Norwich cueman Barry Pinches insists he is happy with his form despite crashing out of the UK Snooker Championship at the first hurdle.

Pinches, who practices at the Woodside Snooker Centre, went down 6-4 to Leicester's Tom Ford in York in the first of snooker's 'triple crown' along with the World Championships and the Masters.

In a high-quality match, the pair made nine half-century breaks between them and it was Ford's 68 in frame 10 that sealed the match after almost five hours at the table. But 44-year-old Pinches wasn't too downhearted and believes if he can regularly reproduce the form he displayed then victories will not be not be far away.

'That was a very good game, really high quality,' said the Old Catton-based potter.

'I had a couple of 50s, a 70 and a 100 – with four breaks over 50 in a best-of-11, you're usually the winner if you play like that. I'd be happy to play like that every time and I think I'd win a lot more matches than I lose if I did. I came in expecting to play well – that was quite pleasing but Tom was just slightly better on the night.'

The first-round thriller between Pinches and Ford was the last game to finish on the opening night in York as the players exited the arena beyond midnight.

This sparked memories of Pinches' 6-5 loss to Adam Duffy at the same stage last year, which also continued into the early hours. The world number 89 has spent a large part of his career tweaking his cue action but with a settled style at last, he is confident he will soon come out on the right side of these snooker epics.

'I feel as if I've finished tinkering with my cue action for the rest of my career now. You can never say never but I've been playing great in practice for the last five or six weeks. I'm feeling good, I'm seeing the ball well and everything's great,' said Pinches.

'It makes a big difference when you have a settled cue action.'

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