Auchinleck’s Stewart Anderson became the first man through to the quarter-final stage of the World Indoor Singles, at Potters, after beating Jamie Chestney 12-5 6-6.

Anderson, looking for back-to-back WBT victories after landing the Scottish International Open in November, was not at his prodigious best, but was still good enough to beat his English opponent in a match that had a ‘future champions clash’ written all over it.

“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,” said Anderson afterwards. “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 introduction 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. 

But Anderson seemed unflustered about the prospect of another tricky encounter and raced into a 5-0 lead before half the crowd had taken their seats, but Chestney rallied late in the set to reduce the deficit to three by the final end. Needed a big count to take the first set or indeed tie it, he had to go for broke with his final delivery, but proceeded to hand Anderson a full house who went 1-0 up.

The second set was to prove close all the way through and Chestney just eked out a minor advantage but needing to win the final end to prolong the match, his drive saw him out of luck and Anderson took the shot required to tie the set and take the win.

“The carpet’s very fast and tricky, but you just have to get on with it and I am just glad to have got over the line,” revealed Anderson when asked why his second set performance wasn’t as good as his first.

“You just want to get over the line in the first couple of rounds and progress from there. I have a couple of days off now, will get in plenty of practice and see what happens on Friday morning.”