Ronnie takes Doncaster leg - 29/09/2011

Ronnie O’Sullivan 3-1 Ali Carter
41-54 (Carter 34), 52-42 (O’Sullivan 37), 72-21 (O’Sullivan 68), 36-6.

Ronnie O’Sullivan shot to the top of the PartyPoker.com Premier League as the won the fourth stop at the Dome, Doncaster, defeating Ali Carter 3-1 in the final match after beating Matthew Stevens in his opener.

The final ended in an odd set of circumstances as Carter made three consecutive misses to hand the match to O’Sullivan. There were plenty of reds in the open for him to connect with but with the cue ball nestling in the yellow pocket, Carter tried to play the thinnest of touches off one of the available reds.

Referee Paul Collier called a foul and a miss and he attempted the same shot again with similar effect. Collier warned him that a similar failed effort would result in the loss of frame and consequently the match, but inexplicably he tried it again and missed the red to gift the match to O’Sullivan.

“To be fair to Ali, I was on the back foot for the whole game as Ali had me in trouble. I was just trying to contain him and hope for a chance as I was struggling to stay with him,” said O’Sullivan.

“I’m up for none, well down the rankings and any win is a result; happy days!” he added.

Carter took the opener in what was the scrappiest frame of the evening as both players had several chances to stamp their authority but neither seemed keen to do so. There were poor safeties and missed pots from both players but in the end it was Carter who held himself together to take the early lead.

The second frame was guaranteed to last as the reds were spread untidily around the bottom of the table with the black on the bottom cushion. Both players played an excellent safety game before O’Sullivan carved out a break of 37 to leave Carter needing a snooker with just pink and black on the table.

He did just that, tucking the cue ball tight behind the black but he unluckily fluked the pink into the side pocket to give the frame to O’Sullivan. That levelled the match and O’Sullivan went into the lead in the next – a fluid break of 68 clinching things.

Then came the bizarre final frame, which saw O’Sullivan win the match with an aggregate of just 42 points scored.