The name's Bond

The 'Devon Destroyer' faces the only Welshman left in the competition, Robert Weale, and is 10-11 to reach the last four in what would be his best ever result at this event, having reached this stage in 2002 and 2007, but no further.

He looked as though he was on the way out of the competition after losing the first set 9-4 to Foster, and tied at 3-3 after five ends of the second the ball was very much in the Scottish ace's court. But Bond proceeded to win the next four ends to take the match into a tie-break and two ends later he was celebrating an excellent victory, avenging his Scottish International Open final defeat to 'Fozzie'.

Weale crushed Israel's Zvikar Hadar, who had caused a massive sensation when knocking out world champion Greg Harlow in the first round, although on the evidence of his match against the Welshman it was hard to fathom out quite how Hadar had defeated Harlow as he was mediocre at best.

The 46-year-old Weale, from Hereford, had a much tougher game at the first hurdle, but he almost contrived to throw away an impossibly good position against 45-year-old New Zealander Chris Lourie, needing a tie-break to book his place in the second round.

And from what I have seen of both men so far in Swansea, Bond is the man to get behind as that defeat of Foster swings the balance of power in his favour.

So far, Tim Stone has defeated a jet-lagged Kelvin Kerkow and an out-of-form Mark Royal, but his terrific run could end at the hands of fellow qualifier BRETT WILKIE, who enjoyed a superb win against the dangerous Nick Brett on Wednesday.

Wilkie thumped 14th seed Les Gillett in the first round and the Aussie, who reached the quarter-final on his only previous visit to this tournament back in 2003, came from behind in both sets to coast to a relatively easy-looking triumph against a man touted by some as a possible winner of this event. That defeat was huge for Brett as it cost him a place in the top 16 for next year, with veteran John Price breathing a huge sigh of relief as it means he is definitely back in the elite again.

The 35-year-old Queenslander, who is ranked 23 in the world, has good pedigree on the World Bowls Tour having also reached the final of the International Open in 2008 and at even money I fancy him just to have the edge here.

As for Stone, he has shone so far in beating Kerkow and Royal by a combined shots tally of 39-19, but he is in unknown territory here after previously failing to get past the second round of a ranking event, and there were big question marks surrounding both his previous opponents and he may just fall short against a man in truly good form.

Long Eaton accountant SIMON SKELTON lost in the final of this competition last year and has made steady progress so far, and I'm keen on his chances at 11-10 to see off Mervyn King, another top 16 player who does not have a great record in Swansea.

Skelton has defeated two qualifiers with little difficulty, while King has hardly had to get into second gear in what has been very nice passage for him. But I always get the feeling that King sometimes doesn't turn it on when he needs to and a tendency to play safe rather than go for his shots counts against him. That is why I'll be backing Skelton who plays with no fear.

That just leaves Burnett against Jonathan Ross and although I am tipping BURNETT to win at 4-6 (Betfred), he will have to improve on his second half showing against Alex Marshall on Tuesday. He was brilliant in the first set, but when Tattie got the jack in the second, he resorted to short jacks and the Arbroath copper lost his length big time, but managed to recover his composure in the tie-break on the final end, with a sumptuous draw to the jack which Marshall failed to beat.

But the fact he beat the five-time world champion says everything about the quality of Burnett, who has finally booked a spot in the top 16 and not before time.

Ross has enjoyed a renaissance this year, reaching the last-eight stage of the World Indoors for the first time since 2004, while this is only the third occasion in eight years he has progressed to the quarter-final of the Welsh Open. What makes this clash all the more interesting, though, is that Burnett was for some reason promoted ahead of Ross into the 16th seed position, with the Ulsterman basically relegated to qualifier status. A bizarre set-up and not the first time Ross has suffered at the hands of the powers-that-be on the World Bowls Tour committee – just ask him how many times his matches have been moved from a prime slot so that he misses out on TV exposure.

For that reason, Ross will be fired up more than ever to win this match, but Burnett is a class act and I fully expect him to just get the better of the Paisley-based player and make it to the semi-final, where he will have a fantastic chance of making it to the final.