PAUL Wykes needed just one hour and 20 minutes and only four of the nine available frames to book himself a place in the last 32 of the Liverpool Victoria UK Championships at Bournemouth's BIC yesterday.

He completed an 9-3 victory over Gary Wilkinson in the second session of their third-round match.

Leading 6-2 overnight, the 28-year-old from Bournemouth lost the opening frame of the session, as he had done the previous day, but then completed a mirror image of Tuesday's events by taking the next three.

It was a performance in front of an enthusiastic home crowd that showed no indication of any nerves.

For the world number 59, no routine is obviously a good routine because, apart from that ninth frame which he lost 74-8, Wilkinson, 33, hardly got a look-in for the rest of the match.

Just one point went the world number 35's way in the following two frames as Wykes took 27 minutes to win them 95-1 and 91-0.

The 12th frame was closer but the in-form Bournemouth player came through 67-33 to earn a fourth-round tie against Mark King.

"I'm just playing really good snooker," said Wykes. I'm cueing so well, this is definitely as well as I've ever played."

The Wykes-King match starts at 10am tomorrow with the second and final session beginning at 7pm.

The clash of the former world champions ended yesterday when John Parrott beat Joe Johnson 9-7 but one of the big names to fall was Peter Ebdon, beaten 9-4 by Shokat Ali.

Many of the top players take to the green baize today - John Higgins takes on David McLellan, James Wattana faces Wayne Brown, while Stephen Hendry plays Jason Ferguson and Ronnie O'Sullivan lines up against Steve James.

Results: UK Championships at the Bournemouth International Centre,third round: John Parrott 9 Joe Johnson 7, Joe Swail 9 Mark Fenton 4, Shokat Ali 9 Peter Ebdon 4, Darren Morgan 9 David Gray 9, Stephen Lee 9 Patrick Wallace 4, Drew Henry 9 Dominic Dale 4, Mark King 9 Stephen Maguire 2, Paul Wykes 9 Gary Wilkinson 3, Jamie Burnett 9 Ian Brumby 7, Jimmy White 9 Paul Davies 6, Steve Davis 9 Paul Sweeny 6, Andy Hicks 8 Jimmy Michie 9, Matthew Stevens 9 Joe Perry 8, Terry Murphy 9 Rob Milkins 6, Fergal O'Brien 8 Lee Walker 9, Nigel Bond 9 Alfie Burden 5.

Today's order-of-play, 10am and 7pm: Brian Morgan v Stuart Pettman, John Higgins v David McLellan, James Wattana v Wayne Brown, Stephen Hendry v Jason Ferguson, Ronnie Sullivan v Steve James, Mark J Williams v Mark Selby, Chris Small v Jonathan Birch.

2.30pm: Lee Walker v Jimmy Michie, Steve Davis v Jamie Burnett, Paul Hunter v Dave Harold, Michael Holt v Tony Drago, Anthony Hamilton v Marco Fu, Ken Doherty v Graeme Dott.

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.