Ronnie O’Sullivan moves to brink of World Championship quarter-finals

Ronnie O’Sullivan continued to home in on a record-equalling seventh Crucible title on a day when a pigeon fluttered onto centre stage at the World Snooker Championship in Sheffield.

The avian interloper flew down from the rafters and briefly alighted on the bottom cushion as Yan Bingtao prepared to break off in the sixth frame of his afternoon match against defending champion Mark Selby.

It was ushered out via the players’ entrance, past a startled Selby who was returning to the arena, and tournament officials later confirmed it had been captured and released unharmed.

Later, O’Sullivan showed just how much he fancies emulating Stephen Hendry’s record as he soared into a 12-4 lead over Mark Allen, meaning he needs just one more frame from their concluding session on Saturday to reach the last eight for the 20th time.

O’Sullivan started the match by threatening a maximum break after potting 10 reds and nine blacks, and posted a further break of 131 as he cruised into a 6-2 lead at the end of the morning session.

Allen won the first frame upon the evening resumption but missed the simplest of pinks with the frame at his mercy in the next, and the mistake proved pivotal as O’Sullivan cleared for 7-3 and would never look back.

O’Sullivan got 88 points into another possible 147 in the next before running out of position, then capitalised on a pair of costly errors by his opponent to raise the real prospect of wrapping up his last-eight place with a session to space.

Allen prevented that embarrassment with a gutsy break of 110 but O’Sullivan took the final two frames of the evening – the last his second century of the match – to make his progression on Saturday a formality.

Earlier, Mark Williams did move into the last eight