The first day of the 2009 Pukka Pies UK Championship Qualifiers has now been completed and it has been a great day for Patrick Wallace and a bad one for the three players handed main tour wildcards by the WPBSA in action today…
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As indicated above, the biggest win of the day was recorded by former World Championship quarter-finalist Patrick Wallace who continued his strong form with an excellent 9-0 whitewash of Scotland’s Mark Boyle this afternoon. Since his 9-5 win over Stephen Craigie in this tournament a year ago, Patrick has not lost a first-round match and although Mark managed to pot at least one ball in every frame played today (indeed he scored more than 20 points in all but two of them), he was not able to win a frame, let alone put Wallace under pressure.
Next up for Patrick as he looks to cement his place inside the top 64 provisionally is a match with the struggling John Parrott, a more than winnable tie…
Another in-form player is Matt Selt, qualifier for both of the previous two ranking events this season and he made it nine wins from nine today with a tight 9-7 victory over former top 16 player David Gray today. It was not without a scare however after coming out of the first session with a healthy 6-2 advantage, he could only sit and watch as Gray launched a terrific fight-back in the second, taking the next four frames to bring himself level at 6-6. Selt though showed his increasing maturity to hang in there and he took the next two to lead 8-6, before eventually closing it out with a break of 53.
From starting the season ranked outside of the top 64, he is now right in contention for a place in the top 48 if he can maintain his form until the end of the season. More immediately however, his next opponent is David Roe, a man who has won just two of his last twelve ranking event matches.
It was a bad day for all of the WPBSA tour wildcards today as Ian Preece and Andrew Norman both joined David Gray by crashing out of the tournament to Ben Woollaston and Craig Steadman respectively. Ben in particular has started the season in fine form and thanks to Jimmy White’s much-publicised withdrawal, now finds himself through to the third round and a tie with Jimmy Michie. Craig meanwhile faces Norwich pro Barry Pinches.
Results from Global Snooker: