The Clock Is Ticking

Yesterday saw the start of the new snooker tournament, the World Snooker Shoot-out. It's being hosted in Blackpool where the top 64 players are competing. There is a maximum of one frame or ten minutes to make it fast and furious. If that wasn't enough then for the first five minutes each player has a twenty second shot clock which decreases to fifteen second for the final five minutes. The draw for each round is random and the break is decided via a lag. Every shot must have either a ball potted or a ball contacting a cushion otherwise it's a foul, every foul gives the opponent the ball in hand, where he can place the cue ball anywhere on the table.

The first session yesterday saw the first half of the first round take to the new format. Unfortunately Liang Wenbo had to pull out of the tournament which meant that Tony Drago was given a bye into the second round. The first two to take to the table was Mark Allen and Ryan Day. Allen was favourite and did take the lead but a break of 38 saw Ryan Day become the first player to win in the tournament and also provide the first shock.

Stephen Lee followed Day into the next round with a 62-34 victory over Michael Holt. Joe Jogia was the lowest ranked player and it showed with a couple of misses on easy shots, that allowed veteran Nigel Bond go through with a 46-24 win.

Another veteran in the form of Stephen Hendry didn't have the same luck and fell victim to Irishman Fergal O'Brien. Hendry had a chance to pull it back but eventually lost 55-29. One of the performances of the night saw Robert Milkins upset Martin Gould. The underdog Milkins secured a break of 49 on his way to winning 82-6.

With many people surprised at how high the scores were finishing, the match between Andrew Higginson and Jamie Burnett looked underpar. The overall average of points for the night was 80+ but this game only had 43, Higginson won it 27-16.

Another upset saw Scotsman Stephen Maguire lose out to Tom Ford, proving that anything can indeed happen. Ford secured the first whitewash with an impressive break of 84. Another shock quickly followed as newly crowned Masters Champion Ding Junhui lost 71-15 against Dominic Dale, with Dale making a break of 70.

Jimmy White was excited about this tournament but he only lasted the first round. Ali Carter beat the veteran 62-28. Alan McManus secured a somewhat surprise victory over Michael Judge, Judge did have a chance to fight back but failed to do so and lost 72-26.

One the tastiest fixtures of the first round saw John Higgins take on Mark Williams. Higgins turned on the style and made a break of 93 to see off the Welshman. But Higgins was quickly outdone by the man who really endorsed this tournament. Ronnie O'Sullivan had a potentially tough first round opponent in the Masters runner-up Marco Fu. But Ronnie secured the first century break to win 133-0.

Two veterans clashed after with Peter Ebdon taking on Steve Davis, a member of the audience shouted 'it's got nil nil written all over it!'. But Davis progressed with a 72-24 win. Marcus Campbell beat Jamie Michie 32-21 and Mark King rounded the first session off by beating Jimmy Robertson 79-0.