Snooker: Hendry finds top gear

STEPHEN HENDRY yesterday made five century breaks in his semi-final match against John Parrott in the Royal Liver Assurance UK Championship at Preston to take a 7-1 lead in the best-of-17-frames contest and a giant stride towards reaching tomorrow's final against Darren Morgan or Ronnie O'Sullivan.

The 24-year-old world champion, who won the UK title in 1989 and 1990, said: 'I've never played any better than that in a match. Sometimes everything clicks and the balls run your way.'

Hendry, who requires only two of the remaining nine frames for another final appearance, opened with a frame of 107. In the third frame he compiled 114, in the fourth 109 and 123 after the interval.

By the time Parrott potted his next ball Hendry had totalled 447 points, beating his own 353 best in a ranking event. He ended the day with 111 as Parrott managed just 106 points.

In the other semi-final O'Sullivan moved closer to a place in his first ranking tournament final when he took advantage of breaks of 122 and 114 in the first and sixth frames against Morgan to lead 5-3 at the close.

ROYAL LIVER ASSURANCE UK CHAMPIONSHIP (Preston) Quarter-finals: R O'Sullivan (Eng) bt S Davis (Eng) 9-6; S Hendry (Sco) bt J Wattana (Thai) 9-7.