LIAM Highfield was left cursing his luck on Thursday evening in York as he was just denied a place in the quarter-finals of the Betway UK Snooker Championship.

It took every ounce of veteran Mark Williams’ experience to oust the 26-year-old, who was born in Swindon, 6-5, after Highfield had been on the wrong end of a cruel twist of fate at 5-4 ahead.

As he looked to clear the table, his shot on a routine red took a nasty kick to leave him out of position on his next attempt, with the Welshman then taking the match to a decider.

And with both players missing a flurry of chances in the winner-take-all final frame, Highfield was left frustrated.

“It was such a dramatic finish because it was so bad to be honest,” he said. “There was some pretty terrible play out there at the end.

“Obviously, I had a good chance to clear up and maybe win 6-4, but that kick was just one of those things you can’t do anything about.

“It’s out of your control, and I took the pink on with my next shot, probably out of a bit of frustration, but I had numerous chances to win that last frame as well.

“Maybe I’m being hard on myself but I don’t think that’s good enough.”

And while he knows this was a big opportunity missed to reach the quarter-finals of a ranking event for the first time, Highfield will be taking some positives from his run in York.

He said: “My safety was so bad that I thought I had a better chance of getting away with a long one, so I started going for my shots and at least I went out fighting.

“There’s been better performances this week than at other times this season, and it’s good to go deep and feel really involved in a tournament because I’ve not done that too many times.

“I can take a lot of confidence from the way I played against Peter Lines, and hopefully I’ll get used to being out there in the big arenas with a massive crowd.”

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