Snooker: Taylor considers future

DENNIS TAYLOR will consider his future in the game after crashing out of this year's Embassy World Championships in the seventh qualifying round at Telford.

The former winner, who enriched the folklore of the game's leading event by squeezing past Steve Davis 18-17 on the black in the 1985 final, was defeated 10-3 by Nick Walker, the world No 67 from Chester. And the 50- year-old from Northern Ireland said: "I've got until the end of the World Championship to make my mind up as to what the future holds.

"I don't know what I'm going to do but after 28 years on the professional circuit that would be an embarrassing way to finish my career. Anyone watching out there who didn't know me would have thought I couldn't play. I've put in a lot of hard practice for this but nothing worked for me."

With his manager, Ian Doyle, having received 3,000 letters from Taylor fans pleading for their favourite to continue, there is still a chance that he will play for one more season.

Yesterday, Hong Kong's Marco Fu needed only 37 minutes to wrap up a 10- 1 victory over Jason Ferguson and move to within two rounds of a place in the final stages.

Fu, closing in on a top-32 ranking next season, led 8-1 overnight and when play resumed he cleared from brown to black to get within a frame of victory before winning the 11th on the blue.