Norwegian Blue at The PIOS
Norway's Kurt Maflin won two matches on the opening day of the PIOS season but was left rueing a missed black on 97 with a maximum break in sight.
Former pro and the 2006 World Amateur Champion, Kurt Maflin, burst out of the blocks in his preliminary round match against Australia's Vinnie Calabrese.
He tuned up with 86 and then was well set with a maximum in sight, when he missed the black on 97.
Despite the miss Maflin still ran out a 4-0 winner.
Into round one proper Maflin lined up against Flamborough's Jake Nicholson, and the Yorkshire teenager had to watch the Norwegian hammer in runs of 107 and 88. Nicholson countered with 66 before Maflin ran out a 4-1 winner.
Former World 8-ball champion Chris Melling was soundly beaten by up and coming young Londoner Danny Douane.
24 hours can be a long time in the life of a snooker player and having crashed out of the Businessland under 21s on Sunday, Ben Harrison wasn't in the most positive frame of mind to take on Ireland's current champion Martin McCrudden.
Less than an hour later Harrison was beaming, having caused a major upset by beating the experienced McCrudden 4-0.
Harrison's next opponent was Rodney Goggins and they're were involved in a titanic struggle.
Harrison opened a 3-0 lead, only to sit out and watch Goggins claw back to 3-3. Even in the decider when Goggins needed two snookers, the match wasn't over. The Irishman got the snookers, but eventually Harrison clinched his epic win on the black.
Another Irishman, Vincent Muldoon, was skittled out by Liverpool's Stephen Welsby.
More of last season's professionals came back to earth with a resounding thump as Andrew Pagett lost 4-3 Liam Highfield, despite making breaks of 73 and 59.
Lewis Roberts also went down 4-3, to former pro Hugh Abernethy, who made 76 and 69 in the match.
There were no problems for Stephen Craigie, who beat Mike Hallett 4-3, helped by runs of 50 and 52. Hallett ran in 60.
Paul Davison notched the highest break of the day with a run of 135 and 99 against Polish debutant Krzysztof Wrobel. The Pole had a good chance to take the opener, but after that it was one way trafic.
Former World Under 21 champion, Gary Wilson, notched 107 in a 4-0 win over Accrington's Farakh Ajaib.
