Round 6 (11)
(21 January)
Marco Fu (Hong Kong) 10-0 Gareth Chilcott (Wales)
Mario Geudens (Belgium) 10-8 Patrick Delsemme (Belgium)
Barry Pinches 10-3 Richard Somauroo (Mauritius)
Stuart Bingham 10-4 Shawn Budd (Australia)
Stephen Maguire (Scotland) 10-7 Phaitoon Phonbun (Thailand)
Robin Hull (Finland) 10-0 Tom Finstad (Canada)
Robin Hull completed a routine 10-0
victory today against Canada's
Tom Finstad,
but was left rueing a missed black that cost him £7,000. In
frame five Hull was on course for a maximum break, having taken 15
reds and blacks and the colour up to the pink, but he missed the black
for the magic maximum and not only lost out of the max break prize of
£5,000 but was not even in the running for the pre-tv high break prize
of £2,000.
That honour is currently held by 17 year old Scot Stephen Maguire.
Maguire compiled his 144 in frame nine of his match, to give himself a
fighting chance at 6-3 down.
He duly took his chance in tonight's session, fighting through to beat
Phaitoon Phonbun 10-7 and
progress to Telford. He rounded the match
off in style with another century - 122.
Marco Fu completed his 10-0 whitewash
of Gareth Chilcott, while
Barry Pinches
and Stuart Bingham both
capitalised on their early leads to
win 10-3 and 10-4. Pinches closed out his match with runs of 83 and
97.
The Belgium battle of Geudens
and Delsemme, locked at 5-4
after the
first session, progressed through a series of nailbitingly close
frames tonight. Geudens stretched his lead to 6-4 and 7-5, but
Delsemme fought back to level at 7-7. But Geudens again opened up a
two frame advantage and this time it was decisive as he went on to a
10-8 win.
Today's winners now get a break before travelling to Telford on 29th
March to resume their dreams of reaching The Crucible.
Today's matches have concluded the qualifying series at Blackpool. The
Nations Cup continues, with Scotland red hot favourites,
but the other teams all have mathematical chances of joining them in the final. On
Monday 25th January, The Regal Welsh starts in Cardiff, with
Paul Hunter
defending his title, The Ladies Regal Welsh dovetails into the
same event and the first week in February sees the third Tour Event of
the season, where many players still entertain hopes of making the Top
106 on the Ranking List and thus qualifying for next season's main
tour.
Awesome snooker at Blackpool! (Jan 20)
Fu and Hull in a hurry - Maguire takes high break - Geudens/Delsemme locked.
Marco Fu has blitzed his way to a 9-0
lead over Port Talbot's Gareth Chilcott
at Blackpool today. Fu's remarkable scoring power was emphasised as
he compiled breaks of 53, 54, 66 ,94 and 129 on his way to an unassailable
lead.
Fu's breaks paled into insignificance when 17 year old Scottish "Amateur"
Stephen Maguire took to the table. Maguire is a regular practice partner of
Stephen Hendry and already looks set to be
the latest Scottish sensation off
their "production line". Maguire was struggling at 6-1 down to
Phaitoon Phonbun,
but he clawed one back one the colours to just keep in touch and
then produced the event's highest break - which looks set to take the £5,000
pre televised prize. To clip his deficit to 6-3 Maguire compiled a 144 total
clearance, just pipping
Barry Pinches effort of 143.
Finland's Robin Hull appears to be
in invincible form at the moment, and he
blistered his way to a 9-0 lead over Canada's
Tom Finstad. Hull ran in
breaks of 62, 56, 64, 65, 52 and topped it off with a break of
140.
The remaining matches are producing at a more sedate pace, but
Barry Pinches
has pulled out a 6-3 lead over
Richard Somauroo, runs of 65,
105 and 54
helping him along the way.
Stuart Bingham holds a similar
lead over Australia's Shawn Budd,
with a
match against another Aussie, Quienten Hann at Telford to aim for.
Meanwhile Mario Geudens and
Patrick Delsemme are locked
at 5-4 to Geudens. A
break of 73 for Geudens in the final frame of the session giving him his
narrow lead.
The matches are played to a conclusion tonight - Thursday. The winners will take the "low seeds"
place in the draw and progress to the Telford stage of the event.
Already through to represent the Overseas contingent are
Joe Grech of Malta
and Björn Haneveer of
Belgium. Today's matches will guarantee at least two
more winners to join them as
Geudens tackles Delsemme and
Canada's Finstad
takes on Finland's star Robin Hull
Round 5 (10)
(19-20 January)
Nick Walker 10-6 Rory McLeod
Nick Terry 10-6 Stuart Pettman
Chris Shade 10-2 Wayne Brown
Leigh Griffin 10-5 Shailesh Jogia
Paul Sweeny 10-6 Mark Bennett (Wales)
Chris Scanlon 10-9 Darryn Walker
Craig Harrison 10-7 Wayne Jones (Wales)
Craig MacGillivray (Scotland) 10-7 Munraj Pal
Lee Richardson 10-4 Paul S Davison
Alfie Burden 10-4 Barry Hawkins
Stephen O'Connor (Ireland) 10-8 John Whitty
Joe Grech (Malta) 10-6 Karl Payne
Gareth Chilcott (Wales) 10-6 Graham Horne (Scotland)
Robert Milkins 10-6 Mark Gray
Tony Knowles 10-5 Marcus Campbell
Patrick Delsemme (Belgium) 10-9 Karl Burrows
Michael Holt 10-7 Darren Clarke
Matthew Couch (Scotand) 10-9 David McLellan (Scotland)
Troy Shaw 10-7 Kristjan Helgason (Iceland)
Barry Pinches 10-2 Anthony Davies (Wales)
John Lardner (Scotland) 10-4 Damian Massey
Stuart Bingham 10-6 Martin Dziewialtowski (Scotland)
Dave Finbow 10-3 Patrick Wallace (N.Ireland)
Paul McPhillips (Scotland) 10-6 Jimmy Michie
Stephen Maguire (Scotland) 10-8 Sean Storey
Leo Fernandez (Ireland) 10-5 Steve Judd
Nigel Gilbert 10-7 Ian Brumby
Joe Perry 10-4 Mark Johnston-Allen
John Read 10-4 Nick Dyson
Robin Hull (Finland) 10-8 Peter McCullagh
Björn Haneveer (Belgium) 10-9 Stefan Mazrocis
Gary Ponting 10-7 Colm Gilcreest (Ireland)
16 out of 32 seeds fell in Round 4 and Round Five is already taking its toll
on the seeded players as 9 out of the first 16 fail to negotiate their first
match.
Triumph of the day so far goes to Tony Knowles, who has slipped steadily
down the Ranking list recently. He has revived his form and distant hopes of
a return to the Crucible with an emphatic 10-5 win of the season's high
flyer, Marcus Campbell of Scotland. Knowles opened with 52 to take the
first, but soon found himself 3-2 down. From there he hit a vein of five
consecutive frames, that took him 7-3 up and broke the back of the match.
Knowles is on schedule now to play Michael Judge, currently representing
Ireland in The Nations Cup.
Malta's Joe Grech kept alive his hopes of joining his countryman Tony Drago
at The Crucible. Another solid 10-6 win, higlighted by breaks of 120 and,
136 in the winning frame, over Karl Payne takes him through.
Belgium's Patrick Delsemme crept another step closer as well, but only after
a titanic struggle against Karl Burrows. Delsemme trailed from the opening
frame, falling behind 5-1, 6-2, 7-4, 8-5 and 9-7 before winning the last
three frames.
Port Talbot's Gareth Chilcott notched a welcome win for Wales on what had
been a miserable day for his peers in The Nations Cup. Runs of 64, 70 and a
match winning 80 in the last gave him a deserved victory 10-6 against
Scotland's Graham Horne.
Chris Scanlon survived a similarly close shave, but a break of 53 in the
decider gave him victory against Darryn Walker.
Alfie Burden had no such problems as he breezed through 10-4 against Barry Hawkins.
Runs of 67, 60 and 85 were his major contributions.
Stephen O'Connor representing Ireland in The Nations Cup had to make a quick
dash from Newcastle to Blackpool to participate. He achieved a hard fought
win over John Whitty, but having secured a 7-3 lead was made to work all the
way for his victory. O'Connor returns to Newcastle to represent Ireland
again today.
At the end of this round, the six lowest seeded players will have to play
the overseas qualifiers, one of whom is Marco Fu, bidding to make a Crucible
debut.
Scottish Amateur Stephen Maguire wins again. Helgason, Hull and Haneveer still flying the European flag
Match of the day: Matthew Couch 10-9 David McLellan
A nerve-tingling struggle between England and Scotland. Scunthorpe's
Couch took a 3-0 and then 5-2 lead, but he just couldn't shake off the
challenge of David McLellan. By the time the scores were locked at 8-8
the players had compiled six 50+ breaks, with the highlight being 101
from McLellan in the sixteenth frame as he fought back to level the
match. Couch rallied to go ahead 9-8, but McLellan bounced back again
with a run of 102 to level at 9-9. In a 45 minute decider Couch
eventually held his nerve to sneak through 66-44. Couch's reward is a
tie against another Scot - Euan Henderson at Telford in March.
Stephen Maguire won his 9th consecutive match, during which time he
has played 98 frames. A thrilling 10-8 victory against Sean Storey
will now earn Maguire a crack at one of the overseas qualifiers, the
last hurdle he will have to cross before qualifying for his third
venue of the event. Maguire set out last November alongside his fellow
amateurs at Stockport, and if he survives another match at Blackpool,
he will have to get his road map out again to find his way to Telford
in March.
Robin Hull continued his superb 1999 form, to keep him on schedule to
play 1986 World champion Joe Johnson at Telford. Hull may yet have to
negotiate the overseas playoff round for the six lowest seeded
qualifiers.
Round 4 (9)
(18-19 January)
Rory McLeod 10-7 Barry Mapstone
Nick Terry 10-6 Jamie Bodle
Chris Shade 10-7 Malcolm Bilclough
Shailesh Jogia 10-4 Jason Wallace
Paul Sweeny 10-5 Sam Chong (Malaysia)
Darryn Walker 10-8 Les Dodd
Craig Harrison 10-8 Guo Hua (China)
Munraj Pal 10-8 Ian Sargeant (Wales)
Paul S Davison 10-6 Ryan Day (Wales)
Barry Hawkins 10-3 Micky Roughan
John Whitty 10-8 James Reynolds (Wales)
Joe Grech (Malta) 10-6 Kirk Stevens (Canada)
Gareth Chilcott (Wales) 10-7 Steve Newbury (Wales)
Robert Milkins 10-7 Mike Hallett
Tony Knowles 10-7 Avtar Sohanpal
Patrick Delsemme (Belgium) 10-5 Hugh Abernethy
Michael Holt 10-7 Matt Wilson
David McLellan (Scotland) 10-7 Craig Roper
Kristjan Helgason (Iceland) 10-8 Simon Bedford
Barry Pinches 10-6 Jason Weston
Damian Massey 10-8 Philip Williams (Wales)
Stuart Bingham 10-6 Alan Burnett (Scotland)
Patrick Wallace (N.Ireland) 10-8 Gary Thomson (Scotland)
Paul McPhillips (Scotland) 10-9 Geoff Dunn (Scotland)
Stephen Maguire (Scotland) 10-9 Mark Fenton (Wales)
Leo Fernandez (Ireland) 10-5 Neil Robertson (New Zealand)
Nigel Gilbert 10-9 Eddie Barker
Mark Johnston-Allen 10-5 Antony Bolsover
Nick Dyson 10-9 Oliver King
Robin Hull (Finland) 10-4 Stephen Murphy (Ireland)
Björn Haneveer (Belgium) 10-3 Adrian Rosa
Colm Gilcreest (Ireland) 10-4 Eddie Manning
A ton only wins one frame
A strange fact emerged from Round Four's matches as there were 10 centurians
during the day's play, but with the honourable exception of Robin Hull who
crashed in breaks of 123 and 108 during his over, the other nine all lost.
Runs of 100 and 102 couldn't save Jason Weston from going down 10-6 To Barry Pinches.
Llanelli's Philip Williams compiled 104 in his opener, got pulled off
at 5-3 up and in the second session was pulled off at 9-8 down and
eventually lost 10-8 on the resumption. (Matches are pulled off with frames
to play if they cannot be completed before the next session is due to
start).
Malaysia's Sam Chong went down fighting to Kent's Paul Sweeny, but his
scoring power - 81, 122, 64, and 97 wasn't enough, curiously Sweeny's
highest contribution during the match was 57, but it was enough.
China's Guo Hua perished at the same stage, beaten 10-8 by Craig Harrison
and Kirk Stevens won't be gracing the Crucible this year, as the obdurate
Maltese player Joe Grech brought all his experience to bear in a bruising
10-6 win. Stevens compiled a run of 101 to claw back to 6-9 but it only
postponed the inevitable.
Two centuries - 117 and 127 - didn't help James Reynolds of Wales, beaten by
Liverpool's John Whitty. Swansea's Mark Fenton eventually succumbed to a
break of 57 in the decider by Scotland's 17 year old Amateur Stephen Maguire,
who has now won 8 matches.
Iceland's Kristian Helgason bagged himself another notable scalp as he beat
last year's Crucible debutant Simon Bedford 10-8. Helgason joins Finland's
Robin Hull and Belgium's Patrick Delsemme in the race to get their country's
first ever representative to The Crucible, but they have four more matches
to play to achieve that target.
Mike Hallett's hopes were ended by Robert Milkins, but Tony Knowles and Mark Johnston-Allen
both negotiated tricky matches to keep their runs going.
Knowles came through 10-7 against Avtar Sohanpal and will now face the
in-form Marcus Campbell, while Mark Johnston-Allen beat Antony Bolsover
10-5
Round 3 (8)
(16-17 January)
Rory McLeod 10-7 Marc Farnsworth
Jamie Bodle 10-8 Richard Jones
Malcolm Bilclough 10-8 Mike Henson (Germany)
Shailesh Jogia 10-6 Bob Chaperon (Canada)
Sam Chong (Malaysia) 10-3 Paul Clarke
Les Dodd 10-8 John Giles
Guo Hua (China) 10-3 Stuart Mann
Ian Sargeant (Wales) 10-6 Surinder Gill
Ryan Day (Wales) 10-5 Neil Selman
Barry Hawkins 10-3 Sean Lanigan
John Whitty 10-8 Mehmet Husnu (Cyprus)
Kirk Stevens (Canada) 10-8 Gary Lees
Gareth Chilcott (Wales) 10-4 Simon Parker
Mike Hallett 10-4 Andy Neck
Avtar Sohanpal 10-9 Mike Dunn
Patrick Delsemme (Belgium) 10-6 Darren Hackeson
Matt Wilson 10-6 Stuart Reardon
Craig Roper 10-5 Mark Miller
Kristjan Helgason (Iceland) 10-6 Allister Carter
Barry Pinches 10-3 Jeff Cundy
Damian Massey 10-6 Grant Conquest
Stuart Bingham 10-5 Joe Delaney (Ireland)
Gary Thomson (Scotland) 10-7 Dermot McGlinchey (N.Ireland)
Geoff Dunn (Scotland) 10-3 Paul Cavney
Stephen Maguire (Scotland) 10-6 Adrian Gunnell
Neil Robertson (New Zealand) 10-8 Johl Younger (Australia)
Eddie Barker 10-8 Keith E (Singapore)
Mark Johnston-Allen 10-6 John Burns
Nick Dyson 10-5 Tai Pichit (Thailand)
Robin Hull (Finland) 10-2 Brian Rowswell
Björn Haneveer (Belgium) 10-5 Steve Harrison
Colm Gilcreest (Ireland) 10-4 David McDonnell
Round 3 is now complete and the undoubted highlight so far is the
performance of World No. 106, Barry Pinches from Norwich. The record books
were torn up as Pinches embarked on an unprecendent bout of breakbuilding -
his four century breaks encompassed three total clearances, and the leading
break so far challenging for the £2,000 high break prize for the
pre-Crucible stages. His victim was Scunthorpe's Jeff Cundy who bowed out
10-3. Pinches is a former English Amateur Champion. He contributed two
centuries in the first session and then made 143 and 134 in the first two
frames of the session.
Pinches was the only player in scoring mood - Matt Wilson had already set
the pace with a superb total clearance of 140, which he might have expected
to take the break prize. Consolation for Wilson as he completed a 10-6 win
over Stuart Reardon. Mark Miller knocked in 101 but eventually bowed out
10-8 to Bristol's Craig Roper, whose brother Stuart competes on the minor
tour.
Another former English Amateur Champion Stuart Bingham safely negotiated his
match against Joe Delaney. 117 was the highlight for Bingham who now faces
Scotland's fancied young player Alan Burnett.
Another amateur qualifier - Stephen Maguire made it to round four, defeating
Adrian Gunnell 10-6 and celebrating with a break of exactly 100 in the final
frame.
The all-Oceanian battle saw Neil Robertson prevail 10-8 against Johl Younger.
Mark Johnston-Allen notched another victory in his bid to return to a higher
ranking position. He beat John Burns 10-6 and will now play Antony Bolsover.
Finland's only Snooker Star Robin Hull continued his great streak of form as
he cruised past Brian Rowswell 10-2 to set up a match against Stephen Murphy.
Hull notched another of the day's ten centuries with a run of 105.
Thailand's Tai Pichit couldn't emulate his fellow Far East players as he
lost 10-5 to Nick Dyson. However 8 overseas players have survived to round
four.
The Old and the New
Kirk Stevens produced his vintage form to defeat Gary Lees of Oldham
and progress to Round Four of The World Championship. The score having
reached 8-8, Stevens suddenly rolled back the years to compile
successive breaks of 106 and 123 to close out the match in style.
Stevens will now face the vastly experienced Joe Grech of Malta.
Joining Stevens will be Mike Hallett. Having recovered from 8-0 in his
first match, Hallett enjoyed an easier day's work against Exter's Andy
Neck, winning 10-4. A break of exactly 100 helped Hallett on his way.
At the other end of the scale, 18 year old Welsh Amateur Champion Ryan
Day from Pontycwmmer successfully negotiated his seventh match so far
in the event, beating Burslem's Neil Selman 10-5.
Malaysia's hope Sam Chong ran in breaks of 70, 59 and 67 on the way to
a 4-0 lead against Paul Clarke. Chong did not let his opponent off the
hook as he added runs of 56, 54 and 85 on the way to a convincing 10-3
win.
Germany's representative Mike Henson, bowed out 10-8 to Malcolm Bilclough,
the highlight here a 102 from Bilclough.
Rory McLeod also notched a ton with 102, on his way to a 10-7 win over
Marc Farnsworth.
China's Guo Hua stormed to a 6-0 lead against Stuart Mann with
consecutive breaks of 75, 82, 62, 79, 110 and 94, a further run of 83
saw him through 10-3.
High breaks (rounds 2-3)
Barry Pinches leads the charge for the £2,000 pre-televised high break with
his 143 and has notched 6 centuries so far. Kristjan Helgason and Robin Hull both have 3 tons. Stuart Bingham, Adrian Gunnell and Kirk Stevens - 2.
