The 'Mouth of the South' was silenced by Caves

The eighth seed, a semi-finalist for the last three years, was sent home early for Christmas by Alan Caves, who beat him 3-2 at the Circus Tavern.

Lionel Sams, ranked 22nd, also crashed out, beaten 3-1 by Dave Ladley who was making his debut at the Purfleet event.

England's Colin Monk, the 30th seed, followed him out of the tournament, losing 3-0 to Per Laursen of Denmark.

But English 28th seed Wayne Jones came through safely against Ian Branks of Northern Ireland, winning 3-0.

Already out of the championship are Ronnie Baxter (seeded 10th), Mark Walsh (16th), Barrie Bates (17th), Alan Warriner-Little (24th), Steve Maish (26th) and Matt Clark (31st).

Andy Hamilton made sure he was not added to the list by seeing off last year's giant-killer Gary Welding 3-0.

Welding beat world number one Colin Lloyd en route to the 2005 quarter-finals.

But 18th seed Hamilton gave his fellow Englishman little chance of claiming another seeded scalp.

Third seed and two-time world title holder Dennis Priestley advanced with a 3-0 victory over Josephus Schenk of the Netherlands.

James Wade, seeded 11th, also had little trouble in seeing off Kiwi Warren French 3-1.