By Phil Harlow BBC Sport at the Crucible

McManus' fluke was the only highlight See how he fluked the brown

The opening frame of Alan McManus and Nigel Bond's first round match saw an early contender for fluke of the tournament.

McManus, needing all the colours to pinch the frame, saw a straightforward brown rattle in the corner pocket, jump onto the top of the cushion and roll six feet along the rails to drop into the middle pocket.

The look on Bond's face is best decribed as "rueful".

Needless to say, McManus went on to clear up the colours and win the frame by four points.

Even Tony Drago (aka The Maltese Falcon), a player known for his array of attacking shots, said he had never seen anything like it.

The same match will also feature in the list of longest of the championship, even with best-of 25, 31 and 35 frame matches to come.

The players were hauled off by the referee after completing only six of the planned nine frames in three hours.

Frame times of 37, 25, 41, 18, 15 and 42 minutes were a glimpse back to the bad old days of the game when such turgid encounters were commonplace.

To put that it context, Ronnie O'Sullivan's 147 break in 1997 took five minutes and 20 seconds.

"Mid-afternoon paralysis" as one journalist eloquently put it.

There were some anxious moments for one punter who staked a not inconsiderable �10,000 - the biggest single bet of the championship - at odds of 1-2 on seventh seed Stephen Lee beating the evergreen Steve Davis.

If the mystery gambler was hoping for the six-time champion to roll over for Lee, they would have had some nervous moments.

Davis opened up a 5-4 lead at the end of the first session before eventually losing 10-6 as Lee finished strongly.

Davis had been hoping to stay in the tournament as long as possible to raise money for a leukaemia charity.

Ladbrokes have promised to donate �50 to the Parents Association of Children with Tumours and Leukaemia for every frame Davis wins in the tournament - a total which now stands at �300.