Aaron Hill was beaten 6-2 by England’s Matthew Selt in the third round qualifying for next week’s UK Championship.

The player, who hails from Ireland, hopes to join previous champion Mark Allen in the tournament outright after Jordan Brown and Robbie McGuigan had lost at the second round stage earlier this week.

Hill defeated Ka Wai Chueng to reach the third of the found qualifiers.

After a scrappy opening frame shaded by Selt, he doubled the lead with a 55.

The 22-year-old responded with a match-high break of 75 before Selt responded to take a 3-1 lead at the interval.

Selt and Hill shared the first two frames when the action resumed, but the 39-year-old from Romford was not to be denied.

There are 16 places on offer to reach the tournament, and the final qualifiers will be played over Wednesday and Thursday.

They will join the top 16 players in the world in the draw, which is seeded, and the tournament kicks off on Saturday in York.

Hill receives over €6,000 in prize money for exiting at the third round of qualifying.

Earlier this week, Jimmy White was another star who exited the 2024 UK Championship after suffering a 6-4 defeat to Ross Muir in the qualifiers on Monday.

White, who defeated Paul Deaville in the first round of qualifying in Leicester, faced an up-hill battle after losing five out of the opening six frames.

Breaks of 125, 103, 75, and 64 brought Muir to within a frame of victory, but the Scot subsequently struggled to get over the winning line.

White, the UK champion all the way back in 1992, gave his fans a glimmer of hope when he reeled off three frames on the spin to reduce the arrears to just one again.