Ian McCulloch produced a devastating display of scoring to march into the £450,000 British Open final at Telford today.
McCulloch, who beat defending champion John Higgins in the quarter-finals, defeated Welshman Mark Williams 6-3 to reach his first major final.
And the 31-year-old is now nine frames away from achieving his ambition.
"When you turn professional you dream of winning a big tournament so it would mean everything to me to go on and win the final," said McCulloch. "I thought I'd play well against Mark and it was my best performance in a TV match.
"Only for the odd spell in the past have I produced anything like that."
McCulloch, who had only one quarter-final to show for 10 years as a professional before the start of the tournament, began the match impressively.
The Preston potter compiled breaks of 65, 100, 66 and 80 to lead 4-0 and chalked up 372 points without reply, which leaves him 11th on the all-time list for unanswered points.
McCulloch was also in first in the fifth with 68 but Williams got the snooker he required a produced a clearance of 37 to the black to stave off the whitewash.
The world number two was up against it again in the next when McCulloch weighed in with 57 but a long red began a 67 clearance to the pink to make it 4-2.
McCulloch refused to be intimidated and won the seventh on the yellow for 5-2 before Williams reduced his arrears to only two frames again with a 72 in the eighth.
But McCulloch was not to be denied and clinched the match with a break of 56.
"Ian was excellent all through the match," said Williams. I hope he plays like that in the final because if he does he'll walk it.
"I was pleased with how I've been playing and thinking, though. Not so long ago if I was 4-0 down you could put your money on me losing 6-0, but I put some fight into it and pressure transferred to him.
"But he held himself together and with any luck he'll do himself justice in the final."
PA