Northern Ireland's Jordan Brown in late-night Crucible drama for longest frame of the season

Brown and Burns battled in a dramatic rollercoaster of a decider frame that lasted 1 hour 21 minutes and 4 seconds on Friday night - making it the longest frame of the professional season so far.

The duo eclipsed the previous longest frame of the term by 96 seconds which came during the German Masters qualifying match between Sunny Akani and Sahil Nayyar in early January.

Having deposited the first frame on a re-spotted black, breaks of 74, 54 and 54 again helped former Welsh Open champion Brown build a 4-0 mid-session interval lead.

On resumption, Brown increased his advantage to six as he took complete control at the English Institute of Sport.

But Burns got on the scoreboard in frame seven with the assistance of a 57, and also took what was the final frame of the morning session to give himself something to work with at 6-2 down.

Returning a few hours later for the concluding session, world number 96 Burns secured the first of the night before Brown compiled a 53 in taking the 10th to lead 7-3.

However, Burns then produced a purple patch as he strung together four consecutive frames along with breaks of 52, 126, 57 and 67 to draw level at 7-7; he'd won seven of the last eight frames in a big turnaround.

Momentum shifted again as Brown regrouped with back-to-back frames to move on the hill at 9-7 up, but back came Burns with the 17th, and then crafting a 70 in the 18th to force the tie into a deciding frame.

And what a decider it would be with no substantial breaks, but bucketloads of tension.

It went down to the colours, and it appeared Brown had got the job done when he potted the blue to leave his opponent requiring penalty points.

Burns, though, laid a snooker on the pink behind the black which was near a side cushion. Brown failed to escape and the match was back in the balance.

Returning to the table, Burns sank the pink, meaning the entire day's play came down to just one ball - its final one. He attempted to double the black into a middle pocket, but when he missed it, Brown was presented with a very manageable pot that he dispatched for the win.

Next up for Brown, in the penultimate qualifying round in Sheffield, is a meeting with former Scottish Open champion Lei Peifan across Sunday and Monday.

Dangerously close to the top 64 cut-off on the world rankings list, Brown's last gasp victory in the early hours of Saturday morning may have saved him his professional tour card.

The win sees him collect a minimum of £10,000 in prize money, an amount that gets added to his two-year cumulative ranking total.

On the live, in-running list, that result pushes Brown up to 63rd in the standings, ahead of Jamie Jones who now is on the bubble.

Not mathematically safe, but Brown looks very likely to maintain his spot on the World Snooker Tour for next season.

The Brown/Burns match wasn’t the only fixture during Friday evening’s session to go all the way to the final ball as Marco Fu pipped youngster Liam Davies by the barest of margins.

In another match with big swings in momentum, three-time ranking event winner Fu pieced together five successive frames to move 9-5 up.

Davies rallied, though, with four frames in-a-row of his own, and was within a few pots in the deciding frame to record a stunning comeback triumph.

But he missed a tricky last red, allowing the very experienced Fu to come back to the baize and clear up.

The result means that Davies is relegated from the professional circuit, although he can immediately bounce back through next month’s Q School in Leicester.

To view the full draw, results, schedule, and other information from the 2026 World Championship qualifying rounds visit www.totallysnookered.com