PAUL MAHONEY produced the shock of the York Masters snooker tournament so far to blast into the last 16.

The Clarence player beat Keith Thornhill 3-1 to reach the knockout stages - and eliminate his opponent from the competition.

Mahoney won a low-scoring first frame 41-28 and went 2-0 up with a simple pot after Thornhill hit the frame ball black too hard.

He reduced the arrears with an easy 61-17 win in the third frame but Mahoney ground out the victory 53-41 in the fourth to join Pete Glover in qualifying from his group.

Jordan Worobec’s impressive form continued with a 3-1 victory over Richard Lillie.

The recently-crowned Scruton Cup champion put Lillie on the back foot to take the first but dropped the second frame. The third came down to the final three colours. Lillie missed an easy blue but Worobec snookered himself on the pink before winning a safety battle to take the frame.

A comfortable 61-14 victory in frame four sealed the win.

Group ‘D’ was claimed by Tim Lister after a 3-0 win over Malton captain Phil Hart.

With both players having already qualified, the match lacked the intensity of other games.

Lister took the first frame 53-30 after potting some good long reds and he prevailed again in an error-strewn second.

Hart could have nicked the third but received a bad kick on the green.

Clive Whyte came through a tough match to beat Rob Kettlewell 3-0 and make the knockout stages.

With Dan Potter already having won the group, both players knew nothing less than a win would be good enough to advance.

Kettlewell started the stronger, putting Whyte under pressure early on, and had a good lead gong onto the colours. Despite being on the back foot, Whyte played some good safety shots and managed to get a number of points back through some good snookers. When Kettlewell missed the blue, Whyte took his chance, potting the final remaining three colours to win the opening frame on the black.

A 50-24 success in frame two gave Whyte a comfortable lead despite not being at his best.

Both players continued to play good safety in frame three, but a number of missed opportunities finally cost Kettlewell, with Whyte potting the pink to win frame and match.