GLOBAL SNOOKER NEWS

China's Liu Song made the most of his concessionary ticket into the draw (due to Dave Finbow not entering), by beating Holland's champion Stefan Mazrocis 5-4 to book a round two meeting with Andy Hicks.

Song clinched victory with a match-winning 83 in the decider. Earlier he snatched the opener with runs of 38 and 36 in response to 58 from Mazrocis.

Breaks of 46, 34 and 61 gave Mazrocis a 2-1 lead, but Song pieced together 34 and 41 to take the fourth frame.

The Dutchman regained the lead with a superb 124 break, the highest break of the round, and he added the next with a run of 42.

Song controlled the seventh frame and smacked in 55 and 48 to level the match.

There was bound to be another Chinese winner as Ding Junhui and Jin Long went head to head. Long nicked the first on the blue and won the third with a break of 54, but apart from that most of the heavyweight scoring came from Junhui.

The teenager ran in 73 in the second, 102 in the fifth and clinched a 5-3 victory with a break of 66 in the eighth frame.

There was a first main tour victory for the tour's youngest player, Ben Woollaston. Having lost the first frame to a break of 64 from his opponent, Paul Wykes; Woollaston then established leads of 3-1 and 4-2, thanks to breaks of 57 and 61.

But he then had to endure a Wykes fight back as the  experienced Bournemouth pro battled back to 4-4, but Woollaston held his nerve to produce a match-clinching run of 57 in the final frame.

There was another win for the underdogs as Clacton's Adam Davies came through a monumental tussle with Welshman Darren Morgan, to clinch his first main tour win 5-4.

Morgan opened with 76 and added 40 and 113 to lead 3-2. But he then fell 4-3 behind as Davies stroked in 61, 35 and 41.

The Welshman made 32 and cleared up with 35 to force the decider. But he didn't get a look in as Davies opened with a run of 24 and then made a mid frame 46 to close Morgan out of the match.

Andrew Norman, Sean O'Neill, Ricky Walden and Mike Hallett also fell to their unseeded opponents. Norman saw victory slip away when Hugh Abernethy potted match ball blue in the decider.

O'Neill came close to his first main tour win, in an engrossing match against Tom Ford. But an emphatic break of 62 secured a 5-4 victory for the Leicester man.

Ford led 2-0 helped by a 60 break, but trailed 3-2 and 4-3, but he levelled at 3-3 with a run of 79 and comfortably won the eight.

Veteran Mike Hallett fell 4-0 down to Paul Davies, but he resolutely clawed back three frames, before a break of 58 gave Davies a 5-3 victory.

Ricky Walden's bright start to the season was brought to an end by Paul Davison, who held on for a hard fought 5-4 win.

Both Steve James and Mark Gray withdrew from the event. Steve James called in sick, but it's not know why Gray did not take his allotted plate in the draw.

RESOURCES

2004 BRITISH OPEN

INFORMATION

RESULTS - LAST 96

Hugh Abernethy 5-4 Andrew Norman

Adam Davies 5-4 Darren Morgan

Rory McLeod w/o Mark Gray

Alfie Burden w/o Steve James

Tom Ford 5-4 Sean O'Neill

Paul Davies 5-3 Mike Hallett

Shokat Ali 5-2 Gary Wilson

Paul Davison 5-4 Ricky Walden

Joe Jogia 5-2 Craig Butler

Ben Woollaston 5-4 Paul Wykes

Ding Junhui 5-3 Jin Long

David McDonnell 5-2 Leo Fernandez

Liu Song 5-4 Stefan Mazrocis

Simon Bedford 5-0 David Hall

Joe Delaney 5-3 Brian Salmon

Scott MacKenzie 5-3 Rodney Goggins