But it was world number 41 Tom Ford who was the pride of the county this month, instead of PTC2 winner Mark Selby.
The 26-year-old nearly faced his his old practice partner Selby in the final too, until he was beaten 4-3 in the last four against Jack Lisowski.The Jester will be kicking himself. A semi-final defeat against the minnow came after he'd already done the hard work beating Judd Trump, Graeme Dott, Ryan Day and Barry Hawkins in a difficult route.
Ford, whose previous best ranking event performance was a quarter-final place in the 2005 Malta Cup, showed no stage fright as he went on to beat Lisowski 4-0 in the final.
This capped an excellent performance from Ford this weekend, who also beat Mark Davis, Andy Hicks, Marcus Campbell, Stephen Lee, Sam Baird and Patrick Wallace on route to triumph.
While Ford's victory sees him earn vital ranking points as he bids to break into the world's top 32, not needing to beat anyone from the top 16 this weekend still leaves
the question looming of whether the Leicestershire potter can make a big impact at the major ranking events later in the season.A number of other rank outsiders enjoyed a good run this weekend as well.
Dominic Dale made it through to the quarter-finals after beating PTC2 runner-up Barry Pinches in the last 16 and world champion Neil Robertson at the last 32 hurdle.
Ian Glover was beaten 4-1 against Adrian Gunnell in round 4, but this was after he had taken the prized scalp of PTC1 winner Mark Williams in the last 128.
Shaun Murphy lost at the same stage, shocked 4-3 by Martin O'Donnell.
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