Bahrain Championship Qualifying: Day Three (Afternoon)

What a dramatic afternoon it is turning out to be at Pontin’s as Liang Wenbo makes his first career 147 break. Click below to read what else has happened this afternoon…

Stunning Wenbo into last 48

In what was one of the most devastating displays of snooker you could ever wish to see, China’s Liang Wenbo eased past the world number 63 Martin Gould in no time, beating him 5-1.

This tells only half the story however as Liang started with a new career best break of 139, before smashing this with his first ever maximum break. Clearly full of confidence he then wrapped up the match with a second break of 139, his fourth century in total! You can read more about his win here but you can be sure that Michael Judge will have a match on his hands tomorrow in the final qualifying round.

And Hicks is soon to follow

The second player to win this afternoon was Devonshire’s finest, former world semi-finalist Andy Hicks who also won 5-1, this time against Tom Ford. This was a good win for Hicks against his younger, higher ranked opponent and he will be hoping for another appearance at the TV stages following his last 16 run in Shanghai. To make it though he will have to overcome another good player, Stephen Lee in tomorrow’s last 48 match.

Tenacious Trump fights past Muldoon

Despite finding himself 4-2 behind at one point, it was to be Judd Trump who would win the battle of the teenagers, coming through to win 5-4 against Irishman Vinnie Muldoon.

Indeed it was a close match all the way through, Muldoon taking the opener before Judd levelled it at 1-1 with a break of 109. This became 2-2 at the interval before the 18-year-old Muldoon made a charge, moving just one away from the match at 4-2.

Trump though is not just a good player, but he is a battler and hung in there to get one back at 4-3. Muldoon had a chance in the next, but perhaps nerves got the better of him, after all this would have been the best win of his career so far, and Judd levelled the match again at 4-4. Now with all the momentum behind him he made what proved to be a crucial break of 71 and just about secured his place in the last 48.

It’s good to see that Judd can dig in and win matches from difficult positions like this, indeed wins like this are perhaps more impressive than those where he has dominated from start to finish. He now plays Mark Williams tomorrow in what should be an brilliant match.

Muldoon meanwhile will be disappointed, but another couple of wins this week will have done his ranking good and he has shown again that he can more than compete at this level. Hopefully his time will come and we will see him on TV at some point before the year is over…

Liang Wenbo 5-1 Martin Gould 115(115)-7, 139(139)-0, 73(58)-6, 147(147)-0, 0-63(52), 139(139)-0
Mike Dunn 5-2 Joe Delaney 60-26, 120(95)-6, 8-80(44), 58(57)-24, 64-19, 52-80(62), 64(37)-14
Jamie Burnett 1-5 Paul Davies 51(51)-73(73), 53(42)-74(46), 16-77(66), 61-53, 28-88(69), 4-85(68)
Tom Ford 1-5 Andy Hick 60-31, 37(37)-72(70), 25-66(51), 41-77, 0-81(81), 1-90(74)
Dave Gilbert 2-5 Rod Lawler 61(61)-1, 13-55, 52(44)-13, 52(47)-59(44), 48-77, 45-67(65), 21-61(45)
Judd Trump 5-4 Vinnie Muldoon 19-72(39), 114(114)-0, 70-28, 50(50)-80(80), 37-76, 1-67, 86(62)-37, 71(43)-33, 71(71)-1
Marcus Campbell 5-2 Matt Couch 24-85(59), 91(61)-1, 77-60, 27-65, 65-60, 71(40)-66(62), 65-48(47)
Andrew Higginson 3-5 Mark Davis 24-70(54), 45-76(50), 86(86)-6, 64-35, 6-120(91), 72(45)-34, 1-92(37,38), 55-64(53)