• Higgins and Hendry Safely Through

    John Higgins and Stephen Hendry’s world championship warm-up stayed on course as they beat Jamie Burnett and Alan McManus respectively to reach the semi-finals of the Scottish Professional Championship at the Luck Break SC in Clydebank.

    The tournament is being staged for the first time since 1989, and has been resurrected by the last winner and owner of the Lucky Break, John Rea.

    Neither, Higgins, Burnett or McManus were even professional the last time the event was held and Hendry declined to take part, a decision which may have contributed to the event being cancelled.

    Rea defeated Ian Black in the final and included only the seventh 147 maximum break ever made in professional competition at Marco’s Leisure Centre.

    This year, the big guns are back and have supported the event in style ahead of the ‘big one’ next week in Sheffield.

    Higgins cruised through without hitting top gear, beating Burnett by five-frames-to-one.

    The world number one started well, taking the opening frame with ease.

    Burnett responded well in the second though and drew level taking a close frame.

    However, Burnett made too many mistakes throughout the match and Higgins punished him with some clinical finishing at the right times to restore his lead in the next.

    A break of 79 in frame four, gave the three-time world champion a 3-1 lead at the interval and when they resumed, Higgins picked up where he had left off and extended his lead with a run of 87, the highest break of the match, and move within one frame of victory.

    Higgins finished things off with a 48 break after a mistake from Burnett. Burnett was naturally dissapointed afterwards, saying,

    "I'm glad it wasn't five nothing! I never really settled in the match and my long potting was especially poor. You need to play well against quality players and if you don't you get punished. He blamed himself mostly for the heavy defeat expressing regret at failing to capitalise on the few mistakes made by Higgins.

    He added, " I never capitalised on John's mistakes and you need to take those chances and I never, especially in the early frames. I feel if I had took my chances I could have easily been three frames ahead but as I said my long potting let me down.

    He also expressed his delight at the return of this tournament, saying, "You want tough matches to prepare you for tournaments and this was perfect preparation for me tonight. It's great to be playing against the top players so close to the world championships and this will stand me in good stead for next week."

    Higgins was delighted after the match, saying, "I'm really happy with the win. I knew it was going to be tough but to win 5-1 is great, I'm over the moon. I missed a couple of silly shots but I managed to push on and make some good breaks so that was good."

    He also expressed his excitement at the prospect of facing Hendry next. He beamed, "Anytime you play Stephen Hendry it is a great occasion so it will be another special match.."

    John also claimed that playing this tournament beats practicing at home. He continued, "This is a very useful exercise for me and it's better than practicing so it's good to get a few games in before the world championship and having never won the Scottish championship before I would love to win this time around.

    The way through for seven-time World Champion Hendry was a little more scrappy in his match with McManus.

    Hendry who won this tournament on a couple of occasions in his early years and he will be looking to go all the way again this time round.

    McManus took the opening frame but Hendry showed his class in frame two with a break of 113 before adding frame three and four to lead at the mid-way point.

    The former Masters champion was not about to lie down against his more illustrious opponent and showed plenty of grit and determination to give himself a life-line after the break pulling back a frame with some effective safety play.

    Hendry’s A-game is still up there with the best of them, and he remains one of the game’s best break builders.  His weakness though, is a lack of a ‘B’ or ‘C’ game and when he is not on top, he looks pretty ordinary and unable to compete at the top level.

    He did manage to grind out a win in the sixth frame however, and having done that went back into overdrive and sealed the win with a 95 break.

    Happy to get through, Hendry said, "It's was nice to eventually get the win. When you play Alan you know it's always going to be tough and with him you know you are in a game straight from the off so it's nice to get through."

    When asked about the prospect of meeting John Higgins in the semi-final he said, "I'm sure there will be a great atmosphere in here.

    McManus was clearly disappointed with himself but admitted, "Stephen was a bit more solid in amongst the balls and that was the difference. There were a couple of frames that I should have won that would maybe have turned things around but I missed the chance to go in at the break level and I was punished for that."

    He also spoke of his delight at playing someone of the quality of Hendry. He said, "It's always nice to play Stephen and the crowd were great so it was a good day despite the result.

    The tournament continues tonight as Graeme Dott takes on James McBain and Stephen Maguire faces youngster, Anthony McGill, playing in his home club.