Malta players out

Malta will have no representative in the final stages of this year's UK Championship after both Tony Drago and Alex Borg were eliminated from the third qualifying round yesterday.

Drago was beaten by 19-year-old English player Mark Allen 9-7 while Borg lost to Ricky Walden, also of England, 9-5.

Drago and Allen shared the opening eight frames of the match and the balance was maintained up to the 14th frame when the score was locked at 7-7.

The match was heading to a tense finale and it was Allen who controlled his nerves better winning the next two frames to set up a last 32 match against David Gray.

Borg, who cleared the first two rounds earlier this week, did well to recover after he trailed Walden 5-3. He won the opening two frames of the afternoon session to level the match. But Walden regained the initiative winning the next four frames to book his place in the final stages of the ranking tournament, starting on December 5 in York. His opponent is Michael Holt.