It was another busy day in Leicester yesterday.

Here is WST report on the afternoon session:

Hugill Lands Biggest Win

World number 79 Ashley Hugill said his 3-2 victory over four-time ranking event winner Kyren Wilson at the matchroom.live British Open was the biggest win of his career.

The manner of the defeat for Wilson highlighted the cutthroat nature of this quickfire best of five format, with the Warrior unable to get over the line despite compiling two century runs.

World number six Wilson opened up the tie with a fine break of 101 to move 1-0 ahead. However, 2020 WSF Open winner Hugill responded by snatching a dramatic second frame on the black. The York cueman followed that up with a run of 80 to move a frame from victory at 2-1.

Former Crucible finalist Wilson kept himself in contention with a century contribution of 115. It was to no avail, as Hugill composed a break of 57 in the decider to help himself over the line. The draw for the second round has pitted Hugill against Anthony Hamilton, who defeated Ukrainian Iulian Boiko 3-2.

Hugill said: “It has to be the biggest win of my career – against the world number six, a really top player, and also my first one on the main TV table in a major tournament apart from the Shootout.

“I am very happy. I took confidence from my performances in the Championship League and went out knowing I couldn’t back down or shy away.

“I am back to Sheffield tonight where I am based. In practice I am trying to play Yan Bingtao at least three times a week, and that is doing me good.”

Perth’s Scott Donaldson defeated practice partner Dean Young 3-0 in a whitewash victory. Next up Donaldson faces Ben Hancorn, who registered a shock 3-2 defeat of Joe Perry this afternoon.

Scotland’s Stephen Maguire defeated Jackson Page 3-0, while his compatriot Anthony McGill succumbed to a 3-1 loss against Zhao Jianbo.

Anthony McGill’s defeat at the hands of young Zhao – he’s 18 – is the only mention of what happened in the morning. There was however a very good win by 17 years old Wu Yize: he beat the experienced Fraser Patrick by 3-0 in what was actually a very close match.

I put that quote by Hugill in bold because it shows that the CLS, despite not being very popular with the fans, is extremely beneficial to lower ranked players. Obviously, four weeks is too long and the format needs to be looked at but I do hope it stays as the opening event in the calendar. What about staging the first round, in three different venues, on the same week? Of course that would come at a cost, but it would free two weeks in the calendar that could be used for events with a paying audience.

The evening session was the “Big One” and this is WST report:

Hendry Battles Past Wakelin

Scotland’s seven-time World Champion Stephen Hendry edged to a dramatic 3-2 win over Chris Wakelin at the matchroom.live British Open in Leicester.

Hendry is embarking on his second season back on tour since he initially hung up his cue nine years ago. The 36-time ranking event winner took up the offer of an invitational tour card last season, but only made two tournament appearances. He scored a win over old rival Jimmy White at World Championship qualifying.

This evening’s encounter was Hendry’s first professional appearance in front of a crowd since his World Championship quarter-final defeat to compatriot Stephen Maguire in 2012.

A tense evening of snooker saw the pair share the first two frames, before Hendry moved one from victory at 2-1 after compiling runs of 31 and 37 to take the third. Wakelin forced a decider, but it was Hendry that eventually edged over the line by clearing the colours to win 3-2.

Next up for the 52-year-old will be a last 64 meeting with either Gary Wilson or Fergal O’Brien.

Hendry said: “There was lots of stuff to be encouraged by. I thought my long game was pretty good, especially in the first half of the match. I cued quite nicely on occasions, which is what I’m after. I’m working very hard with Stephen Feeney on the technical side of the game. I’m getting better every day but I’m obviously lacking a bit of match composure.

“One of the main reasons for wanting to come back and compete was to experience what I did tonight with the crowd. It was magnificent. We got an advantage from the full crowd here supporting Mark Selby and it was tremendous playing in front of an audience again.”

World Champion Mark Selby came through a deciding frame to defeat Shaun Murphy 3-2 in a repeat of this year’s Crucible final.

The pair crossed cues in a classic World Championship title match in May, with Selby coming through 18-15. The open draw in operation this week remarkably pitted them against each other once more.

This week presents an opportunity for Selby to return to the summit of the world rankings for the first time since March 2019. World number one Judd Trump must, at the very least, outperform Selby this week in order to retain his place at the top of the rankings.

A vocal and near capacity crowd gave Leicester’s Selby a rapturous welcome as he walked out for his first appearance since winning his fourth world title. However, Murphy silenced Selby’s home support by taking a tight opener to lead 1-0.

Selby responded immediately to restore parity in the second with a break of 78. They then traded frames as the clash came down to a decider. Both players had opportunities to get over the line, but Selby eventually clinched the win with a run of 42.

Selby said: “In a best of five every frame feels like a decider. You are under pressure from the word go. I felt a little bit more under pressure out there because playing here in my home city in Leicester, you feel as if you are playing for them and if you lose you are letting them down.

“To step out there in my home city and home venue with all of the support was amazing. Every time I walked back to my chair and someone walked down the stairs, I more or less knew everybody in the crowd.”

Mark Davis bounced back from 2-1 down to beat former Shoot Out champion Michael Holt 3-2, while Iranian number one Hossein Vafaei beat Welshman Jamie Jones 3-1.

Stephen Hendry played very well in the first frame. However, after Chris Wakelin managed to win the second frame, there were signs that reminded me of Hendry in the last years of his “first” career. In those days, he often started a match well, but it only took a couple of mistakes to sap his confidence and for his form to desert him. Yesterday however he managed to stay in the match, wich is a good sign. The first bit I highlighted above shows that he’s aware of it and working on it. The second bit shows that this notion that in the days “Hendry” was all about business and winning, and “Jimmy” was the crowd pleaser is not entirely true. Crowds really mattered to Stephen Hendry back then too.

Frankly WST, you can’t seriously write that a best of 5 is a repeat of a Crucible final, can you? This was a cruel draw for both and Mark Selby was visibly under huge pressure, playting in his home town. Neither he or Shaun played their best. Mark Selby remains on course to regain the number 1 ranking spot.

This is not exactly pleasing Judd Trump, as reported in the press:

Judd Trump fires Mark Selby dig and rages at British Open conditions

Trump feels as though he has been the best player in the world in the last two years but faces losing his world No.1 ranking to Selby.

By Daniel Moxon

Judd Trump complained about the conditions at the British Open after scraping through his first-round tie. The 31-year-old won 3-2 agaist Mitchell Mann to progress, but is in danger of losing his world No.1 spot to Mark Selby should things not go his way at the Morningside Arena in Leicester.

Trump must reach at least the quarter-finals of the tournament, which is being held for the first time since 2004, if he is to keep hold of his status as the best player in the world.

Changes to the snooker calendar will see his ranking points drop this week, meaning he could lose the top spot he has held since August 2019.

He remained bullish when questioned about the situation, though, and stated that he had “clearly” been the best player on the circuit in the time since he reached the summit.

He said: “It’s not something I kept an eye on.

“I presumed that when Mark won that [the World Championship] that he’d be No.1, but obviously that’s not the case.

“It’s a tough one really because I think I’ve performed a miracle to be No.1, not winning the Worlds in the last two years, with how heavy the ranking points are favoured in that tournament.

“I’d be disappointed, not that I don’t think Mark deserves it, but quite clearly I’ve been the best player over the last two years. So for him to overtake me is probably a little bit of a fault with the ranking system.”

Trump went on to say it would be a particularly difficult pill to swallow if he lost his crown over a best-of-five match.

He said: “You’re obviously appreciative of any tournament, but a best-of-five is always going to be a flip of a coin.

“Best-of-seven is tough enough, but best-of-five… It’s always going to be a lottery, this tournament, there’s going to be some surprise results, you’re just hoping the conditions are good and best players will come to the top.”

He very nearly crashed out in the first round of the British Open, and would have done so had Mitchell Mann not missed a crucial blue in the deciding frame.

Despite coming out on top in that match, Trump was critical over the “definitely not level and very, very pingy” tables at the Morningside Arena.

He said: “It shouldn’t really be like that in the first round, the conditions were just so bad.

“It’s frustrating because I come in and felt I was playing well. He let me in in the first frame and I had the biggest bounce you’ll ever see.

“It’s frustrating as a player, you put the work in, I felt good on a 30-odd break, thinking of making a century, settle down straight away and then I’m out of position and 1-0 down.

“In a best-of-five it could be 33 per cent of the match. There was another time the ball rolled off, in a best-of-five you don’t need that. I’m guessing it’s the venue, a little bit uneven. You don’t mind losing but you don’t want it to be to do with the table.”

He continued: “It’ll just get worse because the tables are very heavy. It’s going to be tough to make breaks out there. I’d rather get beat than that kind of thing happen, hopefully it’s better next game.”

What Judd seems to forget is that the “top heavy” system played in his favour when he won the World title and then the International Championship in 2019. The simple fact is that he’s won a lot since, but none of the majors.

That said, yes, the system is too top heavy – I said this many times – but he didn’t complain about it when he benefitted from it.

As for the conditions, there were a lot of complaints, especially about table 1, during the CLS, notably about the table rolling off. But these were Rasson tables, and this week they play on Star tables, so surely it’s a completely different setup? Hopefully the problem can be fixed ahead of round two.

About round 2, the draw has been made and published by WST:

Second Round Draw

The draw for the last 64 of the matchroom.live British Open at the Morningside Arena in Leicester has been made, with Judd Trump handed a tough second round match against either Stuart Bingham or Robert Milkins.

…

The full second round draw is below, with matches to be played on Wednesday evening or Thursday. The match schedule will appear here.

Ricky Walden v Robbie Williams

Xu Si v Barry Pinches

Joe O’Connor v Ken Doherty

Jamie Jones or Hossein Vafaei v Mark Allen

Ian Burns v Duane Jones or Nigel Bond

Stuart Bingham or Robert Milkins v Judd Trump

Sean Maddocks or Noppon Saengkham v Jimmy Robertson

Mark Selby v Ali Carter or Lei Peifan

Jamie Clarke or Pang Junxu v Bai Langning

Graeme Dott or Martin Gould v Lu Ning

Zhao Xintong or Cao Yupeng v John Higgins

Lukas Kleckers or Yan Bingtao v Louis Heathcote

Rory McLeod v Ross Muir or Ryan Day

Martin O’Donnell v Stephen Maguire

Li Hang or Sam Craigie v Zhang Jiankang

Mark Williams v Dominic Dale

David Gilbert or Matthew Stevens v John Astley

Fergal O’Brien or Gary Wilson v Chris Wakelin or Stephen Hendry

Lee Walker v Jamie Wilson or Mark King

Alfie Burden or Allan Taylor v Jimmy White

Matthew Selt v Michael Georgiou or Soheil Vahedi

Liam Highfield v Chen Zifan

Mark Davis v Jak Jones

Dylan Emery v Andrew Pagett

Ben Hancorn v Scott Donaldson

Liang Wenbo v Hammad Miah

Si Jiahui or Oliver Lines v David Grace

Ashley Hugill v Anthony Hamilton

Zhou Yuelong v Andy Hicks

Elliot Slessor v Wu Yize

David Lilley v Jordan Brown

Barry Hawkins or Luca Brecel v Zhao Jianbo

Watch the draw being made here.

If results go according to seeding, we could have Mark Selby v Ali Carter and Judd Trump v Stuart Bingham. It’s not getting any easier for those two… Hossein Vafaei v Mark Allen should be a good match.

The television coverage of the 2021 British Open started with a bang! The defending champion was in action on the main table and produced a maximum break from his very first shot!

Here is WST report about the morning and afternoon sessions

Higgins Surpasses Hendry’s Maximum Tally

Scotland’s four-time World Champion John Higgins fired in the 12th maximum break of his career in a 3-1 first round win over Alexander Ursenbacher at the matchroom.live British Open in Leicester.

Higgins now moves clear of compatriot Stephen Hendry, who has made 11 maximums. Only Ronnie O’Sullivan has composed more 147 breaks, having made 15.

The magic run came in the very first televised frame on ITV4 this season and the opening frame of the match. It is the 167th official maximum break in snooker history. Higgins is now in position to pocket the £5,000 high break prize.

The Scot, who won the British Open the last time it was held back in 2004, has turned to spin classes in order to lose weight and gain fitness whilst preparing for this season.

Switzerland’s Ursenbacher did respond by claiming the second frame with a fine clearance of 61 to make it 1-1. However, it was Higgins who sprinted to the line with breaks of 78 and 57 to wrap up the 3-1 win.

“I’m delighted. Any time you make one is great, but to do it from the first shot for the coverage of the event is brilliant,” said 31-time ranking event winner Higgins. “I knew it was on, but I was also trying to win the frame and not do anything stupid. When I was on about 60 I could have played up for the pink but I decided to try and get back for the black and go for it.

“I just automatically felt a little bit more free walking around the table (having lost weight over the summer). It should help you produce better snooker. I don’t know how many more years I will be playing, so it will just help trying to be able to compete with the top guys for as long as possible.”

Snooker legends Ken Doherty and Jimmy White secured impressive 3-0 victories to get their names in the hat for the second round draw, which will be made on Tuesday afternoon.

White defeated Irish teenager Aaron Hill, while Doherty fired in a fine run of 77 in the third frame to see off Zak Surety. Afterwards Doherty admitted that he is in favour of open draw format in operation this week.

Doherty said: “I love the format – the FA Cup style draw and the short matches. It’s great to have a different format and the fans get to watch a lot of matches.

“I’m in the twilight of my career and just enjoying myself. If I win I’m elated, and if I lose I don’t get as deflated as I used to. That’s the right psychology.”

There are five players from Leicester competing this week and the local players had mixed fortunes today. Louis Heathcote and Joe O’Connor enjoyed 3-2 wins over Yuan Sijun and Steven Hallworth respectively. However, Ben Woollaston succumbed to a 3-2 defeat against Hammad Miah.

Welsh three-time Crucible king Mark Williams opened up his British Open campaign with a fine 3-0 defeat of China’s Tian Pengfei, while Jordan Brown edged out Andrew Higginson 3-2.

You can watch John’s 12th maximum here:

Some commentator went on raving about this 147 made from the “first shot of the tournament”.  The 147 was very smooth and never looked in doubt, but there had been a full session of snooker played in the morning before ITV started showing the snooker and this happened!

One of those morning matches saw two young players do battle as Joe O’Connor beat Steven Halworth by 3-2 from 2-0 down. This match was available on the ES player (outside the UK) and it was high quality and entertaining. Both players showed great tactical skills as well as scoring power: every frame featured a 50+ break!

I’m not sure if Mark Williams will see his own performance as “fine”: neither he or his opponent played well!

Ken Doherty admitted that the format suits him. It probably suits Jimmy White as well. Both of them have loads of experience with pressure situations, which is what the players face right from the start here. On the other hand, older player often struggle to sustain their best level and concentration over long matches. Consistency is often an issue but not in this very short format.

The evening session was always going to be about Judd Trump and the “grudge match” between Reanne Evans amd Mark Allen.

Here is WST report:

Trump Clings On To Top Spot

Judd Trump survived a tense opening round clash with Mitchell Mann at the matchroom.live British Open, winning 3-2 to cling on to his world number one spot.

Trump has occupied the summit of the world rankings since August 2019, but Mark Selby’s victory at the World Championship has put that under serious threat.

With the £175,000 top prize which Trump claimed at the 2019 International Championship due to come off his ranking at the end of this event, he must at least better Selby’s performance this week to retain his world number one position.

It was world number 98 Mann who made the early running by establishing a 2-1 advantage. However, 2019 World Champion Trump restored parity with a break of 52 to force a tense decider.

Trump had looked set to ease over the line before breaking down on a run of 62. Mann fought his way back into the frame, but his contribution was ended on 34. A safety battle ensued and Mann eventually got his opportunity after fluking the brown. However, he missed the blue and Trump made no mistake in getting himself over the line.

“We probably could have played a best of 19 in the time we took to play a best of five,” joked Trump. “You are going to get drama straight away. Instead of waiting two sessions to get to the end of the game, you get it at the very start. You are under pressure from the very beginning and all it takes is a bad bounce or a kick to change the whole game.

“It’s nice to delay losing the world number one spot for as long as possible. It is going to be very tough now to stop Mark from overtaking me with how the rankings are.”

Former Masters champion Mark Allen edged out 12-time Women’s World Champion Reanne Evans 3-2 in a thrilling encounter.

The Northern Irishman took the opening frame. However, Evans fired her way back into contention. She restored parity, before a break of 56 helped her into a 2-1 advantage.

Evans had then looked set for a momentous victory, but broke down on a run of 60. Allen eventually fought his way back into the frame and stole it on the black with a superb clearance of 47. Allen showed his class in the decider, securing victory with a steely break of 68.

Allen said: “I thought Reanne played really well and was unfortunate not to go on and win 3-1. I hung in there and made a really good clearance for 2-2 and did what top players do and made a one-visit in the last.”

Former Indian Open champion Matthew Selt secured a 3-2 win over Thepchaiya Un-Nooh on the final black, while Zhou Yuelong defeated Tom Ford 3-2.

Click here for full results.

Judd was unconvincing but he’s through. Countless times last season he has looked vulnerable at the start of a tournament but went on to win it.

I was afraid that Reanne could be outplayed, but this wasn’t the case at all which is an encouraging sign for the Women’s Snooker World Champion. She got a lot of support from the crowd. Mark Allen showed class in his post-match interview.

Reflecting on the draw before the match started, Neal Foulds said that he hoped everyone would be watching Allen and Evans “for the right reasons”.

“Let’s just get this match over with,” he said. “Get someone through and hopefully come out of it okay, because it’s not a nice match-up.

“I don’t think it’s what snooker necessarily needed but they’re both on the tour so that’s how it is.”

It wasn’t a great day for the Asian players  in general, and for the Thai players in particular. However Bai Langning shone again as he beat Ashley Carty by 3-0 to progress.

In other news, Rory McLeod got a bye to the second round as Kurt Maflin withdrew. No reasons for this withdrawal have been given so far.

After 21 days, the first tournament of the season concluded with a very popular win as David Gilbert beat Mark Allen by 3-1 in the final to win his first ranking title.

Here is WST report:

Gilbert Secures First Ranking Title

David Gilbert defeated Mark Allen 3-1 to secure his first ranking title at the BetVictor Championship League in Leicester.

In the 253^rd and final match of the tournament, Allen got off to the perfect start with a clearance of 102 in the opening frame. The Angry Farmer responded immediately taking the second and third frames.

The final frame was a cagey one, a break of 57 early on meant Gilbert was in pole position and he eventually converted it to seal the title and take home the trophy.

Gilbert: “I’m only used to loser’s speeches, so I don’t know quite what to say. It’s fantastic, a great start – last year was quite tough so to open with a win is brilliant. Hopefully, I can start playing well again and compete in other tournaments too.

“I always felt I could do better, I know I will never be the best player in the world, but I always felt I could go a bit further and have some bigger moments, so I am glad I stuck at it.”

Allen’s progression to the final came more simpler than expected after back-to-back 3-0 and 3-1 wins over Tom Ford and Bai Langning. Those two wins came off the back of an early draw for reigning champion Kyren Wilson against Bai.

The evening session began with Wilson drawing against Ford ending any hopes of reclaiming the title, handing Allen a spot in the final against Gilbert. Allen couldn’t have warmed up in any better way for the final beating Wilson with breaks of 126, 127 and 146 to wrap up group stage action.

Gilbert’s route through in Group 2 started with a loss against his closest competitor Cao Yupeng but recovered from there on beating Ryan Day 3-0 to be at three points at the break. Cao’s defeat to Ali Carter meant Gilbert was still right in contention. Gilbert beat Carter 3-1 meaning Cao had to beat Day 3-0 or else Gilbert made the final. Day took the first frame against Cao meaning it was Gilbert who moved to the final.

This proved to be a very popular win by a very popular player. It’s been a long time coming, but it came eventually.

Congratulations David Gilbert!

David has recently be talking to Phil Haigh and Nick Metcalfe. Here is the link to theit blog Talking Snooker.

Mark Allen made 7 centuries in this tournament, including a 146. He has looked the best player in the field for most of the competition. His demolition of Kyren Wilson yesterday was impressive and yet again he fell short in the final, at the end of a long day. Not taking anything away from Gilbert, I can’t help thinking that working on his fitness would massively help Allen to achieve more. He certainly has the talent, as it is now, I’m not sure he has the stamina to match.

Yesterday was the last day of stage two and here is WST report:

Ford And Allen Into Finals Day

Tom Ford and Mark Allen progressed to the Final Day of BetVictor Championship League Snooker at the Morningside Arena, Leicester.

Ford had to come through a group of Judd Trump, Jimmy Robertson, and Stuart Carrington to book his place in Group 1 on the final day.

The Leicester cueist started off in the worst possible fashion with defeat against Carrington but from that point onwards he didn’t lose a frame on home territory, going on to resoundingly beat Roberton 3-0 in the following match.

Trump meanwhile had started his day with a draw against Robertson having gone two nil up meaning it kept the group-wide open at the interval having only played one match.

The evening began with Trump taking all three points against Carrington 3-0, setting up a final match decider against Ford knowing a point would do as long as his high break of 128 held out.

Ford started the quicker of the two with the opening frame with a brilliant clearance of 124 and he quickly followed that in the second with a break of 77. That frame meant it was only one more for victory, and Ford soon wrapped up a 3-0 success.

Ford said: “The thing that was going through my head is what am I going to do to get childcare! It’s weird being in Leicester. You can’t get yourself up for a proper match. You can’t have the routines. I woke up this morning and I am getting my little boy ready to go to my mum’s and then all of a sudden I am going off to play a snooker match.

“It’s going to be a tough one tomorrow, I played well today. The first group I played awfully, and I just scraped through on the last match. Today, I played awful in the first match but then I started to get down and play quick.

“It’d be great to get into the Champion of Champions, I’ve never played in it before. It’d be good to get a ranking title under my belt.”

Allen is the reigning Champion of Champions, and he showed the form that won him that title on the final day of the second stage of BetVictor Championship League Snooker. The Northern Irishman started the day imperiously with a 3-0 win over Fergal O’Brien, starting with a break of 115.

He continued the strong showing in his next match against Peter Lines who he dispatched 3-1 meaning he went top of the group going into the evening session.

The closest competitor for Allen came in the form of an inspired Ricky Walden who hadn’t played competitively since the opening day of the tournament. Walden had begun strongly with two wins making it a group decider with Allen for a spot in finals day.

It was a procession in the end for Allen, beating Walden 3-0 with a break of 110 in the final frame to mark his 500^th century in the paid ranks.

Allen said: “It is going to be a very tough group on Finals’ Day, you expect nothing less. It’s going to be tough, but I didn’t expect anything but that.

“It would mean a lot to win it, it still means you’ve started the season well and you’re full of confidence going into the bigger ones.

“You need to build. You can’t play well all year round. You have to try and peak at the right times, and that’s hard to do, but if you can build confidence slowly as the season progresses.”

On making 500 centuries he added: “It was on my mind because my dad has been at me all the time about it before I played in group 1  He told me he wanted five centuries and I only made three that day, he will be chuffed I have made it to 500.”

What this report doesn’t say,  but Tom Ford said it in his post-match, is that table one is rolling off badly and anything that’s played “softly” is more or less doomed. That’s not helping the touch players and it’s also hard to understand how this was not fixed as it’s been that way from day 1, nearly four weeks ago. Tom said that he just decided to “not think about it” and go for his shots. It paid off.

Another thing that I found painful yesterday was Phil Yates commentary. Phil is extremely knowledgeable about the game but when one of his favourites plays, he can be both overly lyrical and biased. It was like that when Hendry played in the days, and now it’s like that when Judd Trump plays.

From the poster boys, only the defending champion, Kyren Wilson made it to the final day, today.

My predictions about stage two were reasonably correct.

On table one today, I think that it will be between Kyren Wilson and Mark Allen. Mark Allen played the best snooker in this competition so far, but Kyren is nicknamed “the warrior” for a reason and he’s the defending champion.

Things are less clear on table two. Cao Yupeng once again could be the dark horse if his temperament doesn’t let him down.