THE Al Ward Memorial Cup was played down to the last 16 in the Tewkesbury Pool League when achieving qualifying places from some of the gro-ups was always going to be difficult.

Some familiar names did manage to progress though others found it tougher.

Gary Francis progressed through his group by beating John Rathbone 3-0 in his final match.

The 2003 winner will have some familiar company joining him in the draw for the latter stages of the event as three of his teammates also qualified.

Paul Cunningham won his group without dropping a single rack, as did Corin Hayes while last year's runner up Mark Aspey went out 3-0 to Paul Halling.

They were joined in the last 16 by Andy Woodfine who came through a tough qualifying group including Glouce-stershire County youth player Andrew Paginton, last years' House Singles runner-up Carl Jones and leader of this year's individual averages Chris Newman.

Other qualifiers: Phil Thorne, Ady Williams, Wayne Sheridan, Josh Craze, Alan Collins, Neil Rogers, Alex Mavity, Tristan Riches, Richard White, Michael Irvine.