Snooker: MacGillivray in the frame for world title

Granton’s Craig MacGillivray produced a magnificent performance to defeat Cypriot Antonis Poullos 4-1 to secure his place in the knock-out stages of the IBSF World Amateur Snooker Championships being held in Bangalore in India.

MacGillivray produced breaks of 115, 80, 75 and 51 as he raced to victory and ensured that he would top his group and guarantee himself one of the 16 seeded positions in the last 32 of the event.

MacGillivray had opened the event with an impressive whitewash of Noppon Saengkham (Thailand) before narrowly losing out in the deciding frame to in his second match against Brijesh Damani from India.

The Granton ace got back on track with a 4-2 victory over Gary Gillard (New Zealand) before producing a top performance in his defeat of Poullos. MacGillivray’s top position in his group earned him a rest by not having to play a last 48 match and moves straight into the last 32 stage where he will meet either Hitesh Naran (South Africa) or Sergiy Isayenko (Ukraine) later today.

Cumbernauld’s Mark Boyle also qualified for the knock-out stage after finishing second in his group and will now Saengkham of Thailand in the last 48. The event finishes on Saturday.