GRAEME Dott and the UK Championships have never been a good pairing, but the Larkhall snooker ace insists there is no better time to change all that than the present.

While featuring in two World Championship finals – winning it in 2006 after overcoming Peter Ebdon 18-14 in the longest final ever – Dott is yet to feature in a UK Championship showpiece.

His best performance came back in the same year he won his world title, falling at the semi-final 9-7 to Stephen Hendry.

This time around he faces Martin Gould on Saturday and, with all the omens looking positive, having beaten him in round one of the 2010 tournament, the Pocket Dynamo is hopeful 2012 is finally be his year.

Dott said: "I have never done that well at the UK Championships no matter how well I have been playing in the build-up.

"But I beat Martin a couple of years ago at the UK Championships, so hopefully I can repeat that and build from there."

After ending last season on a real low point, losing 10-1 to Joe Perry at the World Championships, Dott has turned his form around this campaign, reaching the quarter-final of the Wuxi Classic in his first competition.

And it is a sign of how far he has come that Dott admits disappointment at losing to world No.1 Judd Trump 5-4 in the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters, despite fighting back from 4-1 down to level the match.

"The Judd match was great and I was pleased with how I played and the way I fought back," he said.

British Eurosport is the Home of Snooker, showing 19 tournaments this season including the World Championship, UK Championship, the Masters and all ranking events, available on Sky (410/411) and Virgin Media (521/525) or online/on mobile via eurosportplayer.co.uk

Meanwhile, Glasgow's Anthony McGill lost a final-frame decider to China's Tian Pengfei at the German Masters qualifiers in Sheffield.