Robertson joins Crucible casualties after Milkins upset

In a first round that has seen a host of shocks, the 37-year-old Gloucester man’s win against the world No 2 was certainly among the most surprising.

He resumed 5-4 behind yesterday afternoon after taking the final two frames on Wednesday, and with Robertson a long way short of his best Milkins was able to clinch a 10-8 victory.

From the outset yesterday, it was clear Robertson was struggling with his game, and world No 19 Milkins took a 46-minute opener to level at 5-5 before going ahead for the first time in the match.

Robertson showed some form with an 86 break to draw level, but fluency was in short supply for the man from Melbourne. Milkins left Robertson needing four snookers at the end of the 17th frame, at 8-8, and he got three of them. But Milkins clipped in a difficult long brown ball and added blue and pink to go one frame away from victory.

Making his first appearance at the Crucible since 2005, Milkins showed few nerves as the winning line approached, but when he missed a blue on 51 they might have been jangling a touch.

But Robertson could not capitalise on his chance to force a decider and Milkins clinched the biggest win of his career.

Milkins said: “I’m absolutely chuffed to bits. Beating Neil over best-of-19, it doesn’t come much better than that. I thought I did well to come out 5-4 behind last night and I probably didn’t play so well today but it put him under pressure I think.”

Robertson conceded the more resilient player won, saying: “I hardly won any of the scrappy frames and that was down to his good play. I can’t take anything away from Robert, he played fantastic snooker. He handled the pressure a lot better than he perhaps would have done a few years ago.”

Shaun Murphy began his second-round clash with Graeme Dott in fearsome form to deal a fresh blow to fading Scottish hopes of Crucible glory.

Potters from north of the border have landed 12 of the last 23 titles in Sheffield, with Stephen Hendry landing seven of those, John Higgins four and Dott one, in 2006, the year after Murphy triumphed.

But with Hendry now retired, and with Higgins, Stephen Maguire and Alan McManus knocked out in the first round, only Dott is flying the Saltire.

But it was billowing particularly limply yesterday as Murphy built a 6-2 lead after the first session of the best-of-25-frames second-round tussle. Were Dott to lose, it would be the first time since 1988 that no Scot has reached the World Championship quarter-finals, and he left himself with everything to do today, when they play morning and evening sessions to reach a finish.

Murphy was in sizzling shape, firing breaks of 128, a total clearance, and 112 in consecutive frames to breeze into a 3-1 interval lead, before adding runs of 54 and 99 in opening his four-frame cushion.

Stuart Bingham’s 10-2 win against newcomer Sam Baird last night completed the last-16 line-up, as the world No 8 finished in style with a 79 break. He tackles John Higgins’s conqueror Mark Davis next, bidding to reach the quarter-finals for the first time.