Brilliant Gould dispatches Swail to make UK quarter-finals

Pinner’s Martin Gould reached his third quarter-final of the season and moved a step closer to the world’s top 16 as he beat Joe Swail at the UK Championship on Thursday night.

Gould rattled in breaks of 78 and 63 as the pair shared the first four frames before the interval.

But the west Londoner, who has beaten Allan Taylor, Gary Wilson and ninth seed Mark Allen this week, returned with a brilliant 131 to lead 3-2 – and Swail never really recovered.

The in-form Gould, who would break into the world’s elite if he makes the final at York, won three of the next four frames to book himself a place in the last eight.

He next faces unheralded Yorkshireman David Grace, the world number 81, who knocked out former World and UK champion Peter Ebdon in the last round.

Afterwards, Gould admitted he had taken a little while to settle into the match and his break of 131 gave him a confidence boost.

He told West London Sport: “There’s a lot riding on it and I just never felt that I was in my stride [early on]. I was pleased to come out 2-2 after the interval.

“Then I just got into a rhythm and when I get like that I am quite hard to stop.”