England’s Stephen Lee ousts compatriot Martin Gould in Round 1 of 2011-12 PTC Grand Finals
Runner up in the 2012 Haikou World Open, England’s Stephen Lee had a great start at the Bailey Allen Hall arena in Galway when he defeated compatriot Martin Gould by an easy score line of 4-1. The Englishman gave no chance to his opponent to unsettle him
during the first round encounter of 2011-12 Players Tour Championship (PTC) Grand Finals at the Bailey Allen Hall arena in Galway, Ireland.
The Trowbridge potter played impressively at the baize in front of hundreds of Irish snooker fans. The Englishman dominated the game from the very start and put Gould under a lot of pressure which benefitted him in the end. Gould was not able to counter
his opponent’s impressive progress and tumbled down after putting one frame win in his account.
Lee grabbed early lead in the match and was able to push Gould down with some classy snooker shots. The 37-year-old potter fired some scintillating knocks of 65, 70, 58 and 78 to nudge his compatriot 4-1 down in the end. Gould did hit a frame win but that
was not enough to contain the proceedings in his hands. Lee felt quite happy after beating Gould in the opening round.
During his post match interview with World Snooker, Lee said, “I'm feeling in a good place and looking forward to the rest of the season. Earlier in the season I was worried about dropping out of the top 16 but that pressure is off now. I've been travelling
to events with Matthew Stevens who is a light-hearted guy so it's nice being on the road.”
He added, “I was moving house last week, carrying boxes and furniture around, so I've not practised since last Saturday but I still managed to play well today.”
The Englishman has now successfully made his way into the last-16 of the tournament where he will be meeting compatriot Michael Holt. The World Number 11 has played against Holt a couple of times before in the 2011 Snooker Shootout and the 2012 Welsh Open.
In both encounters between the two, Lee dominated over Holt with quite a margin by the score line of 62-34 and 4-1 respectively.
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