World Snooker Shoot-Out - Day 2 (part 1)

Robbo is through to the next round

Round one is over peeps and it was a lot of fun involved in the game of fast and furious snooker ... or I should say kamikaze snooker? :-)) You’ll be the judge of that. So the last 16 matches were played, but before you find out who is through into round two (made a rhyme there :-P) let me tell you that this, let’s call it second part of round one, was filled with permutations and a lot of surprises.


The first match was the one between Barry Pinches (you know the guy, he won last year PTC 4 event) and former world number 1 and current world champion Neil Robertson. Although Barry had a very good start he only succeeded in making a 15 break before he committed a foul, which in this type of snooker mean instant death! Robbo hit in breaks of 21 and 81 to seal the score at 102-15.

Alfie in his element

A very big surprise was the match between Shaun Murphy and Rory McLeod and I’m saying this because Rory is a very, very (very!) slow player, while Shaun is used to Premier League shot-clock. Bottom to the top it was a pretty scrappy frame, which Rory succeeded in cashing it with only 2 points ahead of Murphy 30-28.


Alfie Burden was responsible for the first whitewash of the day, as he scored a beautiful break of 106 to defeat Matt Selt; just a few minutes after his victory Joe Perry succeeded in hitting the biggest break of this competition (so far!) an extraordinary 130 to take over his opponent, Ricky Walden.

Joe Perry hit the highest break so far (130)

Up next Graeme Dott has put quite a performance as he’s fired in breaks of 37, 34 and 24 to win over Matthew Couch with a final result of 99-16.
But maybe one of the biggest surprises (in a good way of course) was the match between Jamie Cope and Ken Doherty. The 1997 world champion, the Irish with such a great way of entertaining the crowds, hit in runs of 28 and 63, putting quite a show and defeating the youngster Jamie 81-1. It was such a brilliant performance from Ken and it really makes me happy to see him playing so well. Hopefully he’ll keep up the good work tonight ;-)

Doherty has played like a king

The strategist Dave Harold proved he’s not quite into this "under pressure" snooker, for he was playing really well and he was also in front of Judd Trump, when he almost forgot that his time was running out. Scared of the constant "beep-beep" of the shot-clock he wanted to be sure he will get a good safety of a red, but totally miscalculated due to the pressure involved and that has cost him the match, young Trump winning it with a 52-31 scoreline.
We all know that some players perform better in the dark of their own practicing rooms or in pubs, or on untelevised events and Mike Dunn is one of them, but today he proved us all wrong as he hit a 47 break at the beginning of his meeting with Matthew Stevens and continued with a 14 one soon after Matt missed in potting a red into the left superior pocket. He finally won the match with a score of 67-36. That was good! Very, very good! :-)


Below you’ll find the rest of the results:


Next matches due to start from 6 pm (UK time):
Dominic Dale v. Anthony Hamilton

Good luck to the lads and see you tomorrow for some commentaries. Don’t forget, the event is fully broadcasted by SkySport 1 and 2 (tonight is SkySports 2). Enjoy snooker, dears! :-)