Players Tour Championship Event 12 - Day 1

Stevens hits 1st 147

The PTC marathon started in the best possible way with no more than two maximum breaks being made in the same day (which according to World Snooker's website is a world premiere). 

Matthew Stevens and Ding Junhui are the names of the players that are responsible for this achievement, however, both of them missing to get a place in the Last 16 round after losing the last match of the day. How ironic is that?

For Matthew Stevens yesterday's 147 is the first of his career as a professional player, but sadly as it often happens in snooker, a maximum or a series of century breaks don’t automatically guarantee you a win. Although he won 4-0 over Michael Wasley (match it which he hit the 147) and survived a 4-3 battle of cues with Stuart Bingham, during the next round, the Welshman was defeated 4-1 by David Grace. 

Seems to me that Grace has just got used to the Last 16, the Q School Event One graduate reaching this stage of the competition for the second time since PTC 10. He beat Scotland's Anthony McGill and England's Jamie O'Neill 4-2, before closing his day with a victory over the Welshman. A great way to end a year of hard work.

Ding collects his 3rd 147

A couple of hours after Stevens hit his first maximum, Ding Junhui hit his third. But as well as his cue colleague, although he obtained victories of 4-0 over Brandon Winstone and Mitchell Mann, he lost by the same scoreline, this time reversed, to Ricky Walden.

Walden had a spectacular performance during the recently ended UK Championship when he reached the semi-finals and was almost, but almost on the edge of reaching the grand final. With a 4-3 win over Liu Song and a 4-2 over Gerard Greene, before facing the Chinese Ding Junhui in the third round, Walden put quite a show and if he keeps up the good work, I can't see any reason for him not to get further in the tournament and maybe even win it.

It's been a long time since Mike Dunn got himself a place in the Last 16, but thankfully that dark period is gone. After hitting his first maximum break during the qualifying rounds of the German Masters a few weeks ago, his form seems to have improved and he's proved so by taking down all his opponents: he hammered David Singh, Mark Williams and Liang Wenbo 4-1.

Walden is continuing his good run from the UK

The very fresh-retuned-from-York runner-up Mark Allen continued his good run obtaining victories of 4-2 over Stuart Carrington, 4-0 over his pink colleague Barry Hawkins and 4-1 over Joe Swail and hitting no more than five century breaks in the process (105, 106, 113 and 133), while the current Power Snooker champion, Martin Gould went from a 4-0 over Martin Ball, to a 4-1 over Matthew Selt only to end with a 4-2 over people's champion Jimmy White.

"Long time no see" - that's what we could say to Xiao Guodong, David Gilbert and Joe Perry. They've been strangers to Last 16 for quite some time now, but gladly they revised their view over the subject.
Guodong used results like 4-1 over Matthew Couch, 4-3 over Sam Baird and 4-2 over Robert Milkins to book himself a place in the next round, Gilbert whitewashed Michele Battaglia 4-0, ended up on a tight 4-3 result with David Morris and hammered "Bulldog" Stephen Lee for a Last 16 spot, while Perry cleverly moved passed Stephen Craigie 4-1, Robbie Williams 4-0 and Mark David 4-1 to get the last of the remaining spots in the Last 16 round.

Below you can check Day 1 list of results:

9.00am
1 Ben Woollaston 2-4 Mark Williams v Round 1
2 Mike Dunn 4-1 David Singh v Round 1
3 Liang Wenbo 4-2 Aditya Mehta v Round 1
4 Andy Hicks 3-4 Duane Jones v Round 1
5 Mark Allen 4-2 Stuart Carrington Round 1
6 Barry Hawkins 4-1 Oliver Brown Round 1
7 Mark Joyce 4-2 Chen Zhe Round 1
8 Joe Swail 4-0 Lucky Vatnani Round 1

11.00am
9 Stuart Bingham 4-0 Sam Harvey Round 1
10 Matthew Stevens 4-0 Michael Wasley Round 1
11 Anthony McGill 2-4 David Grace Round 1
12 Gary Wilson 0-4 Jamie O'Neill Round 1
13 Nigel Bond 4-0 Scott MacKenzie Round 1
14 Jimmy White 4-3 Ross Higgins Round 1
15 Matthew Selt 4-2 Reanne Evans Round 1
16 Martin Gould 4-0 Martin Ball Round 1

1.00pm
17 Gerard Greene 4-0 Gareth Allen Round 1
18 Ricky Walden 4-3 Liu Song Round 1
19 Dave Harold 3-4 Mitchell Mann Round 1
20 Ding Junhui 4-0 Brandon Winstone Round 1
21 Simon Bedford 3-4 Sam Baird Round 1
22 Xiao Guodong 4-1 Matthew Couch Round 1
23 Michael White 4-1 Greg Davis Round 1
24 Tom Ford 1-4 Robert Milkins Round 1

3.00pm
25 David Gilbert 4-0 Michele Battaglia Round 1
26 Peter Lines 3-4 David Morris Round 1
27 Luca Brecel 4-2 Michael Leslie Round 1
28 Stephen Lee 4-1 Sam Craigie Round 1
29 Joe Perry 4-1 Stephen Craigie Round 1
30 Robbie Williams w/o Kacper Filipiak Round 1
31 John Higgins 4-0 Steve Ventham Round 1
32 Mark Davis 4-1 Hans Blanckaert Round 1

5.00pm
65 Mike Dunn 4-1 Mark Williams Round 2
66 Liang Wenbo 4-2 Duane Jones Round 2
67 Mark Allen 4-0 Barry Hawkins Round 2
68 Mark Joyce 2-4 Joe Swail Round 2
69 Stuart Bingham 3-4 Matthew Stevens Round 2
70 David Grace 4-2 Jamie O'Neill Round 2
71 Nigel Bond 3-4 Jimmy White Round 2
72 Matthew Selt 1-4 Martin Gould Round 2
7.00pm
73 Gerard Greene 2-4 Ricky Walden Round 2
74 Mitchell Mann 0-4 Ding Junhui Round 2
75 Sam Baird 3-4 Xiao Guodong Round 2
76 Michael White 2-4 Robert Milkins Round 2
77 David Gilbert 4-3 David Morris Round 2
78 Luca Brecel 2-4 Stephen Lee Round 2
79 Joe Perry 4-0 Robbie Williams Round 2
80 John Higgins 1-4 Mark Davis Round 2

9.00pm

The action ends today with eight more players prevailing to reach the Last 16. I remind you the second part of this PTC 12 is taking place next year in Munich, Germany from January 6-8.

9.00am
33 Graeme Dott v. Adam Wicheard Round 1
34 Marcus Campbell v. Peter Ebdon Round 1
35 Li Yan v. Thomas Wealthy Round 1
36 Craig Steadman v. Daniel Wells Round 1
37 Dechawat Poomjaeng v. Paul Davison Round 1
38 Michael Holt v. James McGouran Round 1
39 Steve Davis v. Liam Monk Round 1
40 Jamie Cope v. Phil O'Kane Round 1
11.00am
41 Ken Doherty v. Andrew Pagett Round 1
42 Adam Duffy v. Shane Castle Round 1
43 Stephen Hendry v. Ben Harrison Round 1
44 Liam Highfield v. Scott Donaldson Round 1
45 Ryan Day v. Jamie Gibson Round 1
46 Kyren Wilson v. Christopher Norbury Round 1
47 Fergal O'Brien v. Stuart Wood Round 1
48 Marco Fu v. Alfie Burden Round 1

1.00pm
49 Tony Drago v. Rod Lawler Round 1
50 Allister Carter v. Barry Pinches Round 1
51 Jamie Burnett v. Zhang Anda Round 1
52 Stephen Maguire v. Ricky Norris Round 1
53 Rory McLeod v. Stephen Winstone Round 1
54 Anthony Hamilton v. Ian Burns Round 1
55 Alan McManus v. Adrian Gunnell Round 1
56 Jimmy Robertson v. David Gray Round 1

3.00pm
57 Jack Lisowski v. Andrew Norman Round 1
58 Joe Jogia v. Mitchell Travis Round 1
59 James Wattana v. Kurt Maflin Round 1
60 Shaun Murphy v. Ashley Wright Round 1
61 Jamie Jones v. Ian McCulloch Round 1
62 Jak Jones v. Matthew Day Round 1
63 Mark King v. Oliver Lines Round 1
64 Andrew Higginson v. Dominic Dale Round 1
 
5.00pm
81 WINNER OF MATCH 33 v. WINNER OF MATCH 34 Round 2
82 WINNER OF MATCH 35 v. WINNER OF MATCH 36 Round 2
83 WINNER OF MATCH 37 v. WINNER OF MATCH 38 Round 2
84 WINNER OF MATCH 39 v. WINNER OF MATCH 40 Round 2
85 WINNER OF MATCH 41 v. WINNER OF MATCH 42 Round 2
86 WINNER OF MATCH 43 v. WINNER OF MATCH 44 Round 2
87 WINNER OF MATCH 45 v. WINNER OF MATCH 46 Round 2
88 WINNER OF MATCH 47 v. WINNER OF MATCH 48 Round 2
7.00pm
89 WINNER OF MATCH 49 v. WINNER OF MATCH 50 Round 2
90 WINNER OF MATCH 51 v. WINNER OF MATCH 52 Round 2
91 WINNER OF MATCH 53 v. WINNER OF MATCH 54 Round 2
92 WINNER OF MATCH 55 v. WINNER OF MATCH 56 Round 2
93 WINNER OF MATCH 57 v. WINNER OF MATCH 58 Round 2
94 WINNER OF MATCH 59 v. WINNER OF MATCH 60 Round 2
95 WINNER OF MATCH 61 v. WINNER OF MATCH 62 Round 2
96 WINNER OF MATCH 63 v. WINNER OF MATCH 64 Round 2

9.00pm
105 WINNER OF MATCH 81 v. WINNER OF MATCH 82 Round 3
106 WINNER OF MATCH 83 v. WINNER OF MATCH 84 Round 3
107 WINNER OF MATCH 85 v. WINNER OF MATCH 86 Round 3
108 WINNER OF MATCH 87 v. WINNER OF MATCH 88 Round 3
109 WINNER OF MATCH 89 v. WINNER OF MATCH 90 Round 3
110 WINNER OF MATCH 91 v. WINNER OF MATCH 92 Round 3
111 WINNER OF MATCH 93 v. WINNER OF MATCH 94 Round 3
112 WINNER OF MATCH 95 v. WINNER OF MATCH 96 Round 3
*all hours are UK time