There may be a new name on the Foster's Golden Cue trophy this year.

There may be a new name on the Foster's Golden Cue trophy this year.

Of the eight players still in the competition, only Farakh Ajaib and Pete Mercer have won the title before.

In the quarter-finals, Jack Dady and Wayne Cotterill went through from the first set of ties, with Ajaib and Mercer joining them.

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The third round of ties saw two superb matches at Ighten Leigh.

On the small table, Tony Greenwood beat Sam Shepherd with a superb clearance in the decider.

He twice went in front, only to be pulled in by Shepherd, who raced into a good lead in the decider, only to be pegged back.

On the large table, spectators were treated to a fantastic match between Russell Large and Martin Eyles.

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With a 2-0 lead, Eyles was on track to advance, only for the experience of Large to kick in.

He almost cleared the table in frame three, but missed the black, leaving Eyles a chance.

But he missed and Large was back in the match.

He took the fourth to level, and the fifth frame will go down as a Golden Cue classic.

Eyles forged in front with a 32 break, but Large fought back to take the match to the deciding black.

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Large had first go after potting from green to pink, but narrowly missed the black, leaving Eyles an almost impossible-looking cut.

Astonishingly he pulled it off and booked his semi-final place.

On the big table, Josh Foster flew into a 2-0 lead against current champion Jon Clark, before Clark levelled with some impressive break building.

Foster took the decider on the pink after a thrilling exchange on the colours.

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On the small table, the spectators were treated to another classic – serial finalist and former champion Jimmy Waddington took the first against Jamie Lingard.

Lingard took the next two frames, but Waddington levelled the match at 2-2 with a brilliant 67 clearance.

The final frame saw Lingard race into a commanding lead with a 58 break, before letting Waddington in, but with a lead of 72 and only 73 on he looked to be safe.

But Waddington cleared the table with a magnificent 72 break to force a black ball re-spot.

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Waddington won the toss and put Lingard in, who put the black on the cushion, but a little too near the bag.

Waddington caught it a little thick, and the cue ball agonisingly dropped in the opposite corner to hand the match to Lingard,

The semi-finals begin on Tuesday.