Malta’s Tony Drago was bundled out of the Maplin UK Championship at the weekend after being defeated 9-3 by Alfred Burden in the first qualifying round.

The Valletta-born player started well to take 1-0 and 2-1 leads but Burden always hit back to level at 2-2 before the first break. It was a disastrous second session which led to Drago’s defeat. He lost all four frames for Burden to take a commanding 6-2 lead in the best of 17 frame match.

Drago never recovered as Burden won the first frame in the third session to go 7-2 ahead. Drago then won the 10th frame to pull one back, but Burden went on to win the 11th and 12th frames to make sure of his berth in the next round which started yesterday.