Paul Foster and Robert Paxton both crashed out of the World Indoor Singles in a dramatic day of action at Potters on Tuesday, with Scottish International Open champion Stewart Anderson maintaining his excellent by form by beating Jamie Chestney.
Foster, who on Monday landed a fourth Open Pairs title with best mate Alex Marshall, succumbed on a tie-break to Les Gillett, with the Leicestershire man gaining his revenge for his semi-final defeat to the Troon star at the Scottish International Open.
Gillett took a narrow first set 5-4, but Foster hit back to take the second 9-2. With the momentum firmly in his favour, Foster looked favourite to progress but Gillett dug deep to win the first two ends and secure a quarter-final berth.
“We both weren’t at our best, but a win’s win,” said the 48-year-old Gillett. “Like our match in Scotland, Paul got over the line, but he didn’t play at his best there and I didn’t either.
“I’m as pleased as punch. I have played Paul on a number of occasions over the years and I’ve been second best quite a few times. It was two guys having a scrap on a green and luckily I came out on top.”
Paxton, fresh from his Mixed Pairs success with Ellen Falkner earlier in the day, took on Scott Edwards, a player looking to break into the top-16 and it was the Peacehaven bowler who had much the better of the exchanges to seal a straight sets victory 7-3 7-5.
Having played a two-hour marathon earlier in the day, Paxton looked jaded from the off and he struggled to find any sort of rhythm as his poker-playing opponent regularly peppered the jack with his red bowls and never looked in real trouble as he comfortably saw the game out.
That win could well have put Edwards on the brink of a place in the elite, while he will now face Gillett in the last eight.
The day’s first match saw Anderson see off Chestney 12-5 6-6, in a match that had ‘future champions’ written all over it.
Anderson, looking for back-to-back WBT victories, was not at his prodigious best, but was still good enough to beat his English opponent and afterwards said: “I played well in the first set and just managed to get over the line, but in the second I think Jamie deserved a tie-break as I thought he dominated it. I had a wee bit of luck here and there. Fortunately it was my day today, but it should have gone to a tie-break.”
It has been a tough start to this year’s tournament for Anderson, who faced fellow Scottish international Colin Walker first up, before lining up against last year’s Open and Mixed Pairs winner Chestney, also the winner of the 2017 International Open.
“You just want to get over the line in the first couple of rounds and progress from there,” he added. “I have a couple of days off now, will get in plenty of practice and see what happens on Friday morning.”