The British contingency have made easy work of their European Masters qualifying ties and will be heading to Lommel in October. World number four John Higgins has sealed his place at the event in Belgium later this year following a dominant performance against China’s Chen Feilong.

Higgins, who can be backed at 9.50 to win the 2018 UK Championship, was making his first appearance of 2018-19 but showed no signs of rustiness as he breezed past his opponent 4-0 in Preston. After reaching his seventh World Championship final in 2017-18, where he lost to Mark Williams, Higgins will be desperate to get back to that level again this term.

Meanwhile, Stuart Bingham also came through his qualifying clash, although he was given a firmer test by Jamie Jones. The Englishman has struggled for form so far in 2018-19 – suffering first-round exits at the Riga Masters and Yushan World Open – so qualification for the European Masters provides a timely boost to his confidence.

Jones made life extremely difficult for Bingham but breaks of 63 and 52 helped the 2015 World Champion to prevail 4-3.

Compatriot Gary Wilson may have been the underdog but he put on an impressive performance to see off Shaun Murphy 4-3. Wilson is still on a high after reaching the last eight at the Yushan World Open and he continued to feed off that momentum against the Triple Crown winner. He enjoyed breaks of 94, 54 and 50 to see of Murphy and claim his first ever victory over the world number eight.