Idles with choke open but stalls on acceleration

[darrsi]

if it is open could a blocked fuel filter cause issues - not sure what would block it up so bad?

If you've ever had water in your tank, via a leak around your petrol cap, then it's possible that rust could eventually clog up the fuel filter, but i would imagine that would cause below average performance rather than cutting out altogether.
Always worth changing though as they're very inexpensive and easy enough to fit.