Snooker: Ebdon plays it cool to conquer volatile Drago

With passions cooling over-night, diplomacy reigned following Peter Ebdon's completion of the 13-5 victory over Tony Drago which carried his title defence into the Embassy World Championship quarter-finals at the Crucible Theatre.

Drago imploded with frustration on Friday as he conceded the session's penultimate frame when trailing only by 17 with seven reds left after missing a simple straight pot. Dashing and excitable, Malta's perennial No 1 is the fastest player on the circuit, sometimes averaging as little as 11 seconds per shot.

But it was not so much Ebdon's calm and considered play as the champion's lengthy toilet breaks between frames which incensed Drago, who sarcastically applauded Ebdon's return to the arena at 10-5 and was kept fuming in his chair for another 10 minutes as Ebdon made 105 for 11-5.

Yesterday, Drago accepted Ebdon's explanation that he had been suffering from an upset stomach: "If I had known, I would have offered him half an hour, not three minutes,'' he said. He also emphasised that he had been frustrated by scheduling that had given him less than 24 hours between his 10-8 defeat of Joe Swail and another mountainous challenge.

"My nerves were shattered. I only slept an hour. I needed a day off. It's not Peter's fault. I don't want to go on about Peter's gamesmanship. We've always been mates, and that's not going to change.''

Ebdon professed himself "oblivious'' to any controversy. "I certainly didn't go out of my way to upset Tony. He was resident professional at King's Cross snooker club when I was an amateur. I'm grateful to him for even allowing me to practise with him when I was a kid.''

Jimmy White came to the Crucible having won only one world-ranking match all season, but once he had prevailed 10-6 over James Wattana from 6-3 down, he showed marked improvement, albeit not to his high standards of a few years ago. Resuming 5-3 up on Stephen Lee, he earned a 9-7 lead to carry into their final evening session.

Lee accumulated two titles and more ranking points than any other player last season, but this campaign has produced only two ranking quarter-finals, and his confidence has sunk. Lee failed to roll the pink down a side cushion, which would have brought him level at 6-6, and twice trailed by three frames before his 81 gave him the last frame before lunch.

John Higgins, the 1998 champion, completed a 13-7 win over Sean Storey from Grimsby, and revealed that a table fitter had told him that a new pocket template in use here has made the pockets one sixteenth of an inch tighter.

The tournament director, Michael Ganley, categorically denied any change, but it is undeniable the cloths have thicker naps than has been the case here for several years. This has the made the table slower and the pockets marginally tighter.

In the circumstances, the two centuries from Higgins were heavy scoring.