STRENSALL’S Chris Quantock will join darts greats Michal van Gerwen, Raymond van Barneveld and Gary Anderson in the third round of next month’s UK Open.

The former Huntington School pupil has gained an automatic passage to the last 64 of the televised competition, which is known as the FA Cup of Darts, after finishing 26th in the Open’s order of merit during his first month on the full PDC tour.

Over six qualifying competitions, Quantock earned £3,750 in prize money, placing him ahead of the likes of past Premier League players Robert Thornton, Trevor Jenkins and Ronnie Baxter in the standings, as well as former World Championship runner-up Kirk Shepherd.

Quantock saved his best for last in the final qualifier at Wigan’s Robin Park Tennis Centre, reaching the last 16 before being narrowly defeated 6-5 by world number 13 Kim Huybrechts.

He had earlier disposed of Yordi Meeuwisse (6-2), Jamie Lewis (6-5), Dylan Duo (6-2) and 2006 World Championship semi-finalist Wayne Jones (6-4).

In the fourth qualifier, meanwhile, Quantock reached the last 32 stage before bowing out 6-2 to Ryan Searle, having earlier won 6-5 against former Whitwell-on-the-Hill arrows ace Terry Temple, who had previously knocked out Premier League star Jelle Klaasen.

Scott Doyle (6-2) and Matt Clark (6-5) were also overcome by Quantock, who did not fare as well in the fifth qualifier, losing his second-round match 6-4 to Steve Brown 6-4.

York’s Richie Corner and Martyn Turner, meanwhile, won’t be in the UK Open’s 128-strong field at Minehead for the March 3-5 tournament.

With winnings of £250, Corner finished £500 short of the cut-off point and Turner’s performances failed to get him on the leaderboard.

Corner suffered first round defeats to Ryan Palmer (6-3) and Mark Frost (6-3) in the fifth and sixth qualifiers respectively.

In the fourth qualifier, he overcame Mick Todd 6-3, but fell at the next hurdle to Rowby-John Rodriguez 6-5.

Turner reached the second round in the sixth qualifier, beating Arron Monk 6-2 before exiting to Lee Bryant 6-4.

He had earlier been knocked out in his firsts games of the other two qualifying events by Keegan Brown (6-5) and Andy Boulton (6-1).

Quantock will now be hoping to emulate Acomb’s former PDC ace Chris Thompson by making a big impression in the UK Open.

In 2008, Thompson reached the quarter-finals on the main stage before bowing out to Vincent van der Voort, who Quantock defeated earlier this month.