Chris Melling, who came within a minute of being thrown out of the Challenge Tour Event One Northern qualifiers in harrogate, ended up being one of the stars of the tournament.

The 21-year-old from Keighley, whose lift was delayed from Brad-ford, where he was playing in the European Professional Pool Cham-pionships on Saturday, persuaded snooker tournament director Colin Brinded that he had arrived in time to avoid being disqualified.

And, despite being docked three frames for his late arrival, he defeated Alastair Wilson 4-3 in the second round - Melling had a first round bye - then dispatched Stephen Ormerod, mark Boyle and Leonard De Griffa, all 4-2, to qualify for the final stages (last 32) at Swindon next month.

Brinded said: "I was about to disqualify Chris as it was 3.27pm - he should have been ready at 3pm.

"You lose the first frame when you are 15 minutes late, the second after a further five minutes, a third after another five minutes, and if you are not ready after that then you are disqualified.

"However, Chris said he was ready at 3.24pm, but that the old bloke at the desk who was ticking off names had trouble finding his. I accepted that after checking it, and just docked Chris the three frames."

Melling, runner-up in the 1999 Bradford amateur snooker final, said: "The problem was that my mate who was giving me the lift had been delayed in the traffic before Bradford City's match. We left the Bradford Hilton at 2.45pm and arrived at the Manhattan Snooker Club in Harro-gate at 3.20pm.

"I made a couple of 50s in beating Wilson, made a 131 break in defeating Ormerod - then the joint highest break in the tournament - a 132 against Boyle and a tournament best 138 against De griffa.

"It is the first time I have ever qualified, but I feel if I play to the best of my ability there is no reason why I cannot win the tournament."

In the pool tournament, the fancied Melling beat Karl Milner 8-2, Shane Appleton 8-7 and Keith Brewer 8-6 in reaching the last 16.

Waheed Khan (Bradford) defeated Britain's top wheelchair player Aslam Abubaker (Leicester) 4-2 in the second round at harrogate, but then lost 4-0 to Thailand's Atthasit Mahitthi.

There were second round defeats for Esholt's Anthony Massey (4-2 against Gary Britton) and Leeds' Rajveer Boughan (4-2 against Clark Smith). Leeds' Kevin Robinson beat David Ackers 4-1.

Rawdon's Paul Cavney and Leeds' Dane Hall are already through to the fourth round in the bottom half, two wins away from qualifying.

Cavney beat Peter Bardsley (Sheff-ield) 4-2 and Peter Gilchrist (Middles-brough) 4-1, while Hall hasn't lost a frame in defeating Mark Taylor and Andrew Atkinson. Bradford's Wayne Cooper scratched from his second round match against Jason Hood because of work commitments.