2014 UK Championship - Three hundred tons for Trump

300 century breaks and still counting

The Barbican Centre from York was packed as another day of pure snooker took place, with the likes of John Higgins, Judd Trump, Matthew Stevens, Ken Doherty, Shaun Murphy and many others in the line-up.

For Trump, the 1^st of December seemed to be a lucky day, for the Bristol-man made his 300^th century break and added two more tons just for the fun of the game.

Judd faced Scotsman Fraser Patrick whom he left absolutely stunned as he flew 4-0 up by firing in breaks of 87, 129 and 130, the last frame being won on the black.

During the mini-break, Judd tweeted: "Feeling good today, hopefully I can get another century after the break."

Fraser Patrick leaves the competition

The Scotsman seemed in a better frame of mind when the lads returned into the arena, so with a top of 66 he won his two frames of the match.

Trump moved one away from victory at 5-2, but even if Patrick tried to perform a comeback and won the next frame, it was still the 2011 UK Championship winner who cleared the table with a wonderful 104 for a 6-3 victory.

Meanwhile, at table number two, a vintage John Higgins was playing against Matthew Stevens in a very entertaining match.

The scoreline was 1-0 in favour of John, as he hit a break of 59, but Stevens drew level as soon as possible for 1-1.

Higgins's form seemed to have improved

However, from this point on, Higgins was pretty much rocking around the snooker table, breaks of 81 (clearance), 62 (clearance) and 128 (clearance) helping him go 5-1 up. 

The Welshman pulled one back just to keep the match alive, but Higgins sealed his victory with a 52 during the last frame, for a place into the Last 16.

The man who was responsible for the current world champion early exit, David Morris, made another victim, this time being his name-sake David Gilbert, who was beaten by 6-2.

The evening session featured a much-waited clash, the one between Ricky Walden and Ken Doherty. 

Walden's pretty focused on winning this

Walden lost no time into going straight ahead, at 3-0 (breaks of 70, 46 and 57), but just as the interval was knocking on the door, Kenny managed to win himself a frame too with a top break of 37.

Unfortunately for the 1997 world champion, that was going to be his first and last won frame, as Ricky stormed in and took the rest of them with runs of 43, 129 and 128 for a definitive 6-1 victory.

At a near table Shaun Murphy was facing a very strong opponent, Jack Lisowski, who managed to put him in quite some trouble from time to time.

The first frame went Jack's way after Murphy overstretched to reach a red as he was on a 45 break, but he soon recovered and went 4-1 up with a bit of help from breaks like 80, 93 and 99.

Murphy secured himself a place in the Last 16

Lisowski wrote his name on the 6^th frame, but Murphy was sure to clinch the very next one in order to go one away from victory, at 5-2.

However, there was still enough fuel for a fight back from Jack’s part, the youngster hitting breaks of 32 and 86 to capture two more frames.

Needless to say that Murphy sensed the danger and decided it was time to call it a day, a break of 62 securing him a place in the next round. 

Marco Fu got himself a comfy chair into the next round also, as he beat Dechawat Poomjaeng by 6-3, as well as Matthew Selt who overcome a grinder, Rory McLeod by 6-4.

Anthony McGill and Nigel Bond were caught up in a genuine snooker marathon that started in the first session and ended on the evening (over six hours of snooker), with the Scotsman prevailing a real test of endurance by 6-5.

Lisowski put on quite a snooker show

Here is the complete list of results:

David Gilbert 2-6 David Morris
John Higgins 6-2 Matthew Stevens
Fraser Patrick 3-6 Judd Trump
Nigel Bond 5-6 Anthony McGill

Marco Fu 6-3 Dechawat Poomjaeng
Ken Doherty 1-6 Ricky Walden
Shaun Murphy 6-4 Jack Lisowski
Matthew Selt 6-4 Rory McLeod