World Championship qualifiers 2011 - Day 4

Wallace`s rain of breaks ends Del`s run

Yesterday was a busy, busy day for snooker for we had no more than 10 matches to be completed. As you probably remember, for four matches the first session was closed a couple of days ago, so ne needed to know their winners, but 12 more players were going to end up in a genuine battle of cues as their first and last sessions were taking place in the same day.


The Chinese Liu Chuang won his battle against David Gray in what seemed to be an effortless second session; he was already leading David 7-2, so during the next session he conquered all the remaining frames, leaving just one tiny frame for David, in order to end the match at a 10-3 scoreline.
At a near table, we had a veritable "Davids" battle, the main characters being: David Morris and David Gilbert. It was Morris the one who took the lead after their first rendezvous with a 5-4 scoreline, but during the next day session he didn’t succeed in keeping that advantage to himself being beat 10-8 by his opponent, Gilbert.
End of run for two players who had such a brilliant start in these qualifiers, Stephen Rowlings being defeated 10-5 by the Scot Paul Davison, while Del Smith was sent home with a 10-2 scoreline by Patrick Wallace. And since we are on this subject I have to tell you that Patrick’s performance was stunning! He hit a series of century breaks that "wow-ed" the audience: 100, 115 and 119. Good job!

Brilliant start for Michael White

Moving into the "full-time" matches, Michael White had a marvelous start as he ended Adam Wicheard`s dream with a strategic 10-2, this meaning that Adam didn’t cash any frames during their last session for at the end of the first one, he was being lead 7-2. Also starting with a 7-2 lead over the Thai Noppon Saengkham, Simon Bedford made his way through Round three with a final score of 10-3.
A very interesting set of matches were the ones where Liam Highfield was taking on Kuldesh Johal and Ben Woollaston was facing Jamie O’Neill, for both of them ended their first session on a tight 5-4 result, only to see the evening one closed at the same scoreline 10-8. Ben Woollaston, who hopes he’ll be luckier than he was during the China Open qualifiers, will face Stuart Pettman in the next round, as breaks of 107, 112 and 113 guaranteed Johal he’ll meet up with the youngster Jack Lisowski. ;-)


The last match of the day was a genuine battle bottom to the top as the Chinese Xiao Guodong was playing Kurt Maflin, an English player who now represents Norway and who is about to travel to China at the end of this month for he won the qualifying rounds.

Xiao Guodong

It was Kurt the one who took the lead 2-0, only to see Xiao pulling one back and Kurt replaying with a break of 70 to made it 3-1. Still, the Chinese was determined to win his way back into the game so he won another frame, while Kurt made a 94 to re-locate himself at two points ahead but he couldn’t cope with was coming his way anymore...Guodong stormed in as he hit an 83 to go 3-4 and won the next two frames to take the lead for the first time in this match. Not panicking, Maflin hit a strategic 91 to draw at 5-5, and although Xiao won the next one, the ambitious Kurt cashed the following two frames by hitting in runs of 87, 77 and 130 to set the score at 8-6.


The little Chinese was not yet to surrender so a magical 135 made him reduce the gap, while a 100 break equalised the situation. Kurt hit another century break, this time an 114, as to go 9-8 up, but Xiao won the remaining frames to close the match in his favor at 10-9. Such brilliant and top class snooker was played by the two gladiators! It’s really a shame to see such a great match, with such a packet of century breaks and that in the end only one player can move forward. Really a shame! :-(


I hope you’re ready for Round three cos` it’s coming to get you today :-))


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


2.30pm (only the first session is being played)
*all hours are UK time


Best of luck to all the lads and please keep an eye at them right here. ;-)