MARK Williams made a perfect start to the new snooker season at Preston Guild Hall, reaching the final stages of three international ranking tournaments.

The Cwm ace saw off David John (4-1), Scott Donaldson (5-1) and Louis Heathcote (4-1) to qualify for the Indian Open, World Open and Riga Masters respectively.

Williams, world champion in 2000 and 2003, will be joined at the World Open by Newbridge’s Lee Walker, a 5-3 winner over Mark Joyce.

Walker, who lost 4-1 to Mark King in the Indian Open qualifiers, is also heading to Latvia later this month after beating Sydney Wilson 4-1 in Lancashire.

Cwmbran’s Jak Jones, starting his third spell on the main tour, is set to join Williams and Walker at the Riga Masters.

Having earlier missed out on qualification for the World Open following a 5-0 whitewash against Matthew Selt, Jones was given a walkover into the final stages of the Riga event when Mark Allen withdrew.

Like Jones, Newport’s former world amateur champion Ian Preece has returned for his third stint on the main tour.

However, things didn’t go so well for him in Preston, with a 4-2 loss against Mike Dunn and a 5-3 defeat by Yu De Lu in the Indian Open and World Open qualifiers respectively.