Perry loses his first ever Premier League match - 06/11/2008

JOE Perry has suffered his first ever defeat in the PartyPoker.com Premier League Snooker.

Ding Junhui

Perry, competing in the event for the first time, had begun his campaign with three wins but was brought down to earth by an in-form Ding Junhui.

The Chinese player had only gained one point from his opening three matches but showed his class at the Newport Centre in Wales.

He made a break of 70 in the opener before missing a thin cut on a frame-winning red.

Perry, who won the Championship League earlier this year to qualify for the Premier League, still had a chance and looked on course to steal the frame by two points but missed a simple-looking brown and fell 1-0 behind.

Ding's advantage soon doubled as he clinched the second 97-4, aided by a run of 41. It was all one-way traffic now as the third went Ding's way 82-0 as Perry had now gone more than 30 minutes without potting a ball.

There is a £1,000 bonus for each century and Perry looked on course to collect that bonus in the fourth but missed a red while on 85 as the chance disappeared.

His hopes of claiming a point soon evaporated as well as two errors, including a badly-misjudged safety attempt, saw Ding win the fifth by 80-0.

The night ended well for Perry as he won the sixth but for the second time failed to get a century as he failed to down the red using the rest after a break of 90.

Ding Junhui 4-2 Joe Perry
85-50 (Ding 70, Perry 50), 97-4 (Ding 41), 82-0 (Ding 36), 5-85 (Perry 85), 80-0 (Ding 31, 38), 0-90 (Perry 90)