Gunnell crashes out

Shropshire snooker star Adrian Gunnell suffered a “devastating” 5-4 defeat to Scotland’s Drew Henry to crash out of China Open qualifying at the first hurdle.

Gunnell blew leads of 2-0 and 3-1 to see his hopes of a fifth trip to Beijing in six years dashed - as well as his hopes of reaching the world’s top 32.

The Oakengates-based potter had seemed in control after winning three of the first four frames at Prestatyn last night, but then lost three on the trot.

A decent break of 90 forced a decider in the match that lasted more than five hours, but it was Henry that won a scrappy last frame to leave Gunnell completely deflated.

“I just threw it away completely,” he said. “I still can’t believe I lost, to be honest. I started off great and I was cueing that well that I thought I was in for a comfortable night.

“I felt my concentration in the third frame and I was telling myself to switch back on because I’ve done it before, and once you do switch off it’s difficult to get going again.”

Gunnell is back in action on Monday as he attempts to qualify for the Welsh Open. His opponent will be decided in the earlier rounds over the weekend, but will either be Liu Song, Xiao Guodong or Tom Ford.

And he feels he needs a good run in that. “In the hunt for a place in the top 32, losing to Drew is a little bit devastating because of the ranking points I’ve lost,” he admitted.

“It’s not all over though, because there’s still the Welsh and the worlds and I could yet pull it out of the barrel.”