Just how badly the Thai played was aptly summed up by his opponent afterwards. "To be honest I played pretty bad myself, but James missed everything," Gilbert said.

The highest break in a poor contest was a 41 from Gilbert in the opening frame, while Wattana's best was just 30 in frame five.

The Thai won only the second frame when he scrambled the pink home but compared to some of his famous victories he was a long way short of form, devoid of confidence and an easy target for whoever he played.

His next outing is the China Open next month when he plays world champion Graeme Dott in the first round.

Nigel Bond and Alan McManus were among the established names going through on the first day of competition.

Bond, a former British Open champion, avenged a 5-0 defeat to Liang Wenbo by beating the Chinese 19-year-old 5-3 while McManus, twice the runner-up in the Welsh Open, beat Liverpool's Rod Lawler 5-2.

Michael Holt, who beat Ronnie O'Sullivan in the first round of the Malta Cup, came from 4-2 down to edge Ricky Walden 5-4.

Holt compiled breaks of 131, 104 and, in the decider, 115 but was forced to win a 51-minute eighth frame on the pink just to keep the match alive.

Former world champion John Parrott failed to make it through as he was beaten 5-2 by Cambridgeshire's Joe Perry.

Mark King, the 1997 Welsh Open runner-up, also made an early exit after losing 5-0 to Kent-based Northern Irishman Gerard Greene.

Ben Woollaston, a 19-year-old from Leicester who has already won three matches to qualify for Newport, earned a dream clash with seven-times world champion Stephen Hendry by beating Londoner David Gray 5-3.

Frames (Gilbert first): 64-14; 45-67; 68-23; 63-34; 65-42; 73-9.

John Dee

The Nation