STUART Carrington is celebrating his biggest payday so far after reaching the third round of the UK Championship.
As reported online at grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/sport, the Grimsby cueman, pictured, thrashed John Astley 6-1 at the Barbican Centre in York on Sunday evening.
That victory not only set up a meeting with reigning champion and world number two Mark Selby, but also pocketed Carrington a cheque for at least £9,000.
The 23-year-old doesn't want his adventure to end there, however, and is determined to make his hometown proud.
"It has been a long time since somebody did something from Grimsby," said Carrington. "Everybody is rooting for me, which is good.
"With both matches, there have been six or seven people who have come over from Grimsby. My girlfriend, my granddad, who has been coming over for the last 15 years, and a few friends as well.
"So it has been good to play decent in front of them. That will be a great experience, to play him (Selby). I played him in a PTC the year before I got on the tour.
"He beat me 4-0 and played really well that day. I have been speaking to him a bit off the table and he seems like a really nice lad as well.
"He is just a brilliant player all round – he is different class. I have played really well in both my games so hopefully I will dig in there and give as good as I can get."
Carrington's safety game will once again need to be firing against a player of Selby's undoubted quality – as it was in his victory over Astley.
"It was tough from the word go and the first frame went really scrappy," he said. "It was a tough match – a lot of safety, a lot of trying to pick 30s or 40s.
"My safety was good and my long potting was good, which helped me along. If you haven't got a safety game or a long game, you've no hope really.
"It was a different experience playing in the main arena there with a lot of people that started out watching.
"I was a little bit nervous to start off with, understandably, but just the whole experience itself – I took a lot of positives from it.
"It's the biggest payday I have ever had, so things are good at the minute."
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