PRESTON'S Ian McCulloch failed in his bid to reach the final stages of the World Snooker Championships in Sheffield.

The 30-year-old lost his eliminator match against Thailand's James Wattana 10-7 at the final qualifying rounds at the Newport Centre.

McCulloch was trying to emulate his 1999 performance of reaching the first round proper, when he lost to Mark Williams 10-4.

"It was a dreadful game, both of us played really badly. I lost two games on the black and three on the pink": he said.

McCulloch went 5-1 down early on but rallied to draw level at 5-5 each.

Then at 7-6 two flukes in the next few frames gave the former world number three a match-winning cushion he never relinquished.

Despite his failure to qualify, the Prestonian remained optimistic about his season overall. He said: "I'd beat him 5-2 earlier in the in the year and I prepared well for the game.

"I've had a good season though, it's just you get two or three bad games a year - it just happened to be this one."

He now goes to the qualifiers of the Regal Scottish in Burton-on-Trent.