Here is my slightly delayed update from Saturday’s UK Championship qualifiers, the last of the third round matches…
Morning/Evening Matches:
The two form players in action yesterday both recorded impressive victories to move into the final qualifying round, though their wins could not have been much more contrasting.
Liang Wenbo put in one of his break-building exhibitions as he brushed aside poor Lee Spick 9-1. Liang came out of the blocks with breaks of 71, 48, 81, 42 and 61 to be 4-0 ahead at the interval, before adding 60, 78 and 74 later on as he secured another impressive win this season. Ironically though the only century of the match came from Spick in the one frame that he did manage to win! Liang will now play Joe Swail tomorrow in what will be an interesting rematch following their controversial clash in Sheffield last season for a place in Telford.
Judd Trump meanwhile had a much tougher match against Jin Long, surprisingly so after he raced into a 4-1 lead early on. He managed to maintain a gap at 5-2, 6-3 and 7-4 before Jin won the next three frames to come back at him and level the match at 7-7 before going into the lead at 8-7. Judd though showed his ever-increasing maturity and won two more tight frames to clinch a gutsy 9-8 win. Next up for him will be a clash with Michael Judge tomorrow.
Devonshire’s Andy Hicks followed up his win over Patrick Wallace with a dominant 7-1 victory over John Parrott after the former world champion retired from the match due to illness. It has been a good season so far for Hicks and he will now be looking to further secure his top 64 status with another win over Stephen Lee tomorrow…
Jimmy Michie 9-7 Stuart Pettman 72(40)-55, 22-80(80), 103(54)-1, 22-86(53), 43(43)-68(68), 47-79, 0-116(116), 0-97(76), 123(42,60)-1, 68(45)-57(57), 65(46)-49, 71-38, 17-79(78), 70-20, 109(68,41)-7, 80(72)-1
Liang Wenbo 9-1 Lee Spick 129(71)-0, 77(48)-32, 114(81)-0, 111(42,61)-24, 13-108(104), 69(60)-34, 66-15, 78(78)-1, 77(74)-13, 66-43
Adrian Gunnell 9-4 Matt Selt 40-76, 71(57)-6, 0-81(50), 69-31, 0-143(143), 71(53)-37, 80(55)-4, 67-16, 85(40,45)-9, 0-78(64), 73(72)-1, 73(58)-6, 59-27
Judd Trump 9-8 Jin Long 60(39)-64, 63-3, 111(111)-0, 59(45)-50(50), 53(41)-47(42), 0-106(43,58), 113(104)-5, 42-72, 80(73)-0, 0-105(60), 94(94)-0, 44-65(47), 15-108(42,66), 1-53(45), 18-76, 65-38, 57-43
Tom Ford 6-9 Martin Gould 106(47,59)-15, 44-66, 127(102)-3, 6-90(82), 48-73, 5-96(79), 70(39)-46, 67(48)-47, 21-67, 1-114(64,50), 26-67(58), 36-58(45), 130(108)-0, 69(58)-66(62), 0-90(89)
John Parrott 1-7 Andy Hicks 24-64, 8-69, 67-49(41), 0-86(85), 29-58, 34-68(41), 16-88(46,42), 27-48 **Parrott withdraw due to illness
Afternoon Matches:
After a couple of 9-8 wins in his opening two matches, this time it didn’t go the way of The Whirlwind as Jimmy White’s run came to an end against Rory McLeod yesterday. Resuming 5-3 down, things got even worse for him as McLeod knocked in 68 and 109 to move 7-3 up, but all credit to Jimmy as he again fought back this week and made it 8-8. Though both had chances in the decider, a 39 break from Rory proved to be important and he now moves on to face Dave Harold in round four.
One of the biggest upsets (though not to me), was that caused by Mark Davis who knocked out the Shanghai Masters winner Ricky Walden 9-7 on Saturday afternoon. It was a close match as having finished their first session at 4-4, they once again traded frames, the most notable being a 141 total clearance from Walden which started off with a free ball and so contained a total of 16 reds with colours. From 7-7 though Davis managed to snatch a tight 17th frame to lead 8-7 before taking the 18th to win the match 9-7. An excellent win for Mark, he now meets Nigel Bond in the next round while Ricky must be nervous about his prospects for a Wembley wildcard now…
Michael Holt managed to shake off the Bahrain disappointment in his match by completing a 9-5 win over Kuldesh Johal. Though there weren’t too many big breaks, Michael showed his fighting qualities by taking several tight frames to book a tie with Fergal O’Brien tomorrow.