UK Championship: Mark Selby fights back to beat 15-year-old Shane Castle
Mark Selby was pushed hard by 15-year-old Shane Castle before reaching the second round of the UK Championship.
Last Updated: 01/12/13 7:27am
World champion O'Sullivan raced to a comprehensive 6-0 win over Scottish amateur Rhys Clark, but Selby was forced to come from 3-1 behind to clinch a 6-4 victory over Castle in the evening session.
O'Sullivan admitted he spent much of his first-round clash in pursuit of a 147 as Clark was clearly overawed by the occasion.
Breaks of 82 and 71 put O'Sullivan in command at 3-0 and he took blacks with his first six reds in frame four before losing position.
Another maximum attempt stalled after five reds in the next, and O'Sullivan outscored his opponent by 521 points to 38.
The rollover prize for a 147 has reached #55,000 and O'Sullivan said: "School fees have been paid last week, if I can get a bit of Christmas money this week...
"I went for one virtually every frame, from the second frame my focus was on trying to get a 147."
In contrast, Selby was given a huge fright by 15-year-old Castle after the world No 2 took the opening frame thanks to an outrageous fluke.
Castle reeled off the next three including a break of 75 before Selby got back on track with a 109 and moved 4-3 ahead as Castle was twice frustrated by bad kicks.
The youngster levelled but Selby pulled through with breaks of 74 and 54 and joked: "Never in doubt, was it?"
"In patches I played okay but in other bits I was a little bit average. At the interval Shane fully deserved to be 3-1 up, he was the better player and handled it really well.
"I'm just happy to get through."
World No 1 Neil Robertson knocked in breaks of 107 and 73 in a 6-0 win against another teenage amateur, Dylan Mitchell, although the scoreline flattered the Australian.
Ding Junhui, chasing his fourth straight ranking event title, was made to work for a 6-3 win over amateur Antony Parsons.
The world No 3, winner of the Shanghai Masters, the Indian Open and the International Championship in China, surged into a 3-0 lead before Parsons won the next two.
But a 128 put Ding back on course and he finished the job to book a second-round place alongside former world champion Shaun Murphy, who came from 3-0 down to beat local boy Paul Davison 6-3.
Murphy overcame his slow start to rattle in breaks of 75, 78, 80 and 65, while Mark King was unhappy at being exiled to the sports hall where he lost 6-3 to Fergal O'Brien.
The tournament format - all 128 players in an open draw, and a multi-table set-up with four in the secondary 'sports hall' venue - again proved a talking point.
"They talk about a 'level playing field'," said the Braintree cueman, "What a load of crap. As long as Ronnie's okay, Neil's okay, they don't care. We all pay the same entry fee. It's disgraceful."
Ali Carter avoided a similar fate as he crushed Jimmy Robertson 6-0 to earn a shot at Graeme Dott, who fought past veteran Nigel Bond 6-5.
World Championship finalist Barry Hawkins trailed three times to China's Zhang Anda before winning 6-3 and he will now face Gary Wilson, the Newcastle taxi driver who beat Vinnie Calabrese 6-3 and set the tournament high break with his final-frame 137.
David Morris, who almost quit the sport before the season, hammered former world champion Peter Ebdon 6-1 to add to the scalp of Jamie Cope.