World Championship qualifiers 2011 - Days 7 and 8

Andrew Pagett defeats the Bond of snooker

After seven days of snooker at full speed, the Academy of Sheffield closes its doors in order to recover the snooker tables so the next two days will be played properly. I don’t think there is a better way of ending seven days of cue battles, rather than with such a lovely day, with such beautiful comebacks and tight scores. It’s true, the 7th day of the World Championship qualifiers were the hottest days in town :-))


On March 9th four matches ended their first session so the next day we were feverishly expecting to see their winners, but there weren’t any surprises, as those who took the lead during the first session, won the second one and the match, for that matter.
Rory McLeod pushed the youngster Kyren Wilson out of the competition, as he entered in the second session with a 5-2 lead and closed it with a beautiful victory of 10-3, while the little Chinese player, Liu Song eliminated Mark Joyce after a 7-2 scoreline in the first session and a final 10-6 in the last one.
Jimmy Robertson defeated Tony Drago 10-8, after taking the lead 6-3, this meaning that he will meet the mighty Irishmen, the 1997 world champion, Ken Doherty. This should be interesting to follow ;-)


Nigel Bond and Andrew Pagett’s match was a real cracker the players bringing the battle into a decider, so they played all 19 frames. The first session saw Andrew taking the lead 5-4, after the first three frames were won by Bond, the next three by Pagett and the rest of them were shared. The last session started with Nigel taking over the first three frames, Andrew pulling one back, Nigel moving at 8-6, only to see his opponent making a beautiful comeback and settling at 8-8. One more time, the Shoot-Out champion was in front, as he won the17th frame, but Andrew’s 88 break helped him draw and brought the match into a decider, that he also won.

Steve Davis cashes victory

Ireland and Scotland were facing each other through Fergal O’Brien and Paul Davison’s match, a match that was started with a 5-2 lead in favor of Fergal and closed with a final score of 10-4, by the same player. His next battle will be against a mighty and powerful Welshman, Matthew Stevens.

The second White of this qualifiers was also defeated, this time Michael White being the name of the snooker player. He started by being lead 6-3 by Anthony Hamilton, while the evening session saw the "Sheriff of Pottingham" winning 10-7 over the youngster.


A very interesting battle was given between the strategist Dave Harold and the much younger Jamie Jones. Such a thrilling match! It had everything that’s required for a snooker match to be successful.;-)
Jamie won the first frame, but Dave replayed by winning three of them (breaks of 98 and 76 included) as to go 3-1 ahead. Still, Jamie succeeded in performing a comeback but found himself being lead 5-4 by the end of the first session. During the last one, the boys shared frames all the way through the end and the funny thing is that if a break of 71 hit by Jones, brought the match into a decider, another break of 71 made Harold the winner of it. Such an interesting and twisted situation :-)


One of the most exciting matches of these qualifiers was without any doubt the one between the one and only Steve "The Nugget" Davis and Jack Lisowski a very young but dangerous opponent. If the first session set Lisowski 6-3 ahead of the six-time world champion, the evening one was going to be such a blast for Davis! Jack won his first frame of the last session, but then breaks of 94, 101 and 105 brought Steve Davis very close to him (he was just one point behind 6-7). So little Jacky-boy pulled one frame as to remake the difference, but Davis succeeded in drawing at 8-8. Such a great effort!

One more time Jack went to take the lead but a break of 80 was the one that set all the pressure on the last frame - one more decider was going to happen in Sheffield. And it was tense, and it was tough, and it had the Nugget’s name written all over it, because the one who made the rules back in the `80 (in snooker, of course) won the last frame as to book an appointment with the "Bulldog" Stephen Lee. That won’t be an easy task, but hopefully Steve Davis will cope with it. ;-)

Matthew Selt scores against Wallace

However the day wasn’t over and we still had one more decider coming our way as Matthew Selt and Patrick Wallace were playing a very important match, the winner meeting Marcus Campbell in the next round.
If Selt took over the first three frames, runs of 91, 57, 62 and 93 were bringing Patrick Wallace back into the game making him the leader at the end of the first session 6-3. After the break, Matthew pulled one back, but Patrick’s way among the balls was way better so he stormed in to go 8-4.
This couldn’t go any longer, Matthew needed to pull himself back together and attack; and that’s what he did. He hit a series of 54, 100 and 60 as to go just one frame behind Patrick 8-7 and when his opponent hit a 76 as to win another frame he didn’t panic and kept on going. He did a beautiful job as that frame was going to be Patrick’s last one, the remaining ones being cashed by Matthew. Such a brilliant comeback!


Day 7 results are:


Today matches are:


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


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


Best of luck to all the players and see you tomorrow for the comments and some results. Oh, and one more thing: the winners of today’s matches are the first ones to get a place in the main event, so taking into account the fact that four matches will be finished by the end of the day, we shall have the first six names through to the 2011 World Championship ;-)