Martin Gould has made it through to the Championship League Winners’ Group after beating Barry Hawkins 3-2 in the Group Six final on Thursday.

Wins over Stephen Maguire and David Gilbert helped the world number 27 finish in the top four of the group, which was enough to see him progress through to the play-offs at Coventry’s Ricoh Arena.

From there the 37-year-old was in his element, as he first beat Mark Davis 3-1 in the semi-finals, before racing into a 2-0 lead against Hawkins.

Hawkins, who has now lost three play-off finals in this year’s Championship League, did win the next two frames to take it to a decider, but breaks of 34 and 42 were enough to see 2013 champion Gould progress.

Gould was certainly pleased to make it through to the Winners’ Group and he confirmed he will adopt the same relaxed approach when the tournament reaches its conclusion in March.

“It’s nice to have won the group,” Gould was quoted as saying by World Snooker.

“I made five or six breaks over 70 in the first six frames I played today. I had a bit of a lull in the last group game but I felt good in the semis and the final.

“There’s some big names in the final group but I’m just going to treat it the same way as I treated this group and go there for a bit of fun. I’ll look at it as if I’m getting paid to practice and what better practice can you have against the top boys in the world?”

Hawkins, who is priced at 23.00 to win this year’s World Championship, will have one more chance to progress through to the final stage by winning Group Seven – the Englishman will be joined in that final eliminator by Davis, Maguire and Gilbert, as well as Michael White, John Higgins and Ding Junhui.