Washed shirt sees Duffy taken to the cleaners in UK Championship in York

The Sheffield cueman scored just 16 points as Dominic Dale cruised to a 6-0 victory in their first-round encounter at the York Barbican making breaks of 130, 52, 61, 68 and 65 in a straightforward triumph.

Duffy had entered the tournament feeling full of confidence, but was completely off his game and blamed a poor clothing choice for his untimely exit.

“I washed my shirt last night and I just couldn’t breathe in it,” said Duffy. “It was as weird as anything. He played well to be fair, but I don’t know what to say.

“I haven’t got a clue what was happening. I just couldn’t breathe and every time I got down on a shot, I just thought ‘eurgh’.

“I was in bits for six frames thinking about that – I don’t know what was up. I was flying heading into the tournament and playing so well, but that has done my box in.

“It’s frustrating because it’s a big tournament and the last thing you want to do is be worrying about something stupid when you’re playing.

“I can’t remember the last time I lost to nil – I don’t normally get pumped. I’m leaving the shirt here in York, I don’t want anything to do with it.”

Duffy was not the only Yorkshireman to suffer a first-round loss as Chris Keogan, Sanderson Lam and Paul Davison all departed their home tournament. Leeds potter Lam made a break of 53 to narrow his deficit against world No 16 Liang Wenbo to 2-1 before the Chinese produced runs of 59, 130, 112 and 72 to record a 6-1 triumph.

Doncaster’s Keogan battled hard in his match with David Gilbert, but the world No 24 eventually notched a 6-4 win, leaving the Doncaster man w.

“It was quite a weird game to analyse,” said Keogan. “He played the better and did deserve to win. I kept nicking frames to stay in it, but he stepped up his game towards the end and scored a bit more heavily than I did.

“The pattern was he went 50 in front and then we scrapped it out and I managed to nick a couple. But he did deserve it.”

Pickering veteran Davison was blown away by Mark Williams – who won the Northern Ireland Open last week – 6-0. Williams made five half-century breaks in victory to leave Davison kee.

“I did have a few chances – especially in the second, third and fourth frames – so it could have been 3-1 to me to the interval on a different day,” said 46-year-old Davison.

“But at 4-0 I couldn’t wait to get out of there. You sort of lose the will a little bit.”

2006 world champion Graeme Dott cruised past Josh Boileau 6-2, two-time UK champion Neil Robertson thrashed Rod Lawler 6-1 and 55-year-old Jimmy White rolled back the years to shock world No 14 Ali Carter 6-2.

Watch live coverage of the UK Championship on Eurosport and Eurosport Player with Colin Murray and analysis from Jimmy White and Neal Foulds.