Locked out but Gunnell's so hot
Shropshire's Adrian Gunnell overcame a major fire alert and bad back to leave himself well placed to qualify for one of snooker's major ranking tournaments. Gunnell won three of his first four round-robin matches in Prestatyn as qualifying for the Royal London Watches Grand Prix gathered pace.
The Telford cueman saw his weekend get off to a nightmare start though as he was defeated 3-0 by Fergal O'Brien in his opener.
But, crucially, Gunnell edged out Robin Hull on the final black to register a 3-2 triumph and followed up with two wins yesterday, 3-0 against Stuart Pettman - including a 131 clearance - and Mohammed Shehab 3-2.
That left him tied with O'Brien at the top of Group F and in a fine position to be one of two players from it to reach the final stages at Aberdeen later this month.
Not that the weekend was without drama, as Gunnell was forced to endure a two-and-a-half hour delay to last night's match against Shehab due to a fire scare.
"The fire alarm went off in the players' lounge but nobody moved for 15 minutes because it goes off all the time," said the 35-year-old.
"But it became clear that there was a major fire at Pontins and we were kept outside for two hours.
"The key to my chalet was in the tournament office which I couldn't get into so it was a long time to be out in heavy rain. I was due to start at 6.30pm and actually got on at 9pm so I was pleased to win with that kind of preparation."
Gunnell was playing group rival Liu Song later on Monday.
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