Gary Wilson hit a magical maximum break on his way to a narrow 10-9 victory over Josh Boileau in the opening round of the 2017 World Championship Qualifiers, but former semi-finalist Ricky Walden crashed out after suffering a 10-7 defeat at the hands of Hammad Miah at Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield on Thursday.

The former China Open runner-up achieved the feat for the second time in his career, while it was the 131st in tournament snooker and third in the history of the qualifying event.

Wilson potted 15 reds followed by blacks along with the six colours in the fourth frame on the way to a commanding 5-0 lead over Boileau.

However, the young Irishman, who stunned Shaun Murphy at the Welsh Open in February, fought back to level at 9-9 and take their showdown into a deciding frame.

Nevertheless, the Newcastle cueist regained his composure with a timely break of 102 - his fourth century of the match - to breathe a huge sigh of relief as he squeezed into the second round.

Although, there was no joy for 2013 semi-finalist Walden, whose troubles continued as he was stunned by world number 104 Miah.

The three-time ranking event winner eased into a 5-0 lead but his opponent, who is currently fighting for tour survival, had clearly not read the script, as he won nine of the next 11 frames before snatching the 17th on the black for a memorable victory.

World Seniors champion Peter Lines also claimed a scalp as he recovered from 9-7 down to edge out Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 10-9 - the same scoreline which saw Martin O'Donnell squeeze past Welsh teenage sensation Jackson Page on the colours.

Lines dominated the early stages for a 4-1 lead and, despite Un-Nooh fighting back to overturn the deficit and move to the brink of round two, the Leeds man kept his cool to force a decider, in which he produced a break of 77 to prevail.

There were no such difficulties for Michael Holt or Dominic Dale, who hit two centuries in comprehensive 10-2 victories over Hamza Akbar and Boonyarit Keattikun respectively, while Michael White was a 10-3 winner against Aditya Mehta.

Elsewhere, Jamie Jones took little time to complete a resounding 10-0 whitewash of Jamie Curtis-Barrett as did Masters finalist Joe Perry, who made two tons as he outscored Zack Richardson by 479 points to 31 on the way to completing a 10-3 success.

Former runner-up Nigel Bond eased through after rounding off a 10-1 win over World Ladies’ champion Ng On Yee, while Rhys Clark matched that scoreline against Wayne Townsend.

Other results saw Chinese prodigy Zhou Yuelong overcome Christopher Keogan 10-5, as Alfie Burden and David Grace enjoyed 10-6 victories over Adam Duffy and Thor Chuan Leong respectively.

Thursday April 6

Round One

15 Nigel Bond 10-1 Ng On Yee   

20 Sam Baird 10-2 Ross Vallance               

23 Zhou Yuelong 10-5 Christopher Keogan           

24 Ian Burns 3-4 Ian Preece        

25 Alfie Burden 10-6 Adam Duffy             

26 Jamie Jones 10-0 Jamie Curtis-Barrett              

31 Rhys Clark 10-1 Wayne Townsend     

32 David Gilbert w/o Patrick Wallace      

33 Joe Perry 10-3 Zack Richardson           

34 Mei Xi Wen 5-10 Akani Songsermsawad

35 Mark Joyce 10-3 Jordan Brown            

36 David Grace 10-6 Thor Chuan Leong  

39 Dominic Dale 10-2 Boonyarit Keattikun            

40 Daniel Wells 10-7 Adam Stefanow     

41 Gary Wilson 10-9 Josh Boileau             

42 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 9-10 Peter Lines             

43 Ross Muir 10-7 Gareth Allen 

44 Michael White 10-3 Aditya Mehta      

47 Martin O'Donnell 10-9 Jackson Page 

48 Ricky Walden 7-10 Hammad Miah      

49 Michael Holt 10-2 Hamza Akbar