JOE PERRY became the first seeded player to fall at the World Snooker Championship as Jamie Cope underlined his talent with his first win at the Crucible. The player nicknamed the Shotgun recorded a 10-6 victory at the Crucible, Sheffield this afternoon a

JOE PERRY became the first seeded player to fall at the World Snooker Championship as Jamie Cope underlined his talent with his first win at the Crucible.

The player nicknamed the Shotgun recorded a 10-6 victory at the Crucible, Sheffield this afternoon and gave notice of his intent.

Perry, from Chatteris, said: "I had chances today but every time I missed a ball he cleared up.

"He had me under pressure. Every time he went to the table he won the frame. It's hard to play when it's like that.

"The second frame today I was 50 odd ahead went into the reds had a really horrible split, missed a red and he cleared up. The next frame I got a big bounce off the cushion played safe, he fluked a red and cleared up.

"It's a massive swing in the match at that stage, from 5-5 I've gone 7-5 down without doing too much wrong.

"He was playing very well today and I knew he wouldn't struggle to get over the line, he's not that sort of player. He deserved to win."

Perry had led 4-1 during the first session of this match but last year's semi-finalist was pegged back to 5-4 when they finished on Monday evening.

Perry was unlucky in frame 10, he potted a red but saw the cue ball screw back into a middle pocket. Cope took full advantage to level the score with an 81.

It was a similar story in the next, this time Perry had to bridge awkwardly over a red and missed the one he was attempting to pot. Cope cleared with a 70 to lead for the first time since the opening frame.

Cope who has been on the verge of the top 16 for a couple of seasons then increased his lead to two with a break of 78, a lead he never relinquished.

He opened the next frame with a great long red but jumped the brown when trying to pot it allowing Perry to stop the rot with a 60 but the world no.12 was two behind again when Cope opened with a 73.

Perry tried to obtain the two snookers he required but the Stoke potter sunk the final red to put him within two frames of his first Crucible victory.

Perry was also amongst the balls in frame 15 but it was the 23-year-old who went 9-6 up with a run of 50 and despite a few signs of nerves as he got near the finish line he claimed his first victory at the famous venue and a place in the last 16.

Cope will now play either John Higgins or Michael Holt in the next round.

I