Night three of the Premier League as snooker legends Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry made their first appearances of the League season against Joe Perry and Mark Selby respectively. Click below to find out what happened…
Match One: Perry battles past tired Davis
In what was a scrappy affair between Joe Perry and six-times world champion Steve Davis, it was Perry who was to play the better snooker and move to the top of the league with a 4-2 win.
Perry looked good from the off, making a solid 45 break before missing a tricky red to the corner while hampered, to let Davis back in. The rest of the frame was quite tactical and as so often is the case when that happens, it was Davis who would go on to win it.
The start of frame two was unusual to say the least as Steve, playing his second match of the day having been involved in the Grand Prix qualifiers this morning, surprised everyone with his break-off shot by slowly rolling into the pack of reds off two cushions. This was a tactic that he employed in each of the three frames where he broke off, but it did not prove to be effective here as Perry punished a missed red with an 80 break of his own. Frame three was to go the same way as following another missed red from Davis, Perry made a break of 71 to move into a lead that he would not relinquish.
Perry secured at least a draw in frame four, largely thanks to a run of 55 made following another strange break-off from Davis. Frame five was to be a closer affair with Davis initially looking good as he made a break of 44 to look like moving to just one behind at 3-2. It was not to be however as following a badly missed pink to the yellow pocket, Perry hit back and eventually managed to clinch the frame and the match on the brown.
Davis did manage to earn another £1,000 by taking the last frame of the night with a break of 65, but it was Perry who took the match 4-2.
Perry now sits level with Mark Selby at the top of the league and will next face Stephen Hendry on October 23rd at the Plymouth Pavillions. Davis meanwhile meets Mark Selby at the Malvern Theatre two weeks before that.
Match Two: Super Selby eases past Hendry
Mark Selby followed up his opening night win over Ding Junhui with a comprehensive 5-1 victory over seven-times world champion Stephen Hendry tonight.
Selby started as he meant to go on in the first frame where although he hit no big breaks, he gave Hendry very little to go at and slowly amassed enough points himself to cross over the winning line. Frame two was much the same, every shot Hendry had seemingly a difficult one as Mark moved into a 2-0 lead in no time.
The third frame was a little closer with Selby finally missing when in the balls allowing Hendry to make a break of 37 to bring himself back into contention. It was Selby to prevail once again however following a long exchange on the colours and secure himself at least one point from the evening.
Needing one more frame to take the match, two to move back to the top if the league, it did not take long to come as he wrapped up the next in no time with a solid 50 break, started by a terrific red down the side cushion.
Hendry at least avoided the dreaded whitewash in frame five, making a break of 52 before missing a relatively straightforward red to give Mark a way back into the frame. Selby could not take it though and Hendry made no mistake second time around.
He also looked like taking the final frame of the night but Selby not being one to give in fought back from needing a couple of snookers to snatch it on the black, sealing a terrific 5-1 win.
Although not scoring heavily, Selby controlled the match from the off and did more than enough to secure the maximum two points and move to the top of the table. With two wins from two against players of the calibre of Ding and Hendry, Mark will be full of confidence and looking forward to his next match against Steve Davis in two weeks time.
As for Hendry, though he had by no means played at his best, to a large extent this was because Selby simply had not allowed him to. Almost every time Stephen came to the table he was faced with a long or otherwise tricky shot that he didn’t really look like making. He did at least avoid the whitewash though and he will be hoping for better when he is next in action against Joe Perry on October 23rd.
September 25 – The Assembly Rooms, Derby
£4,000 Joe Perry 4-2 Steve Davis £2,000
45(45)-77(32). 85(80)-8, 75(67)-27, 61(55)-0, 63(47)-45(44), 30-94(65)
£5,000 Mark Selby 5-1 Stephen Hendry £1,000
82(59)-4, 77(43)-9, 76(40)-55(37), 79(50)-8, 1-62(52), 67-64