Snookered

After an engaging evening in London town, how disappointing to return to the BBC sport website to find that both Ronnie O'Sullivan and Stephen Hendry have crashed out of the Snooker World Championship at the Crucible in Sheffield.

Both are sublime talents, adamantly demonstrated over the years. It could have made for a truly titanic final. Instead, we can only wonder what might have been. O'Sullivan's loss in particular is a tragedy, easily the finest tournament player of his age and a man worthy of the "genius" moniker. Apparently Ebdon just got under his skin - to the point that Ronnie refused to concede a frame despite requiring 10 snookers to pull back. Unbelievable, as those who have watched these matches can attest. His heart was just never in it, and he is even contemplating goodbye. Let's hope he finds it again.

Williams pots the maximum, then gets eliminated. Jimmy White, the people's champion, gets throttled. And now Hendry and O'Sullivan fall in the course of an evening. It's why they play the game. But in this case, what a damn shame.