MARK Williams walked out of Cardiff's International Arena last night in a nonchalant manner and headed back to Cwm for a night's sleep before entering Judgement Day at the World Nine-Ball Pool Championships.

The former World No. 1 snooker player may think that pool is a bit of fun compared to his normal sport, but his opponents do not have the same attitude.

Williams is a natural cue man and was in poll position to make it into the knock-out stages before the start of yesterday's action.

However, he ended the evening with two defeats to fall from leader in his group to fifth place.

Williams now needs to win his last match against Melbourne-based Johl Younger, who is second, to guarantee his place in the last 64.

Leonardo Andam, a quarter-finalist in last year's competition, was 3-1 down to the Welshman in Williams' first match yesterday but hit back to beat the man from Gwent 5-3. And when the ex-world snooker champion came up against Denmark's Peter Nielson needing victory to put him into the top half of his division, he failed to make it, going down 5-4.

Williams' trademark as much in snooker as it is in this new discipline is to think "Oh well" if he looses and not concern himself too much about it. That seemed his attitude yesterday.

He said: "All I've entered this for is a bit of fun and if I don't qualify, then it doesn't matter. I'll just get on with my snooker practice and get ready for the new season."

Newbridge's Lee Walker did not expect to do much after going through qualifying rounds in Bristol to reach the Cardiff final stages.

Walker has only an outside chance of getting into the last 64 because of his record in the last few days.

He would have been out, dead and buried, yesterday if he had lost to 2000 world champion Fong Pang Chao, of Chinese Taipei, but the "Cold Faced Killer" was murdered by Walker, who astonishingly waltzed to a comfortable 5-1 victory.

The Welshman now faces Poland's Radislaw Babica, four times champion of his country, and must win that match and also beat Italian star Fabio Petroni, who also beat Chao earlier in the group stages, to progress to the KO stages.