World Championship 2011 Qualifiers - 1st Round Results

The results from the first round of qualifying for the Betfred.com World Snooker Championship 2011 at the EISS, Sheffield. High quality matches were seen over the past few days including the one between Norway's Kurt Maflin and China's Xiao Guodong.

It is only the first round and we have already seen four consecutive century breaks in the same match. There were plenty of 50+ breaks from both players but Xiao Guodong raced to a 5-4 lead. Norway's Kurt Maflin hit back to lead 7-6 at the mid-session interval but then the players shared the four century breaks between them (130, 135, 100, 114) and it went down to the deciding frame but Xiao won it with a lovely 65 break which included several yellows which means he should be safe from tour relegation this season. Kurt though will most likely have to use Q-school to get back next season but he should if he keeps playing this well.

Also through to the second round is Thai veteran James Wattana. He comfortably beat Justin Astley 10-3 with the help of breaks of 98, 55, 52, 54, 51 to set up a second round meet with Andy Hicks. This win at the moment isn't enough for James to keep his place on the tour so he will be desperate to clinch victory against Andy over the next few days.

The only amateur to win a first-round match is Sam Baird. He beat three other players on route to this match including Reanne Evans but managed to pip promising Thai youngster Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon to the second round 10-8. Unfortunately this means for Thanawat that he will need to go to Q-school to get his tour place back, he started the season well including a tournament 147 but faltered in recent months. Sam will definitely be one of the favourites to qualify for the tour via Q-school in a couple months, especially if he can beat Alfie Burden tommorow.

Full Results:

Kyren Wilson 10-5 Dermot McGlinchey
Liu Song 10-8 Michael Judge
James Wattana 10-3 Justin Astley
Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon 8-10 Sam Baird
James McBain 10-9 Issara Kachaiwong
Igor Figueiredo 4-10 Joe Delaney
Liu Chuang 10-3 David Gray
David Morris 8-10 David Gilbert
Paul Davison 10-5 Stephen Rowlings
Patrick Wallace 10-2 Del Smith
Michael White 10-2 Adam Wicheard
Liam Highfield 8-10 Kuldesh Johal
Simon Bedford 10-3 Noppon Saengkham
Ben Woollaston 10-8 Jamie O'Neill
Andrew Pagett 10-6 Zhang Anda
Xiao Guodong 10-9 Kurt Maflin

Tickets are still available for the rest of the qualifiers and start at just £5, to book call 0114 256 5567 or visit www.arenaticketshop.co.uk