Doherty and Swail miss out on Crucible places

Mark Davis has derailed Ken Doherty's bid for a place at the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible after recording a resounding 10-3 victory over the Dubliner in the third and final round of qualifying at Ponds Forge in Sheffield.

Doherty struggled past women's world champion Reanne Evans 10-8 in his first-round qualifier, but upped his level to account for Lee Walker 10-6 in his second-round success.

The 45-year-old, who has reached the Crucible in 19 of his previous 24 campaigns as a professional, made a wretched start against the world number 18 and trailed 8-1 overnight.

The 1997 world champion won the first frame of Wednesday morning's session but the task he faced proved predictably insurmountable.

Late bloomer Davis has now reached the Crucible in each of the last four seasons, having qualified for the World Championship just six times in his first 20 seasons as a professional.

Joe Swail also fell at the final hurdle as two-time finalist Matthew Stevens advanced at the Belfast player's expense.

Stevens held a narrow 5-4 lead when play resumed but Swail, who may have been feeling the exertions from his titanic tussle against Dominic Dale in the second round, won just a single frame as the former world number four ran out a comfortable 10-5 winner.

Doherty's fellow Dubliner Fergal O'Brien took a 6-3 lead into the final session of his decider against Kurt Maflin at 5pm.

Meanwhile, Graeme Dott sealed a return to the game's biggest stage but took a swipe at World Snooker chief Barry Hearn.

The 2006 World Championship winner was furious when changes to the format meant he had to win three best-of-19-frame qualifiers just to reach the televised first-round stage in Sheffield.

The 19th-ranked Scot would have gone straight through to the final preliminary round under rules that were scrapped for this season, but had to overcome the little-known Mark Owens and Fraser Patrick before fending off China's Yu De Lu 10-7 in a tense tussle.

While the world's top players go into the main draw, Hearn has insisted it is only fair the rest begin on an equal footing, with 128 players thrust into the maelstrom of qualifying at Ponds Forge leisure centre, quarter of a mile from snooker's most famous venue.

"Is that me at the Crucible? So I don't need to do anything else? No beep tests, or assault course or anything? As long as I'm there I'm happy with that," Dott said.

The 37-year-old Scot was riled though by being thrust into the qualifying format when his ranking almost earned him direct entry.

The top 15 in the world are taking the automatic route to the Crucible, along with Ali Carter, who stood 13th in the world when he was diagnosed with lung cancer last May. He has fallen to 31st, but fellow professionals agreed his previous standing should be frozen for tournament entry purposes.

It meant Welshman Michael White, who stood 16th in the rankings, had to enter qualifying and suffered a frustrated exit in the second round.

Dott's grievance was with the overall system, and he said: "Of course it's not fair.

"You've got debates on TV with politicians, but if you had a debate between Barry Hearn and me, and the public actually heard what I'm trying to say, how could anybody think it's fair that Michael White finishes 16th and he's three rounds behind the guy at 15th."

Dott lost to Kyren Wilson at the same qualifying stage last year, and now will fear nobody, saying: "I'd take Ronnie O'Sullivan in the first round, why not? Nobody's going to want to draw me."

Ryan Day, Jamie Jones, Craig Steadman, Alan McManus and Anthony McGill were others to secure places in the first round.

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