Wilson storms through to set up a semi-final showdown with Murphy

The Kettering snooker star enjoyed a comfortable 6-1 victory over namesake Gary Wilson in their quarter-final clash in Wolverhampton this afternoon (Friday).

‘The Warrior’ can now look forward to a clash with Shaun Murphy, who grew up in Irthlingborough, in the last four tomorrow night.

The 31-year-old got off to the perfect start in his quarter-final with a break of 92 and never really looked back as a further break of 64 helped him establish an 4-0 advantage.

And he quickly wrapped things up after the interval, finishing in style with a break of 104.

But Wilson knows he is will have to be at his best if he is to get past Murphy, who secured his semi-final place with a 6-0 whitewash of Ryan Day.

"I am very pleased, I managed to settle very quickly with a nice 90 break,” the Kettering star said.

“The table had been re-clothed today so that can take a bit of time to settle on that. I managed to settle and kicked on from there.

“I am second or third on the one-year ranking list so to feel like you’ve not had the best of seasons but still be up there is good.

“I managed to win the European Masters and I’ve been fairly consistent since that but it’s nice to get to the business end of these big events and it’s great for the confidence going into the Crucible.

“I love playing Shaun. He’s obviously playing very, very well. He’s playing some great snooker.

“I am going to have to be on top of my game to beat Shaun.”