Stephen Maguire advanced into the quarter-finals of the Masters last night with a 6-3 win against the tournament’s pre-match entertainer.

Maguire saw off the challenge of the man now dubbed in some quarters as “the hot-stepper”, Mark King, after his antics in Sunday’s wildcard round match against Jimmy White.

King once again entertained the crowd on his entrance last night – dancing to some rather untraditional, expletive-filled hip hop. But with the beeps in all the right places, none of the crowd appeared too offended by Ice Cube’s aggressive lyrics – or even King’s dodgy dance moves – and saw the funny side instead.

After a 6-2 victory against local hero White, King now faced a far tougher opponent in the form of “the Livewire”, but began the match where he left off against the recent I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! contestant by winning the first frame.

And in the second frame, things got even better for the 35-year-old as a run of 78 put him 2-0 ahead.

It was the next frame where Maguire finally began to gather some momentum and came out the other side of a scrap-fest with the first of his six frames on the board – a 63-18 scoreline pulling back a vital frame for the winner of last week’s Championship League Group A playoff final against Mark Selby.

Then, a brilliant break of 121 levelled the match for Maguire in the fourth. The Scot had well and truly arrived, but King remained defiant, taking the fifth frame 66-54 to take the lead for a second time.

Indeed, the match continued to be blighted by errors and silly mistakes by both players going into the last few frames. Whether it was a lack of concentration or a battle of nerves, neither player truly hit top gear at Wembley Arena last night.

Maguire took the sixth frame, though, with a narrow 59-56, and then took the lead for the first time in the match – taking the seventh frame following a break of 78.

In the final two frames, the 28-year-old Glaswegian racked up an 87 and an 82 in the eighth and ninth frames, respectively, to secure a place in the quarter-finals against either Ryan Day or Joe Perry.

So, the Masters waves goodbye to a man who lit-up the first two rounds with his inspired entrances; while Maguire moves a step closer to winning this prestigious non-ranking tournament for the first time.

Meanwhile, there were no surprises in the final first-round match between Mark Williams and Rory McLeod.

The Welshman reportedly drove through two feet of snow in a borrowed 4×4 from his sponsor, from his home community of Cwm all the way to London, and it proved well worth the treacherous journey as he sealed a 6-2 win over McLeod and his place in round two of the tournament.

The two-time Masters champion never really looked that convincing, and conceded that the match had been “scrappy all round”.

However, the wildcard-round victory means he will now face Ali Carter this evening for a place in the quarter-finals, where the winner will face the conqueror of Stephen Hendry, Shaun Murphy.

Rob Swan