The qualifying stages of the last EPTC of the 2012/13 season were played in Sheffield on November 26 and 27, 2012. The television stage is now played in Munich, Germany, from Friday, January 4 on. Judd has decided to give it a miss. On the first qualifying day Wenbo managed to book his place place in Munich come the new year. Jack joined him on the second day. Both lost in the last 16.

Monday 26th of November 2012

Last 128 – Liang Wenbo 4-0 Neal Jones
Wenbo won three frames in one visit with breaks over 60 in the process of routinely beating amateur Neal Jones.

Last 128 – Shaun Murphy 4-0 Chen Zhe
Shaun was simply to strong for Sleepy today.

Last 128 – Stuart Bingham 4-1 Zhang Anda
All frames bar the first one were fragmented with both players getting chances, but Anda just couldn’t score enough when given the opportunity.

Last 128 Yu Delu 4-1 Daniel Kandi
Amateur Daniel Kandi surprised Yu and won the first frame. But Yu responded with a 90 to win the second and level. From there on, professionalism and experience prevailed although Daniel Kandi did give a good account of himself.

Last 64 – Ding Junhui 2-4 Liang Wenbo
Ding lead 2-0 having made 93 in frame 2. But after that he only scored 51 points, while Wenbo went on to win all four remaining with 55, 71, 71 and 108. Good win this. He’s Munich bound.

Last 64 – Yu Delu 2-4 Jimmy Robertson
Jimmy Robertson superior scoring when in was the key to this match. He made four breaks over 50 whilst Yu Delu highest was only 47 meaning that, contrary to his opponent, he couldn’t kill frames in one visit.

Tuesday 27th of November 2012

Last 128 – Jack LIsowski 4-1 Matthew Couch
Jack made two centuries – 123 and 117 – in disposing of Matthew Couch very convincingly. Amusingly they were made in the first and last frame of the match.

Last 128 – Li Yan 3-4 Liam Highfield
Li Yan battled incredibly hard in this match, coming back from 0-2 down to 2-2, and 2-3 down to 3-3, extracting a considerable number of penalty points from his opponent. But Liam is a heavy scorer when in the balls, and he took control of the deciding frame. Li Yan carried on briefly whilst needing 3 snookers but had to surrender.

Last 64 – Jack Lisowski 4-2 Ashley Carty
It wasn’t a fluent match but Jack managed a few decent breaks and that made the difference.

Friday 4th of January 2013

Last 32 – Liang Wenbo 4-2 Justin Ashley
Despite having only one break over 50 (57 in the first frame), Wenbo managed to win this fragmented match that featured only one frame won in one visit.

Saturday 5th of January 2013

Last 32 – Jack Lisowski 4-3 Alan McManus
Jack didn’t start too well and found himself 1-3 down, mainly because he lost the safety battles at crucial moments. But he kept fighting, kept playing positively and progressively improved. Some great potting combined with a positive but not reckless attitude did it. He took the next three ones and the match and treated the crowd with some exhibition shots when frames were won.

Last 16 – Thanawat Thirapongbaiboon 4-3 Liang Wenbo
It was heartbreak for Wenbo. Having come back from 1-3 down, with the aid of a remarkable clearance in the 5th (starting with a very difficult cut on the black under pressure), he laid 55-0 in the decider only to miss a red at speed. His young Thai opponent held himself together to clear to the pink and win the match.

Last 16 – Jack Lisowski 1-4 Rod Lawler
Rod Lawler is a very hard match player and naturally slow. Usually the matches where he is involved are rather scrappy and this was no exception. Jack never really got going and his highest break was 33. Rod though hit a 101 in the only frame that wasn’t a fragmented affair.