Greene maintains good form

Northern Ireland’s Gerard Greene continued his impressive form to race into a healthy 6-2 lead over countryman Joe Swail in the opening round of the Travis Perkins UK Championship in York today.

Greene, who narrowly missed out on a semi-final place at last week’s British Open, wasted no time in firing his way into a 6-1 lead, which included a 132 break in the opening frame.

Swail battled to snatch the last frame of the session courtesy of a 93 break, but the world number 27 knows he needs something special to stop Greene winning the three frames he requires to reach a second-round clash with Welshman Matthew Stevens.

Allister Carter, from Essex, bounced back from his early British Open exit, to power into a 7-1 lead over Belgium’s Bjorn Haneveer.

The world number 17 racked up breaks of 52, 91, 75, 69, 77 and 80 to require just two frames for a place in the next round, where the winner will meet Steve Davis.

Haneveer hit back with a break of 77, but Carter is favourite to play Davis in the next round on Thursday morning.

It was also a good day for Thailand’s James Wattana, who was in sparkling form as he opened up a 7-1 advantage over Robin Hull thanks to breaks of 97, 68, 71 and 58.

In other matches Welshman Dominic Dale leads England’s Joe Delaney 6-2, Ireland’s Fergal O’Brien trails Mark Selby, from Leicester, 5-3, while John Parrott – the 1991 UK champion – is 5-3 behind to Barry Hawkins, having trailed 4-0.

It has been a much closer affair for promising Nottingham youngster Michael Holt, who is tied at 4-4 with Scotland’s Drew Henry.

Ian McCulloch and Stuart Pettman also share the spoils after they could not be separated in the opening eight frames.