Snooker: Taylor and Higgins to resume hostilities

(First Edition)

DENNIS TAYLOR was not amused when he was drawn to play Alex Higgins in the first round of the Royal Liver Assurance UK Championships in Preston today.

The match between the Northern Irish pair will be the first since April 1990, when they played each other amid high security in the Benson and Hedges Irish Masters. Six weeks before, Higgins had threatened to have Taylor shot after a dispute at the World Team Cup in Bournemouth.

'I've never been more determined than I was that night,' said Taylor, who eventually defeated the defending champion Higgins 5-2. 'Saying he was going to have me shot if I ever went back to Northern Ireland was bad enough but some other more personal things were even worse. We've never spoken since.'

Higgins, who was subsequently banned for a year for bringing the game into disrepute, has never recovered from that blow and now languishes at 61 in the world rankings. Taylor, too, is struggling and needs a victory this time to help him keep his place in the world's top 16.