Published on December 13, 2005

James Ratchapol, who was previously known as James Wattana, was 5-3 ahead overnight and later 7-5, but lost the last four frames and his place in the Travis Perkins UK Championship in York yesterday. Ratchapol was beaten 9-7 by five-time UK champion Stephen Hendry, who hit his best form for some time in the closing stages.

But if the Thai had taken his chances, and there were plenty of them in the early frames, he would have won convincingly.

But he squandered numerous openings which gave Hendry his chance.

The Thai remained glued to his chair as Hendry fired in successive breaks of 100, 79, 109 and 67 in the last four frames and Ratchapol didn’t pot a ball in three of them.

In the end Ratchapol, 67-0 behind in frame 16, could and should have cleared up to force the decider, but missed a red into the middle pocket when his reply reached 31 and his last chance had gone.

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