Wykes runs Fox to ground
Paul Wykes ended the brief comeback of 'Silver Fox' David Taylor with a comprehensive 5-1 win in the Betfred.com World Championship.
There was no fairytale comeback for 66 year old David Taylor, who once reached the semi finals at the Crucible.
Bournemouth's former main tour pro Paul Wykes beat Taylor 5-1 with a best break of 57, a run of 44 and five other breaks over thirty.
Wykes won again in the evening, 5-2, against Les Dodd, running in breaks of 55, 73, 44 and 61.
Now he faces an intriguing tie against James Wattana, with the winner going through to Main Tour qualifying Round One.
Nic Barrow, another former tour player, who hadn't played a match in anger for eleven years, having spent the interim globe trotting, coaching players around the world and running the IBSF Coaching programme.
Barrow comfortably beat former WPBSA board member Bill Oliver 5-1, making breaks of 41 and 48, and went on to rout Stephen Ormerod 5-0 in the night.
Barrow will provide a stiff test for rookie pro Brendan O'Donoghue on Saturday.
WSA Coach, Londoner Del Smith also safely negotiated two matches and faces Northern Ireland's Jordan Brown on Saturday.
Smith beat fellow coach Phil Seaton 5-2, despite Seaton opening the match with a run of 78.
He followed that with a 5-1 win over Barry West, who'd received a walkover in the morning following the withdrawal of Chris Flight.
David Singh completed the quartet of day one qualifiers, coming through a gruelling 5-3 win over Colin Mitchell and following that by beating Neil Selman 5-3.
Singh faces Michael White on Saturday.
