Disappointed Adrian Gunnell was heading back to Shropshire today after losing 5-4 to Steve Davis to miss out on a first ever ranking tournament quarter-final.

The Telford cueman produced an erratic display against the six-times world champion last night to exit the Royal London Watches Grand Prix in Glasgow.

Davis took a 3-0 lead after three gruelling, tactical frames before Gunnell hit back to level – but the 36-year-old could not maintain his momentum and lost two of the last three.

His first round victory over Shaun Murphy guaranteed him a bumper £9,000 pay day, but that was of little consolation as he reflected on a lost opportunity.

“I’m crushed, to be honest,” said the world No 36, whose match did not finish until 12.15am. “I’ve never had a defeat hurt me as much before.

“Every time I play someone who gives me 10 chances a frame I can’t seem to play – that’s my problem and it’s something I have to deal with.

“If you get one chance a frame you know you’ve got to take it so you’re tuned in and ready for that.

“But against someone playing like Steve was last night, your concentration drifts and you get more and more annoyed – the more you struggle the more you beat yourself up and that’s all I was doing for the first three frames.

“I knew this was a big chance for me, not only to reach the quarter-finals but to go beyond that as well.”

Reflecting on his brave fightback, he added: “I thought I’d go for it and scare him to death, and I played some cracking frames to get it back to 3-3.

“At that moment I knew everything I hit was going to go in and there was only going to be one winner.

“I can’t believe how I lost that next frame because he was absolutely gone.”

Gunnell was today making the six-hour drive back to his Shropshire base, and insisted he would still have plenty of positives to reflect upon.

This was only his fourth appearance in the last 16 of a ranking tournament, and his first on British soil – and he now has the taste for more.

“I do feel really positive for the future,” he added. “Things have been going great for me, even if it doesn’t feel like it right now.

“There are a million and one positives and I have to hang on to those.”

Read the full story in today’s Shropshire Star 

By Chris Hudson