By Dan Warren BBC Sport at The Crucible

Williams felt Griffiths' wrath

Here's a tip for budding snooker wizards who find their game going off the boil - get Terry Griffiths to slap you in the face.

The tactic obviously worked a treat for Mark Williams who found himself out of form on Friday afternoon.

His 7-1 lead over Stephen Lee had become an altogether less convincing 7-5 and the Welshman was missing all kinds of straightforward pots.

Come the interval, he headed straight for the practice table where compatriot Griffiths was on hand - literally - to help out.

Quizzed on the BBC after the interval about what he had said to Williams, Griffiths said words were unnecessary as he had administered a swift hand to the chops of the new world number one.

Williams returned after the interval and promptly won the next three frames. Enough said.

The halcyon days of televised snooker were undoubtedly in the mid-1980s, when about one-third of the country stayed up to watch Dennis Taylor's thrilling last-frame win over Steve Davis.

Nowadays, what with your Big Brothers and your I'm A Celebrity's, it's difficult for people to tune in to snooker - but there are signs that Joe Public is again warming to the excitement of the green baize.

Four-and-half-million people stayed up past their bedtimes on Wednesday to watch Paul Hunter's cracking 13-12 win over Peter Ebdon on the BBC.

That's around 50% up on the biggest audience at this time last year - and as tension mounts with the final approaching, it looks like telly addicts are becoming snooker loopy once again.

Friday morning's session between Paul Hunter and Ken Doherty was widely regarded as the best of the tournament so far.

Poor Ken managed to knock in two century breaks - and a 62 for good measure - and was still outscored by his opponent.

Even snoozing hacks were moved to comment on the quality of the action, and one of the behind the scenes stat-fiends produced the numbers to prove how good it was.

During the first seven frames, Doherty's potting success rate was 98% and Hunter's 97% - on a par with the journalists' acceptance rate of free drinks.