament wis played in Cheenae. Williams wis subsequently booed as he wis annoonced tae the crowd afore his openin match. For this comment he wis later fined a tot of £4,000.
*Stephen Hendry made the 10t maximum brak at the Crucible during his first roond match wi Stuart Bingham and tae date, the last ane made in the televised stages o the toornament (twa maximums hae been made in qualifying roonds syne then). This wis the 88th offeecial maximum brak. Wi this he equalled twa records of O'Sullivan: the maist offeecial maximum braks in professional snooker wi eleven, an the maist at the venue wi three. Hendry won the match 10–4 in a rematch of ane of his greatest upset defeats, in the first roond o the 2000 Warld Snooker Championship when Hendry wis defendin champion and Bingham wis makin his televeesion debut.
*Zhu Ying became the first Cheenese person tae referee a match at the Crucible bi officiating the match atween Hendry and Bingham.
*In his match against Ken Doherty, Neil Robertson became the fowert player tae mak three consecutive century breaks at the Warld Championship, efter O'Sullivan, John Higgins and Mark Selby.
*Mark Allen, follaein his first-roond defeat bi Cao Yupeng, accused his opponent of cheating. Allen claimed that Cao haed nae admitted tae a  at 5–4. Houiver, he an aw conceded that the Cheenese player haed outplayed him during the match. Warld Snooker decidit tae stairt disciplinary action against Allen, who later admitted haein gone too far. He wis later fined a tot of £11,000, an warned he wad be suspended frae the tour for three month if he breached the rules again in the next sax month. Allen wis an aw ordered tae unnergang media training.
*Ding Junhui creatit mair controversy efter his defeat tae Ryan Day. Ding said that the table conditions war nae right and complained aboot spectators bein disruptive during the match. He wis later fined £250, an warned bi the chairman o the Disciplinary Committee for swearing during the live press conference.
*Andrew Higginson and David Gilbert reached the seicont roond o the Warld Championship for the first time in thair respective careers. Higginson defeatit Stephen Lee 10–6, an Gilbert defeatit Martin Gould 10–8.
*Aicht oot o the sixteen seedit players war beaten in the first roond. Bingham, Graeme Dott, Murphy, Lee, Gould, Ding Junhui, Allen and Selby aw lost thair places in the toornament. This merked the maist tap 16 players tae suffer defeat in the first roond syne 1992.

### Second round
*Awtho John Higgins and Stephen Hendry haed made 45 appearances atween them at the Crucible and baith haed played in every toornament syne 1995, this wis the anly time thay ever met at the Crucible.
* Higgins made the 500th century brak of his career in his match against Hendry. Twa frames later Hendry made his 775th.
*Hendry defeatit defendin champion Higgins 13–4, an reached his 19t Crucible quarter-final, sicweys beatin his ain record of 18 quarter-finals. At that time anly aicht players haed played at the Crucible 19 times or mair: Hendry, Steve Davis, Jimmy White, Terry Griffiths, John Parrott, Peter Ebdon, Willie Thorne and Ronnie O'Sullivan.
*Ali Carter defeatit Judd Trump 13–12, despite haein trailed 9–12. In the deciding frame Trump needed fower  and got three, afore Carter finally potted the last remainin reid.
*Crucible debutant Jamie Jones reached his first rankin event quarter-final bi defeatin Andrew Higginson 13–10. Efter the seicont session Jones led 10–6. Higginson then won the fower openin frames o the last session tae mak it 10–10, afore Jones teuk the next three frames tae win the match. Jones wis an aw the lowest ranked player tae win a seicont roond match. The Warld nummer 36 became the third Welshman intae this year's quarter-finals, follaein Ryan Day and Matthew Stevens.

### Quarter-finals
*Stephen Hendry fell 2–13 tae Stephen Maguire wi a . Efter the match Hendry annoonced his immediate retirement frae professional snooker, citing dissatisfaction wi his standard of play in recent years and difficulty balancing competitive, commercial and personal commitments.
*Matthew Stevens won 11 frames in a row tae beat fellae Welshman Ryan Day 13–5 frae 2–5 doun, and reached his first Warld Championship semi-final syne 2005.

### Semi-finals
*Ali Carter won his semi-final five month efter threatening tae retire frae the gemme due tae heal problems and a loss of form. Carter, who haes Crohn's disease, beat Stephen Maguire 17–12 tae reach his seicont Warld Championship final.

### Final
*The final wis a repeat o the 2008 final, in which O'Sullivan beat Carter 18–8.
*O'Sullivan haed played in three Warld Championship finals prior tae this, an won them aw. Carter's anly previous final wis the aforementioned 2008 toornament.
*Carter haed never beaten O'Sullivan in 11 previous attempts in rankin events afore this match.
*O'Sullivan made a 141 brak in the aicht frame, the heichest ever in a Crucible final. The previous record wis 139 made bi O'Sullivan in the 2001 final.

## Prize fund
The prize fund for the championship wis dividit as follows:

*Winner: £250,000
*Runner-up: £125,000
*Semi-final: £52,000
*Quarter-final: £24,050
*Last 16: £16,000
*Last 32: £12,000
*Last 48: £8,200
*Last 64: £4,600

*Stage ane heichest brak: £1,000
*Stage twa heichest brak: £10,000
*Stage ane maximum brak: £1,500
*Stage twa maximum brak: £40,000
*Tot: £1,152,500

## Main draw
Shawn ablo are the results for each roond. The nummers in parentheses beside some o the players are thair seeding ranks (each championship haes 16 seeds and 16 qualifiers). The draw for the first roond teuk place on 16 Apryle 2012, ane day efter the qualifying, an wis broadcast live bi Talksport.

## Preliminary qualifying
The preliminary qualifying roonds for the toornament war for WPBSA members nae on the Main Tour and teuk place on 5 Apryle 2012 at the Warld Snooker Academy in Sheffield.

**Roond 1**

**Roond 2**

## Qualifying
The qualifying roonds 1–4 for the toornament that teuk place atween 6 and 12 Apryle 2012 at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield. The final roond of qualifying teuk place atween 14 and 15 Apryle 2012 at the same venue. Robert Milkins made the 87th offeecial maximum break during his roond fower qualifying match against Xiao Guodong on 11 Apryle 2012. This wis the seicont maximum brak of Milkins' career.

**Roond 1**

**Roonds 2–5**

## Century breaks

### Televised stage centuries
Thare war 71 century braks in the televised stage o the Warld Championship. For every century brak that wis made during the 17-day championship in Sheffield, the title sponsor, Betfred, donated £200 tae Warld Snooker's offeecial charity for the 2011/2012 season, Haven House Childer's Hospice, wi the promise of topping it up tae £25,000 if 75 centuries war made. Houiver, Betfred boss Fred Done donated the full £25,000, despite bein fower centuries short o the target.

* 147, 123, 100  Stephen Hendry
* 142, 125, 117, 101, 101, 101  Stephen Maguire
* 141, 130, 128, 117, 113, 110, 107, 104, 103, 101, 100, 100  Ronnie O'Sullivan
* 138, 136, 135, 134, 132, 127, 101  Jamie Jones
* 136, 109  Martin Gould
* 134, 132, 118, 112, 105, 101  Ali Carter
* 133, 124  John Higgins
* 131, 108, 106, 106, 100, 100  Neil Robertson
* 125, 113, 108  Cao Yupeng
* 123, 122, 116, 101  Matthew Stevens
* 121  David Gilbert

* 120, 114  Judd Trump
* 119, 113, 112, 110, 100  Ryan Day
* 116  Luca Brecel
* 115, 103  Joe Perry
* 111  Andrew Higginson
* 111  Mark Williams
* 110, 102  Stephen Lee
* 104  Ken Doherty
* 102, 101  Shaun Murphy
* 101  Mark Allen
* 100  Ding Junhui

### Qualifying stage centuries
Thare war 60 century braks in the qualifying stage o the Warld Championship.

* 147  Robert Milkins
* 145, 128  Ben Woollaston
* 142, 125  Jamie Burnett
* 140, 134  Jamie Jones
* 140, 103  Aditya Mehta
* 140  Xiao Guodong
* 139, 138, 103  Liu Chuang
* 136, 107  Liang Wenbo
* 135, 124, 100  David Gilbert
* 134, 112, 110  Ken Doherty
* 134  Sam Baird
* 129, 107  Stephen Hendry
* 128, 102  Anthony Hamilton
* 127, 125  Barry Hawkins
* 123  Adam Duffy
* 122  Passakorn Suwannawat
* 120  Daniel Wells
* 117  Nigel Bond
* 116  Andy Hicks
* 113, 102  Jimmy Robertson

* 112, 101  Ryan Day
* 110, 100  Marco Fu
* 110  Peter Lines
* 108  Luca Brecel
* 108  Fergal O'Brien
* 107, 103  Jamie Cope
* 107, 102  Tom Ford
* 106  Anthony McGill
* 105  David Morris
* 105  David Grace
* 105  Michael Holt
* 103  Justin Astley
* 103  Rod Lawler
* 102  Andrew Pagett
* 102  Peter Ebdon
* 101  Liam Highfield
* 101  Adrian Gunnell
* 101  Cao Yupeng
* 100  David Gray

## References

## External links
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*Crucible 2012 pictures by MoniqueLimbos at Photobucket