World Snooker Championship: Robert Milkins shocks Neil Robertson

Robert Milkins caused a stunning upset at the Betfair World Championship on Thursday as he knocked out former champion Neil Robertson in the first round.

Making his first appearance at the Crucible since 2005, the 37-year-old Gloucester ace resumed 5-4 behind and was able to clinch a 10-8 victory over the world number two.

The world number 19 took a 46-minute opener to level at 5-5 before going ahead for the first time in the match.

After Robertson levelled at 8-8, Milkins left the Australian needing four snookers at the end of the 17th frame. He got three of them but Milkins clipped in a difficult long brown ball and added blue and pink to go one frame away from victory.

He then notched a 51 break in the last frame to clinch the biggest win of his career.

He takes on Ricky Walden next, and a quarter-final against Michael White and Dechawat Poomjaeng awaits the winner of that match, with Milkins acknowledging the draw has opened up remarkably.

"Let's not beat around the bushes, we've all got a good draw now. The four of us in this section have a great chance to get to the semis," he said. "Beating Neil is definitely the biggest win of my career."

Stuart Bingham's 10-2 win against newcomer Sam Baird completed the last-16 line-up, as the world number eight from Basildon finished in style with a 79 break.

He tackles John Higgins' conqueror Mark Davis next, bidding to reach the quarter-finals for the first time.

Meanwhile, Shaun Murphy began his second-round clash with Graeme Dott in fearsome form to deal a fresh blow to fading Scottish hopes of Crucible glory.

Murphy built a 6-2 lead after the first session of the best-of-25-frames second-round tussle, firing back-to-back breaks of 128 and 112 early on.

White has taken an even more dominant advantage in his second round match, leading Poomjaeng 7-1 after the first session.