Snooker
John Higgins has had just 48 hours to savour joining the snooker record books. He returns to action in the #370,000 Scottish Open at Aberdeen tonight after becoming only the third player, after Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry, to be World, UK, and Benson & Hedges Masters champion at the same time.
The 23-year-old from Wishaw meets Birmingham's Leigh Griffin for a place in the last 32 at the Exhibition and Conference Centre.
''Normally it would be an
anti-climax to play so soon after winning a tournament like the Masters,'' he said. ''But it's always great to play in front of the Scottish people and I don't want to let them down,'' said Higgins.
Hendry begins his campaign today with a match against Oxfordshire professional Lee Richardson. Hendry's press conference after losing to Tony Drago at Wembley consisted of six words. Expect even less if he goes out first time to the world No.89.
Hendry lost to Dumbarton's Marcus Campbell in Aberdeen 12 months ago and then again 9-0 at this season's UK Championship. So, it was no surprise when Campbell yesterday defeated Hendry's stablemate Gary Wilkinson 5-1 in round one. ''There was a good atmosphere in there and it brought back good memories. I beat Alan McManus in the first round last year so it was great to make a winning start again.''
Edinburgh's Chris Small was less happy with his performance but managed a 5-1 win over Barry Mapstone. ''I was disgusted with the way I played but at least I'm still in the competition,'' he said.
The first Scottish casualties were Billy Snaddon from Tillicoultry and Glaswegian John Lardner. After reaching his first ever
ranking tournament quarter-final in
Ireland before Christmas, Snaddon has failed to build upon the achievement in his last two events.
He went down 5-2 against Stuart Pettman while Lardner lost 5-3 against former Welsh Open
champion Paul Hunter.
Willie Thorne enjoyed a 5-0 whitewash of Andy Hicks which means Thorne will be a busy man for the start of the week as he's also on duty in Aberdeen as a summariser for Sky TV.
Liverpool's Rod Lawler put himself in line for the highest break prize with a 142 in the seventh frame of his match with Brian Morgan. But it could not save him from a 5-3 defeat.
West Midlander Karl Payne was the first casualty of the week. He failed to turn up, expecting instead to play UK and Grand Prix semi-finalist Dave Harold this morning.
Harold duly received a walkover into the last 32 giving more time for Payne to practice for his forthcoming appearance on ITV talent show 'Stars in their Eyes''.
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