World Championship qualifiers 2011 - Day 6

Lisowski shall meet Steve Davis

Another busy day in Sheffield as the sixth day of the World Championship qualifiers was completed by an extraordinary group of players. As you already might know with every day that passes by we are getting closer and closer to the players that have the best ranking position so the matches are becoming tougher and tougher.
Yesterday I was telling you that four matches with just one session disputed were in need of a second and also a last one so they could send their winner further in the competition. Here’s how things went…
Michael White continued his good run as after beating Adam Wicheard 10-2 in Round 1, he cashed one more victory, a beautiful 10-3 in front of his opponent, Matthew Couch (breaks of 105 and 107 included). At the same time, Stuart Pettman won his first match of this qualifiers as he defeated Ben Woollaston 10-5, after ending on a 6-3 lead the first session.


With their first encounter set at 5-4, Jack Lisowski and Kuldesh Johal were ready to go for yet another round of genuine snooker, the youngster winning the battle by 10-7. And you know what that means, right? He will now face the one and only - Steve Davis.
Unfortunately for Simon Bedford, his run was brutally interrupted by Jamie Jones, who secured himself a place into the next round after a 10-6 final score.


Moving on to the "full-time" matches, meaning those who had both their session completed in one single day, it was interesting to see a very all Scottish battle of cues between Anthony McGill and Paul Davison. It all started rough and bloody as the boys ended up on a very tight 5-4 (in favor of McGill) scoreline after the morning session, but the evening one saw Davison taking the lead and winning the match by 10-7. After having to confront his own fellow-country, Davison will face a mighty Irishman - Fergal O’Brien.

No White for the Crucible

Great victory for Andrew Pagett who defeated Belgium’s star Bjorn Haneever 10-4, as well as for Patrick Wallace who booked himself a place further on the qualifiers after winning 10-5 over Rod Lawler.


A very entertaining match was offered by Barry Pinches and David Gilbert, their first session being ended 6-3 for David, while the second one on a 10-7. Barry had a very good opportunity to win this battle as he won two consecutive frames at the beginning of the last session, then David added two more on his account, only to see another two cashed by Barry. Unfortunately for him, these two were going to be his last frames, as Gilbert took the remaining ones to book Peter Lines for a new match. :-P


Two great matches were performed by the two "Jimmys" of the qualifiers and two powerful Chinese players. On one had we had the Jimmy White v. Liu Chuang match, and on the other the Jimmy Robertson v. Xiao Guodong clash. And both of them were ended on a decider ;-)
Liu Chuang took the opening frame with a break of 56, but our "Whirlwind" won his first frame a few minutes after that, the morning session being ended on a very tight 5-4, in favor of the little Chinese. It was a genuine game of sharing frames all the way through the end, the boys not daring in being separated by more than one frame and we didn’t see too many big breaks along the way, but the game was steady, good and tight as hell. Still, the last frame saw Jimmy White unable to pot a single ball, the score of 78-0 making out of Liu Chuang the winner of this confrontation.

J. Robertson ends Guodong`s run

The Robertson v. Guodong match didn’t vary too much from the one I’ve just told you about, the snooker boys being too concern as to keep it safe and tight. As in the pervious game, China cashed the first frame, this time with a beautiful break of 106, but Robertson draw very soon and even took the lead replaying with a 74 one. Runs of 53 and 74 put Guodong in the lead 4-2, but by the end of the first session things got a bit more equilibrated as the Chinese man was leading Robertson just by one frame, 5-4.
The last session was dominated by Jimmy because the Englishman was always the one to take the lead. Yes, they’ve been separated by just one frame, but that also meant that the first who collect 10, was Robertson. It is a very important victory for Jimmy as he hasn’t had a very good run in snooker lately so he must take advantage of every opportunity that comes his way.


The Bedfred.com World Championship qualifiers continues with another series of matches, so please take a glance at the following schedule:


10am (the first session) and from 7pm (the last session)


2.30pm (only one session will be completed)
*all hours are UK time


Best of luck to the lads and see you tomorrow for some commentaries, but if you feel the need to find out more about their evolution please keep an eye on the live scoring system :-)