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Snooker 9Club Shoot Out

Snooker Shoot Out 2024: Mark Allen begins title defence with big win, Jimmy White crashes out with 'schoolboy errors'

ByAlasdair Mackenzie

Updated 05/12/2024 at 00:11 GMT

Mark Allen avoided an early upset by cruising through the opening round of the Snooker Shoot Out to begin his title defence in style. An action-packed opening day at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester also saw wins for former champions Anthony McGill, Ryan Day, Hossein Vafaei and Thepchaiya Un-Nooh. But Jimmy White was left to rue "schoolboy errors" after crashing out.

Mark Allen poses with trophy after winning the 2023 BetVictor Snooker Shoot Out at the Swansea Arena on December 9, 2023 in Swansea, Wale

Image credit: Getty Images

Defending champion Mark Allen safely progressed in an action-packed opening session of the 2024 Snooker Shoot Out in Leicester.

The Northern Irishman, fresh off a run to the UK Championship semi-finals in York last week, lifted the curtain on one of the sport’s more unusual events with a 68-0 victory over Ross Muir.

There were also wins for three more former champions as Anthony McGill, Ryan Day and Hossein Vafaei progressed.

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In Shoot Out snooker, matches are one-frame affairs played against the clock, lasting a maximum of 10 minutes with a shot clock of 15 seconds used for the first five minutes and reduced to 10 seconds for the final five minutes.

The action kicked off with a comfortable victory for 2023 champion Allen, who easily brushed past Muir to kick things off.

A tighter contest followed as Vafaei had to fight from behind in the final few minutes of the 10-minute encounter to edge past his Belgian opponent Julien Leclercq 46-34.

Antoni Kowalski, 20, and No. 35 ranked Lyu Haotian were next through their respective ties and then next, a "typical great Shoot Out game" followed as described by Eurosport expert Jimmy White.

Robert Milkins rushed from 32 points behind to overcome 14-year-old Joe Shannon, who looked on his way to a stunning victory until the world No. 23 spared his blushes to secure a late comeback in the final minute.

Local hero Louis Heathcote impressed to move past Ahmed Aly Elsayed and into the second round, while Paul Deaville’s match against Brazilian Jonas Luz went all the way, with Luz unable to overturn a three-point deficit in time.

David Gilbert saw off David Grace 74-1, before Day edged Matthew Selt in a much tighter 46-33 battle.

There were also wins for Austrian amateur Florian Nuessle, Fan Zhengyi and Aaron Hill, while Anthony McGill defeated Sophie Nix 40-7 in an all-Scottish affair.

Women’s world No. 3 Reanne Evans took on No. 4 seed Gary Wilson in an intriguing clash late in the session, and two-time Scottish Open champion Wilson got the better of it with an authoritative 79-8 win.

Hopes of an upset from teenage English amateur Daniel Boyes were dashed when he fell 80-13 to No. 22 seed Wu Yize of China, before Joe Perry fell to Gong Chenzhi in the final match of the afternoon.

White feels 'devastation', O'Connor fights back

At the start of the evening session, Jimmy White fell at the first hurdle as the snooker legend and Eurosport pundit was punished for costly mistakes in a 75-30 defeat to 2019 champion Thepchaiya Un-Nooh.

Following his defeat, White told Eurosport that he was guilty of "schoolboy errors" that led to "devastation", despite feeling that he is "playing really well".

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Video credit: TNT Sports

Former runner-up Zhou Yuelong then survived a dramatic late fightback from Andrew Pagett to win 57-49.

A superb comeback from Zak Surety, including an outrageous pressure pot on the black, earned him a win over Pang Junxu, while David Lilley, Matthew Stevens and Long Zehuang also progressed.

World No. 14 Si Jiahui made a statement start by producing a 78 break en route to a 97-0 win over Jordan Brown, and Xiao Guodong edged a tense, low-scoring affair with veteran Anthony Hamilton.

Duane Jones snuck past Chris Totten 36-33 in a hard-fought match-up, but any tension was broken when the charismatic Ma Hailong danced his way off the table after sealing a win over Ian Burns.

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Video credit: TNT Sports

The most dramatic win of the day went to Joe O’Connor, who left it late to pounce on an error from Sanderson Lam and coolly string together a series of pots to triumph 46-44.

Haydon Pinhey saw off a boisterous Mitchell Mann with relative ease, before the night finished off with wins for Noppon Saengkham and Ashley Carty.