Tournament favourite Joe Perry booked his place in the quarter finals of the 2004 Merseyside Professional Championship, as did 2002 winner Mark Davis.

Perry's toughest match came in the first round, when Clacton's Adam Davies, who makes his Main Tour debut this season, took two frames with breaks of 91 and 80. But then Perry strolled past both Rory McLeod and Jimmy Michie, beating both 5-1, to line up a mouth-watering quarter final match against Stephen Maguire.

Mark Davis was quite simply 'on fire' all day. the St. Leonard's man opened up with breaks of 124, 51 and 100 against the 2003 English Amateur Champion Alex Davies, winning 5-1.

Next into the firing line was Belgium's Bjorn Haneveer and he suffered a similar fate, going down 5-1. Haneveer took the first with a run of 70 and then Davis smashed in 79, 90, 105 and 104.

And it was 5-1 again in the final qualifying round, as Scott MacKenzie couldn't stop the Davis scoring machine either, although Davis was slightly more sedate, merely recording runs of 63 and 77.

Earlier in the day Ireland's Rodney Goggins (left), another Main Tour debutant, fired in back to back centuries, 128 and 132 to recover from 3-1 down to Gerard Greene. But he couldn't maintain that momentum and Greene ran out a 5-3 winner.

Bjorn Haneveer rattled in a break of 92 against Leicester's Ben Woollaston and Rory McLeod clinched his first round win with a run of 66 against Stephen Kershaw.

Grant conquest ran in 51 and 98 but went down 5-3 to Jimmy Michie, who responded with breaks of 70 and 54. Michie then ended the hopes of Fergal O'Brien. The Irishman opened a 2-0 lead with breaks of 55 and 66, but Michie then ran off four consecutive frames. O'Brien stroked in a break of 60 to pull a frame back, but Michie fired in 75 to seal victory.

RESULTS

Draw and Latest Results

Quarter Final Draw

Lawler v Lines

Maguire v Perry

David v Day

Cope v Croft

RESOURCES - Roll of Honour

2003 Stephen Maguire bt Mark Davis 5-1

2002 Mark Davis bt Stephen Maguire 5-2

2001 Nick Dyson bt Paul Davison 5-2

2000 Michael Holt bt Rod Lawler 5-3

1999 Stuart Bingham bt Stuart Pettman 5-1

1998 Peter Lines bt Lee Walker 5-4

1997 Antony Bolsover bt Paul Wykes 5-4

1996 David Gray bt Paul Sweeny 5-2

1995 Rod Lawler bt Dean Reynolds 5-4

1994 Dean Reynolds bt Jason Ferguson 5-1

1993 Dave Harold bt Tony Rampello 5-2