Gourlay, a semi-finalist five times since the event became a ranking tournament, broke Welsh hearts with a 10-6, 9-9 win over Price, who certainly had his chances in the second set to at least force a tie-break. The Scot just held the upper hand in the opening set, winning it 10-6, although he almost paid the price, so to speak, for a loose seventh end that offered Price a lifeline at 7-6 down which the Welshman couldn't take.
Price dominated the early exchanges in the second set to lead 5-0, but Gourlay levelled matters within two ends and played three bowls out of the top draw on the seventh end to lead 8-6. Back came Price with a treble of his own on the next to lead 9-8 going into the last end, where he put himself under pressure by failing to threaten the jack. Forced into a drive with his final bowl, he sliced the jack towards to the side of the rink; Gourlay inexplicably came up short with his last bowl, but a close measure for shot went in his favour and he was through to the semi-finals with a tied second set, 9-9.
England's Mervyn King avenged his opening round defeat at the World indoor championships by Scottish qualifier Wayne Hogg, but he was certainly puffing his cheeks out with relief at the end when Hogg's drive on the third and decisive end of the tie break just failed to remove both his counting bowls. King trailed all through the first set until the eighth end when he drew level at 7-7, then claimed the set with a double on the final end. King only led once in the second as Hogg, who has now reached two quarter-finals in a row, took it 10-5, but the Norfolk ace produced the shots when it mattered on two of the three tie-break ends to go through.
For the second year in a row in this event, Scotland's world number one, Paul Foster, got the better of his close friend and world indoor pairs winning partner Alex Marshall, winning 9-3, 11-5 to keep alive his hopes of a second title and retaining the world number one spot. Quality was always going to be the name of the game in this clash between two of the most successful players in modern times – nine world indoor singles titles between them in the past 14 years – and their high degrees of skill were aptly demonstrated on the very first end of the match, which produced a no-scoring end, with no fewer than three bowls resting on the jack.
The match itself was far more competitive than the scoreline indicates, although there was no denying that Foster was the more consistent and deserved his passage into the last four. Marshall paid a heavy price for two loose ends in the opening set that cost him six shots. It was a similar story in the second, with Marshall opening the door for Foster to claim a treble with the score at 3-3, and, as in the first set, there was no way back for the record five-time world champion, who still awaits his first title away from the World indoor championships.
When Greg Harlow stormed to a 13-3 win in the opening set against his England colleague Simon Skelton, no-one could have imagined that it would take two hours 11 minutes before the match verdict was finally reached in his favour, 2-1 in a tie-break. Skelton, runner-up twice in the last three years, showed all his renowned doggedness and determination in the second set to hang onto Harlow's coat tails and force the match into a tie-break with a single on the last end for an 8-7 win, but it was the world number two who finally had the last word.
