I’ll be honest, the first day at the 2021 Scottish Open qualifiers failed to enthuse me, despite some good things.
The highlight of the day was Xiao Guodong first 147
Xiao Fires In Maiden Maximum
Xiao Guodong made the first 147 break of his career at BetVictor Scottish Open qualifying in Barnsley during the deciding frame of his 4-3 win over Fraser Patrick.
World number Xiao’s previous high break was 143. Today’s contribution puts him in line for the £5,000 high break prize on offer for the event.
The magic break is the 169th official maximum in professional snooker history and the third of the season so far. It came at the perfect moment at the end of a fantastic performance from Xiao, who also compiled runs of 57 and 108 on his way to victory.
WST published the video of the last three minutes of the break, and the match, on their Youtube channel:
And here is WST report on what happened during the day:
Gilbert Wins With Two Tons
David Gilbert finished with back-to-back centuries as he beat Simon Lichtenberg 4-1 to qualify for the final stages of the BetVictor Scottish Open.
The qualifying round runs until Wednesday next week, with all winners going through to the televised stages in Llandudno in December.
Gilbert has dropped out of the world’s top 16, down to 18th, despite winning the recent BetVictor Championship League. But if he continues today’s form he could soon be back among the elite. After sharing the first two frames with Germany’s Lichtenberg, he won a tight third on the colours then compiled runs of 131 and 113 to secure a comfortable victory.
Xiao Guodong finished his match against Fraser Patrick in perfect fashion with a 147 in the deciding frame to win 4-3 – read more on that story here.
Fergal O’Brien top scored with 61 in a 4-2 win over David Grace – the Irishman has won all three of his qualifying matches for BetVictor Home Nations series events over the past month.
Oliver Lines made a 116 in a 4-1 win over Gerard Greene, while Gary Wilson saw off Cao Yupeng 4-1 with a top break of 86.
One match that isn’t mentioned at all is 18 years old Lei Peifan excellent 4-2 win against the more fancied Zhao Xintong.
I was hoping for a good match between Gary Wilson and Cao Yupeng but it was disappointing. Cao had a rather bad day in office and Gary, who played well, had little opposition. Cao was visibly frustrated with his own performance.
Oliver Lines seems to have finally found some good consistency.
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Ronnie O'Sullivan 
Cao Yupeng has missed 3 years of competition, so it’s not a surprise if he is not used to the continual pressure of professional matches. Conversely, Xiao (Cao’s former flatmate during their Gloucester days), has had a very stressful time, with lots going on. The 147 will provide welcome relief.
Lei Peifan missed last week’s qualifiers, although it wasn’t mentioned by WST. He is based in Darlington with Zhou Yuelong and Zhang Jiankang. Zhou has withdrawn again this week, but somehow Lei got to play. He was unfortunate last year with an invalid covid test. Perhaps the media don’t think Lei is important enough to report!
Elsewhere Oliver Lines continues his progress, which might lead somewhere. He’s been around for quite a long time, which may indicate just how long it takes these days for players to establish themselves.
Zhang Jiankang is due to play as well, so I can only suppose that Zhou was unfortunate and developped symptoms or tested positive.