Sheffield’s Adam Duffy takes first step on his route to Crucible

No snooker player from Sheffield has ever competed on the sport’s biggest stage, the Crucible Theatre, at the World Championship.

If Duffy is to reach the Crucible, the 35-year-old must win four qualifying rounds at the city’s English Institute of Sport.

He was given a tough opening match, against former women’s world champion Nutcharut, from Thailand, but from 5-4 down battled back to triumph 10-5.

Next up for Duffy is an all-Yorkshire contest against York’s Ashley Hugill, who lives in Sheffield and trains at the city’s Victoria’s Snooker Academy, in the second round on Thursday.

Victoria’s is well represented in the qualifiers, a dozen players from the Sheffield-based centre taking part at the EIS.

Two safely negotiated their opening hurdles on Monday. Chinese teenager Xing Zihao emerged a 10-6 winner over Michael Holt in his first-round encounter, and was joined in the second round by Malaysian potter Rory Thor, who beat Hamza Ilyas 10-2.

Thor will now face Leeds’ David Grace on Wednesday in the second round, their match concluding on Thursday.

Switzerland’s Alexander Ursenbacher thrashed Ukraine’s Iulian Boiko needing just a single frame of the afternoon session to wrap up a 10-0 win.

Estonia’s Andres Petrov also killed off his first-round clash, beating USA’s Ahmed Elsayed 10-1.

Jensen Kendrick beat women’s world champion Bai Yulu 10-7, to set-up a meeting with Ben Woollaston.

Other first-round winners saw Ross Muir beat Hong Kong’s Ka Wai Cheung 10-9, the same scoreline which saw Welshman Andrew Pagett account for Andy Lee. Fellow Welshman Liam Davies enjoyed a 10-3 win over Australia’s Ryan Thomerson.

Wednesday is a busy day for Yorkshire players at the EIS.

Teenage duo Stan Moody and Liam Pullen, Peter Lines and Ashley Carty are all in first-round action in the morning, and complete their best-of-19 matches in the evening session.

Halifax’s Moody plays Mohamed Shehab, Pullen – from York – takes on Anton Kazakov, Leeds’ Lines tackles Mohamed Ibrahim, while Rotherham’s Carty is up against Liam Graham.