UK Qualifiers Day 7 - Going For Gould

It's the penultimate day of action in the 12BET.com UK Championship qualifiers and as the temperature drops the heat of competition rises. Today saw six players qualify for the televised stages in Telford, two were Pinner potter Martin Gould and EPTC4 winner Stephen Lee.

Most of the top seeds made it through today but one who had to work harder for it was Pinner potter Martin Gould. Asian veteran James Wattana had been playing well all week so far, winning two matches to get to the final round and he wasn't going down with a fight. But it was Martin who would come out on top in a nervy decider 9-8 to book a last 32 match in Telford with the World Open semi-finalist and former World Champion Peter Ebdon.

Another top player to make it to Telford is the EPTC4 winner Stephen Lee. His opponent was the determined Dave Gilbert who had already won three matches to reach the final round. Unfortunately for Dave he didn't have enough left in him to win it and Stephen pushed hard and managed to win the match with relative ease 9-4. In Telford he faces the resurgent and reanimated John Higgins in the final 32, should be a cracker!

Special mentions go to the unseeded players Tom Ford and Mark Joyce. They became the first two players to qualify for Telford, both winning their matches against the more experienced Gerard Greene and Steve Davis respectively and both at a 9-2 scoreline. Unfortunately for Steve it means he has fallen out the top 32 and needs to win two matches to qualify for the Welsh Open and German Masters, can he make a comeback in the second half of the season?

Full Results:

Matthew Stevens 9-5 Rob Milkins
Gerard Greene 2-9 Tom Ford
Martin Gould 9-8 James Wattana
Stephen Lee 9-4 Dave Gilbert
Steve Davis 2-9 Mark Joyce
Judd Trump 9-7 Xiao Guodong