On Friday 22nd April 2011 I was back on the Crucible on a beautiful sunny day for the second session of Martin Gould v Judd Trump.

It was another beautiful day in Sheffield and as the World Snooker Championship approached the end of the fist week, we were back at the Crucible for the second session of Martin Gould’s match against Judd Trump.

We arrived early as the weather was so nice, and we chatted to a few of the regulars we know there, including Paul who travels every year from Holland for the Snooker. We also watched Rob Walker do some filming for the BBC in Tudor Square, before heading into the Winter Gardens to see Hazel Irvine, Steve Davis and Ken Doherty in the BBC Studio.

While heading past the hotel, I spotted Judd Trump, who I would be watching later in the day, and legendary commentator John Virgo. Both were happy to have pictures and were very friendly as always.

A little later on I noticed Mark Allen signing before his match with Barry Hawkins, so I went over and had a picture with him. Allen is one of my favourite players and I was really pleased for him when he beat Matthew Stevens a couple of days before, and he was very nice to me and happy to have pictures. We also briefly spoke to Martin Gould , who knows us now, ahead of his match and we wished him luck.

It was now time to head in for the afternoon session, and with Judd Trump just 5-3 ahead the match was still close. Gould looked to make the match even more exciting when he pulled a frame back to trail by just one frame at 5-4, but Trump took the next to regain his two frame advantage. The next two frames were shared to take it into the mid session interval at 6-5. Trump then took the 12th frame to make it 7-5, before the next frame went to a re-spotted black, and Gould attempted a double on it but the black stayed on the table and Trump potted it to make the score 8-5. From here, Gould seemed to struggle and he lost the next 3 frames to fall 11-5 behind at the end of the session, meaning he would have a massive task if he was going to win this best of 25 frame match.

After the session was over, I had a picture with Mark Selby and we met up with William and Dylan Craig, who had come down to Sheffield from Scotland after refereeing the Scottish Professional Championship last week which featured all the top Scottish players including John Higgins and Stephen Hendry.

Finally, when we arrived home we discovered that Chesterfield had been promoted due to Wycombe’s failure to beat Torquay, which was obviously great news!

The big screen

The Snooker Circus is in Town

Paul from Holland

Rob Walker gets told what to say…

Rob Walker films in Tudor Square

Filming outside the Crucible

Rob ‘The Talker’ Walker

The BBC studio

Doherty and Davis

Ken and Steve

Ken Doherty

Hazel Irvine

Filming in the BBC Studio

Advertising an event in the Cuezone

Judd Trump

JV!

Mark Allen

The Theatre of Dreams

The referees, Olivier Marteel and Michaela Tabb

Martin Gould enters the Crucible

Martin Gould

Judd Trump

Barry Hawkins

Mark Allen

with the Jester from Leicester