Ricky Walden narrowly missed out on a first final appearance of the season after falling to defeat in the Arcaden Paul Hunter Classic in Germany at the hands of Judd Trump.
The Chester-born cueman had last week enjoyed an excellent run to the final four of the tournament, beating top seed Mark Selby along the way.
But it was Trump who emerged victorious in the semi-final showdown in the German city of Fürth, claiming a 4-1 triumph over Walden, who was forced to conede defeat to Trump for the second time in as many months following his quarter-final exit at the Australian Open at the beginning of July.
Walden’s march to the semi-finals indicated a return to top form for the 31-year-old, who lives in the Flintshire village of Bagillt, after he saw off the challenges of Chris Wakelin, his conqueror at the Riga Open two weeks ago, and Fergal O’Brien before dispatching Selby 4-3 in the last eight.
The German competition also proved successful for former Chester & District League champion Gareth Allen, 25, who won through three qualifying rounds before bowing out in the first round proper to the experienced Barry Hawkins in a match shown live on Eurosport television.
Amateur Allen, who is an avid Chester FC supporter and carries a custom-made cue case displaying the club colours and crest to competition, was not aware he was going to be live on television until 15 minutes beforehand but did not let nerves get the better of him as he took the first frame before losing 4-1.
“Ronnie O’Sullivan was on the table before my match and he won pretty quickly and they told me I was going to be live on Eurosport, which was a bit mad,” said Allen.
“Considering it was shown live on TV I didn’t feel nervous at all and I was delighted with the way I started.
“The experience of playing top stars like Hawkins live on television is invaluable. It doesn’t get much better really.”
Both Walden and Allen are next in action at the SangSom 6 Red World Championship in Bangkok, Thailand, next week.
The competition pits the top 16 players, Thai professional players and top amateurs against each other.
Walden has been placed in a group including Matthew Stevens and James Wattana, while Allen will face the likes of Graham Dott and Stuart Bingham.
