Corsie had hinted at a career revival earlier this year when he won through to the world final again, but he bowed out when he lost 8-6, 9-0 to Edinburgh club-mate Scott Kennedy.

The 27-year-old Kennedy, who came through from the qualifying event earlier in the year, was delighted with the surprise victory.

"I came here hoping to pick up my first ranking points and that win today assures me of 10 points," he explained.

"That was the first priority of the exercise.

Another former world champion had been in action when twice winner Andy Thomson battled back after dropping the opening set to beat English international team-mate Billy Jackson from Lincoln in a tie-break.

Thomson said: "I was really rocked to lose it, but I just said to myself 'you've got to win the second set and hope your luck will hold in the tie-break'."

The fourteenth seed did just that, taking the second set 6-3 and the shoot-out to set up a second-round clash on Thursday afternoon with defending champion David Gourlay.

In another all-England encounter, Cambridgeshire's Greg Harlow bounced back to beat the big local hope and sixteenth seed David Holt.

Holt, urged on by a large home support, took the opening set 6-5 and then looked poised to add the second and complete a comfortable victory when he led 6-2 after five ends of the second only to lose out.

Results:

Noel Kennedy (Hong Kong) (11) beat Danny Ho (Hong Kong) 9-3, 6-5; Andy Thomson (Eng) (14) beat Billy Jackson (Eng) 7-6, 6-3 (1/0); Greg Harlow (Eng) beat David Holt (Eng) (16) 5-6, 8-6, (1/0); Scott Kennedy (Sco) beat Richard Corsie (Sco) (6) 8-6, 9-0; Mark McMahon (Eng) (10) beat Andy Robertson (Hong Kong) 10-2, 7-1.