Dubliner Michael Judge played superbly to defeat former Asian Games gold medallist Shokat Ali 7-1 to reach the second round of £746,000 UK Championship at the Barbican Centre in York yesterday.

Judge moved from 3-1 to 6-1 with breaks of 78, 129 and 120 before coming from 57-1 down in the eighth to win on the black. Judge will play Peter Ebdon this afternoon while the fellow Irishman Fergal O'Brien takes on Tony Drago.

John Parrott was delighted to achieve a hard-fought 7-5 first-round win over Bradley Jones.

Without playing to his potential, Parrott gained a 4-1 lead over the world number 43 from Thornton Heath. But he then had trouble keeping up with Jones as his opponent made breaks of 77, 66, 82 and 110 to level at 5-5.

Parrott knocked in 76 - his highest of the contest - to regain the lead at 6-5 and he came from 41-0 down to take the last on the blue.

"There will be a lot of players this week who don't score as heavily as Bradley but who get through to the next round," he predicted. "But I knew he was a tough player because I beat him 10-9 on the pink at the Crucible a few years ago."

Former young player of the year Ali Carter set up an all-Essex last-32 meeting with world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan thanks to an excellent win over 1995 world finalist Nigel Bond.

Carter trailed Bond 4-1, but a break of 111 ignited a run of six unanswered frames to earn his clash against twice former UK champion O'Sullivan.