John Higgins reached the last four of the Bank of Beijing China Open this afternoon after coming through a scrappy quarter-final encounter with world number one Ronnie O’Sullivan.

Stuart Pettman continued his superb run in the China Open this morning, causing another upset by overcoming Graeme Dott to make his first ranking tournament semi-final.

Last year’s runner-up Ian McCulloch was sent crashing out of the Grand Prix in Preston tonight after defeat at the hands of an in-form John Higgins.

World number four Paul Hunter crashed out of the Malta Cup today at the hands of journeyman Stuart Pettman.

John Parrott was "exceptionally relieved" after battling through to the Crucible in dramatic fashion at Prestatyn.

Shannon 51 Dolphin 7

Buccaneers 47 Dolphin 16

Dolphin 24 St Mary’s College 18

Dolphin 24 St Mary’s 18

Cork Constitution 34 Dolphin 17

WELSH wizard Mark Williams completed the last 16 line-up in the Embassy World Championship last night and set the alarm bells ringing for his title rivals.

THE good news for Munster and Ireland is that Paul O'Connell and Rob Henderson came through another club assignment safely.

Dolphin 56 Portadown 8