Bond is having a dreadful season

The 1995 World Championship runner-up showed no sign of ending his slump, slipping to a 5-3 defeat by Gloucester's Rob Milkins.

Twelve months ago Bond led Stephen Lee, the eventual champion, 5-1 in the semi-finals before collapsing to lose 6-5.

This season he has suffered six first-round exits in seven ranking tournaments, plunging to 45th in the provisional standings.

Milkins, up from 33 to 23 in the rankings, was in confident mood as breaks of 54 and 71 helped him to a 3-0 lead.

Bond fought back against his fellow Englishman to level at 3-3, helped by runs of 76 and 74.

But Milkins regained the advantage at 4-3 thanks to a 62 break and then took a scrappy eighth frame.

He now faces 11th seed Mark King.

Lee will begin the defence of his title against Preston's Ian McCulloch, an unexpected finalist in the British Open five months ago.

McCulloch, who has climbed 16 spots to 27th in the provisional rankings this season, eased past out-of-form Dubliner Michael Judge 5-2.

Steve Davis set up an intriguing clash with Stephen Hendry by beating Glasgow's Stephen Maguire 5-2.

Six-times world champion Davis, who has enjoyed a fine start to the season, said: "I'm really looking forward to coming up against Stephen again, especially on his home turf."

David Gray, last year's beaten finalist in Edinburgh, also booked his place in the last 32 with a 5-3 victory over Dave Gilbert. Gray now faces Joe Perry while Anthony Hamilton, who rallied from the loss of the opening frame to beat Wayne Brown 5-1, advances to meet Ken Doherty.