World Championship Qualifying

The qualifying rounds for the World Championships are now well under way and veteran performers Ken Doherty and Alan McManus moved to within two wins of another appearance at The Crucible. Steve Davis holds a 7-5 advantage over Jamie Cope and there was an early exit for another veteran Anthony Hamilton.

Jamie Cope has now pulled a frame back and trails 7-6. This looks like it could go down to the wire.

Elsewhere Llang Wenbo looks bound for the next round as he leads Christopher Norbury 9-4. Joe Swail (another from the old school) leads 8-4, Feargal O'Brien leads Hammad Miah 8-3 and Dominic Dale is in a scrap leading John Astley 6-5.

Already through to the Second Round of qualifying (most notably) are:- Michael White, Mark King, Anthony McGill, Ryan Day, Graham Greene, Jamie Jones, Jack Lisowski, Peter Ebdon, Matthew Stevens and Graeme Dott.

Notable exits are:- Barry Pinches, Martin Gould, Rory McLeod and Nigel Bond.

Steve Davis extends his lead over Jamie Cope to 8-6.

Jamie Cope hangs in there by taking the next frame and trails 8-7.

Jamie Cope looked set to snatch the 16th frame but needing pink and black he slipped up and Davis takes it and leads 9-7.

Cope hanging in there and pulls a frame back to trail Steve Davis 9-8.

Cope V Davis is going down to a final frame decider s Cope pulls it back to 9-9.

Feargal O'Brien, Dominic Dale and Peter Lines all wrap up wins in the First Round of qualifying.

A nerve-jangling end to the match which was won on the black ball and Steve Davis scrambles through winning 10-9.

Fingers tightly crossed for Jimmy White - would love to see him at the Crucible one more time!

Duty281 wrote:Fingers tightly crossed for Jimmy White - would love to see him at the Crucible one more time!

It is looking good for him so far as he leads James Wattana 6-3 at their interval. Presumably they play to a finish tonight.

Jimmy White now 8-3 up and looking good for a place in the Second Round of qualifying.

Good stuff from him, by the sounds of it: he won six consecutive frames at the end, one with a century.

Matthew Selt, whom he faces in the second round, will pose a far greater challenge.

Duty281 wrote:Good stuff from him, by the sounds of it: he won six consecutive frames at the end, one with a century.

Matthew Selt, whom he faces in the second round, will pose a far greater challenge.

Indeed. His opponent Wattana is much like him - a veteran trying to rekindle long past glories whereas Selt is still regularly appearing at the big tournaments. If White can score heavily frequently without too many key misses then I'd still think he has a great chance but it won't be easy.

Peter Ebdon on the verge of going 4-0 down to Stuart Carrington. Graeme Dott looking good leading 4-1 and Angles McManus leads Andrew Pagett 3-0.

Peter Ebdon looks set to exit as he trails Carrington 7-1 at their interval. Dott is in better shape leading 7-2 and Alan McManus leads Andrew Pagett 7-1. In a battle of the youngsters Jak Jones leads Jack Lisowski 6-3.

Graeme Dott wins 10-2 as does Ryan Day - both go through to the final qualifying round.

Alan McManus is a frame away from a place in the qualifying round. Former World Champion Peter Ebdon went into tonight's session trailing Stuart Carrington 7-1 and is battling for survival and now trails 8-4.

Wins tonight also for Jamie Jones and Craig Steadman. Promising young Scot Anthony McGill also looks good for a place in the final qualifying round as he leads 8-4 and as I type McManus wraps up a win over Andrew Pagett 10-4.

Young Welsh star Jak Jones beats Jack Lisowski 10-5 and Ebdon on the brink of going 9-4 down against Carrington.

An upset brewing as Rod Lawler trails Brazilian Igor Figuiredo 9-6 with the South American ranked more than 60 places below Lawler.

China's No.4 Yu Delu wins and Ebdon clings on by his fingertips as he pulls back another frame to trail 9-6.

A break of 92 sees Ebdon win his third frame on the bounce and trails 9-7 now.

Anthony McGill beats Cao Yupeng 10-6. And Stuart Carrington holds himself together to compile a break of 71 and knock ex-champion Peter Ebdon out 10-7.

End of the road for Steve Davis, it would seem: he's 4-0 down. So too is Brecel, more surprisingly.

Decent start for the Whirlwind, though: 3-1 up.

EDIT: 4-1 now, after turning around a 66-0 deficit.

Yes Davis now trailing 5-0 and could soon be 6-0 to Kurt Maflin. Jimmy White in much better shape as he leads 5-2 and is on a break so could soon be 6-2.

Steve Davis salvaged that frame but still trails 5-1.

Jimmy White looks set to take a 7-2 lead into the second session and looks good for a place in the final round of qualifying - if he gets there he will play the winner of the Tom Ford/David Gilbert match.

Steve Davis being ripped apart by Kurt Maflin and about to go 7-1 behind. Surely, no way back from there.

Davis goes into the second session trailing 8-1 and hope he has his prayer mat with him.

Old stagers Matthew Stevens and Ken Doherty are going well and building big leads as is Dominic Dale.

Liang Wenbo safely into the next round.

Jamie Burnett goes through - won't please many.

Matthew Stevens goes through, Dominic Dale and Joe Swail tied at 9-9 and Ken Doherty on the brink of victory.

Kurt Maflin leads Steve Davis 9-1. Michael Holt well on top in his match leading 7-2 as is Jimmy White.

Steve Davis is hammered 10-1 and Matthew Selt is mounting a comeback against Jimmy White as he looks set to cut the score back to 7-4.

Andrew Higginson beats young star Luca Brecel 10-3.

Jimmy White has lost the first four frames this evening and now only leads 7-6.

Jimmy White bails out his sinking ship to win the 14th frame and leads 8-6.

Matthew Selt takes a tight frame to trail Jimmy White 8-7.

Matthew Selt on a maximum and looks set to level the match against Jimmy White at 8-8.

No maximum after nine reds and nine blacks he loses position but the frame safe and we are at 8-8.

Oh dear Jimmy White blows a chance to win the 17th frame and it slips away and Matthew Selt now leads 9-8.

After having lead 7-2 after the first session, Jimmy White has lost to Matthew Selt 10-8.

The final round of qualifying is just getting under way. The matches are as follows:-

Craig Steadman (81) (Eng) v Jamie Burnett (48)(Sco)
Mark King (33) (Eng) v Anthony McGill (32) (Sco)
Adam Duffy (Unranked) (Eng) v Jamie Jones (40) (Wal)
Mitchell Mann (100) (Eng) v Alan McManus (23) (Sco)
Ryan Day (20) (Wal) v Jak Jones (112) (Wal)
Li Hang (60) (Chi) v Stuart Carrington (69) (Eng)
Robin Hull (68) (Fin) v Igor Figueiredo (96) (Bra)
Yu DeLu (52) (Chi) v Graeme Dott (19) (Sco)
Mark Davis (18) (Eng) v Ken Doherty (46) (Ire)
Matthew Stevens (35) (Wal) v Joe Swail (67) (Eng)
Fergal O' Brien (26) (Ire) v Kurt Maflin (38) (Eng)
Zhang Anda (98) (Chi) v Liang Wenbo (21) (Chi)
Xiao Guodong (22) (Chi) v Jimmy Robertson (42) (Eng)
Robbie Williams (58) (Eng) v Michael Holt (25) (Eng)
Matthew Selt (30) (Eng) v Tom Ford (63) (Eng)
Andrew Higginson (50) (Eng) v Robert Milkins (17) (Eng)

World ranking in brackets.

Ken Doherty trails 3-0 and Graeme Dott level at 2-2 against Yu Delu. McManus leads 3-0 as does Ryan Day.

Scores from this morning's first session:-

Mark Davis 8 Ken Doherty 1
Mitchell Mann 3 Alan McManus 6
Craig Steadman 6 Jamie Burnett 3
Matthew Stevens 5 Joe Swail 4
Ryan Day 6 Jak Jones 3
Yu Delu 5 Graeme Dott 4
Mark King 5 Anthony McGill 4
Adam Duffy 4 Jamie Jones 5

Disappointed for White - golden chance (his last?) surrendered.