Shropshire’s Adrian Gunnell has booked his place in the final stages of snooker’s Welsh Open next month.

The 34-year-old Telford cueman defeated in-form Tom Ford 5-2 at Prestatyn yesterday.

Gunnell lost the opening frame to a 70-break but recovered to lead 3-1 at the interval, crucially winning the fourth on the black.

Ford responded with 106 to reduce the deficit but Gunnell restored his two-frame advantage by winning the next after requiring a snooker and then made a break of 65 to complete victory. “The performance was nothing special but I got the job done,” he said.

“The table was shocking and kept running off so it was quite scrappy but I’m pleased with the way I battled away. Tom’s a very dangerous player so it’s a good victory.”

Gunnell will now take on Hong Kong’s Marco Fu in the first round proper at the Newport Centre in mid-February for the right to meet home favourite Mark Williams.

Fu has been in fine form this season, winning the Royal Watches Grand Prix and reaching the semi-final of the Masters. But he was beaten by Gunnell 5-3 in the Northern Ireland Trophy in November.

Jimmy White’s miserable season continued as he missed out on a place in the final stages when Andrew Higginson beat him 5-2.

White, 45, has now failed to reach the televised phase of any of this season’s first six ranking tournaments with only the 888.com World Championship remaining.

White’s fellow veteran John Parrott will be in the TV phase after outrageously fluking the final black to beat Mike Dunn 5-4.