Cork snooker ace Aaron Hill bows out at the last 16 stage of the European Masters

SADLY, Cork snooker ace Aaron Hill’s dream of progressing in the quarter-finals of the Bet Victor European Masters came to an end when he lost out 5-1 to Yan Bingtao.

Following his victories over Andy Hicks, Ronnie O’Sullivan and Matthew Stevens Aaron Hill’s opponent this evening was the world number 15 at Marshall Hall, Milton Keyes.

Hill had practice session matches against Bingtao at Victoria’s Snooker Academy around the time of the world championship qualifiers where the talented Cork man had come out on top in those games. 

That was practice and this was the real deal, but the 18-year-old from Cathedral Road is now firmly placed in the minds of world snooker fans everywhere. 

Yan Bingtao took the opening frame coming from behind with a 76 break and Hill would have go to the well yet again considering Bingtoa had defeated Duane Jones 5-1 earlier today the Cork man couldn’t let the 20-year-old Chinese star get away from him.

Frame two was another tight, scrappy affair that went deep into the colours, but Bingtao had the lead on the brown ball leaving Hill needing a snooker and the remaining four balls, but Bingtao potted the brown to extend his lead to 2-0.

Troubling moments for the Cork snooker ace going into the third frame and a gap to bridge.

Hill is nicknamed the Breeze for a reason, as the Crucible man calmly went about his business picking off the important points to win the third frame. He need to take the momentum into the last few frames of the match, but it wasn’t to be as Bingtao potted the balls to lead 3-1 at the break.

In yet another tight frame the Chinese star went to within one frame of victory after trailing by 47 points fought his way back to win the frame leaving Hill with a mountain to climb.

It was a little too much to ask as Hill lost the sixth frame but picked up some very important ranking points in this his second professional tournament.

There is a very long season ahead for Hill and he has started it in magnificent style and with his obvious potential and natural talent, not many of the WST professionals will want to face the Cork man in future tournaments.

The tournament may be over for Hill, but one feels this is the start of a very promising career for the man from the Cork Crucible.