Terry Murphy was today defeated by John Higgins in the third round of the Grand Prix at Telford but Higgins will progress no further than Murphy as he has pulled out of the tournament to be best man at his brother's wedding. Higgins was impressive in his 5-3 victory over the man from Northern Ireland but immediately afterwards set off on his journey back home to Scotland to make it home in time for his brother Jason's wedding tomorrow afternoon. "It's a really hard one because I'm playing so well but there's no contest between this and my brother's wedding," said Higgins, the defending Grand Prix champion.
According to Higgins, the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association gave him assurances that no such clash would occur when he told him of his intention to attend his brother's wedding some months ago, and are therefore to blame for the confusion in dates. For their part the WPBSA deny awareness of any such guarantees.
Murphy was disappointed to lose out at this stage of the competition but admitted he found it hard to motivate himself considering the unusual circumstances. "I think the situation with John undoubtedly took the edge off. I couldn't help thinking that if I'd beaten him, even though it would have been fair and square, that there would have been question marks," he said. The winner of tonight's match between Matthew Stevens and Graeme Dott will now get a bye into the semi-finals.
Filed by Amanda Fennelly
