WITH his wife ill in hospital, Mark Williams’ focus isn’t entirely on snooker – but you couldn’t tell judging by his first-round display in the Betway UK Championship, writes Luke Baker.

Despite wife Jo undergoing three hours of spine injections on Wednesday evening, and Williams considering pulling out of the event, he brutally dispatched Paul Davison 6-0 at the York Barbican on Thursday morning.

The 42-year-old made five half-century breaks to continue the impressive form he showed in winning the Northern Ireland Open.

But after his triumph over Davison, the Cwm cueman’s attention was turning back to matters closer to home, with the possibility of withdrawing before his second-round clash against Andrew Higginson still on the table.

“I’ll phone home now to see what’s happened – Jo was in hospital having injections in her spine for three hours last night,” said Williams.

“I’ll see how she is. If she is really bad then I’ll go back to Wales but I won’t know for a little while.

“You’d think it would be difficult to focus on snooker but I seem to be doing alright! I won the last tournament.

“It’s not the ideal situation to be in but if she wants me to come back at any stage then obviously I’ll be straight back.

“You don’t want to pull out of the second-biggest tournament we play in, so fingers crossed everything will be okay and I’ll still be here.”

And as for the match itself, Williams claims it wasn’t a vintage display from himself but he is pleased to still be in the hunt in York.

“It was a long, scrappy game,” he added. “I made some good breaks but with the first round it’s just nice to get it out of the way.

“I’ve been playing well all season, had a couple of wins and I’m just continuing that decent form. Hopefully I can keep it going.”

Watch live coverage of the UK Championship on Eurosport and Eurosport Player with analysis from Jimmy White and Neal Foulds.