Liam Highfield hits maximum break at British Open qualifiers as televised line-up completed

Featuring an 'FA-Cup style' random draw for every round, the British Open uses a 'flat draw' format meaning all 128 contestants start out at the opening hurdle.

The first round was played at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester across Thursday and Friday as 'qualifiers', although all the matches involving the top 16 seeds have been held over to The Centaur in Cheltenham with the main event running between August 31st to September 6th.

Liam Highfield compiled his first maximum 147 break in professional competition in the opening frame of his 4-1 win over Stephen Maguire.

The in-form 35-year-old registered further runs of 84 and 63 in progressing to the last 64. Highfield has now defeated Maguire three times on the World Snooker Tour within a matter of months: the World Championship qualifiers in April, last month's China Open qualifiers, and now in the British Open qualifiers.

Highfield - who won four matches to reach this year's Crucible and gave then-defending champion Zhao Xintong a stiff challenge on the opening day - is in line for the £5,000 highest break prize.

This latest 147 is already the fourth of the fledgling 2026/27 campaign. In total, 245 maximums have now officially been recorded on snooker’s top tier.

There were mixed fortunes for players who have enjoyed deep runs at the British Open in the past.

Ryan Day - the champion in 2022 - was ousted 4-3 by Thailand's Chatchapong Nasa, meanwhile two-time champion Jimmy White was eliminated by Sean O'Sullivan, 4-1.

Runner-up in 2021 when the British Open was revived on the professional snooker circuit, Gary Wilson will play no further part in this year's staging as he was denied by Ricky Walden, who crafted a break of 134 in a 4-1 victory.

A semi-finalist in this competition two years ago, Oliver Lines posted efforts of 73, 67, 59 and 90, but it wasn't enough as he was edged out 4-3 by Xu Yichen.

Last year's defeated finalist Anthony McGill (115 break) can look forward to another Cheltenham excursion, though, as he squeezed past Joe O'Connor 4-3.

World number 17 Jack Lisowski - the highest ranked player at these qualifiers - will be at his home event after seeing off Scott Donaldson, 4-1. The result is a morale-booster for the reigning Northern Ireland Open champion who has had a difficult start to the new top-flight snooker season having failed to qualify for each of the first three Chinese ranking events.

A player a lot of people are continuing to talk about is Chang Bingyu - the Chinese ace constructed a maximum 147 at the recent Shenzhen Open qualifiers - and the 23-year-old impressed again with a 4-0 whitewash win over former world champion Stuart Bingham.

In the first frame of that tie, Chang notched up a 102 which is already his 15th century break of the season. This is his 11th win from 13 matches, so far.

Newly-minted Championship League winner Jak Jones squeezed past Matthew Selt, 4-3, with a 102 in the deciding frame, but another current ranking event title holder, World Open champion Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, was on the wrong side of a final frame shoot-out when he lost out to Jamie Clarke.

Noppon Saengkham totted up a brace of tons (101, 125) during a 4-2 win over Ashley Hugill who also struck three figures (101).

For the second year running, two-time world women's champion Bai Yulu has qualified for the British Open. The 23-year-old got the better of Sahil Nayyar, 4-1.

Jimmy Robertson pipped Zhou Yuelong, 4-3; the day before, Robertson defeated Zhou in the Shenzhen Open qualifiers.

Tom Ford had to withdraw from his match due to injury. The former Shoot Out champion arrived at the venue for his assignment, but was in too much pain whilst on the practice table, and his opponent Ross Muir received a walkover.

The last 64 draw for this £502,000 world ranking event is expected to take place next week.