Doherty at his best fills role of local hero to perfection

IT'S not easy being a local hero but Ken Doherty filled the role to perfection amid scenes of tremendous jubilation at Goff's Auditorium last night. With a performance of stunning quality the 26 year old Dubliner beat world number one, Stephen Hendry, by 6-5 in the quarter finals of the £190,000 Benson and Hedges Irish Masters.

In securing a third successive victory over the brilliant Scot, Doherty gained a crucial, psychological edge, given that they are seeded to meet at the same stage of the World Championship, starting in Sheffield next month. "I can hardly believe it," said Doherty afterwards. "I took his best and beat him with possibly my best snooker of the season."

The decisive points came from the Irishman in the shape of a clearance of 30 to the pink in the last frame. "I played what I thought was a shot to nothing and left Ken with an opening to win the match, said a disappointed Hendry afterwards. The Scot added: "Ken obviously played his heart out. Now I sincerely hope he goes on to win the tournament."

Meanwhile, earlier in the day, like an seasoned thespian returning to a favourite role, Steve Davis felt a rather special excitement in yet another appearance at his most productive venue. It clearly lifted the eight times former champion out of a recent trough, to an impressive 6-3 win over James Wattana in the quarter finals. He and, Doherty meet in the second semi final tonight.

If Hendry has a weakness, it is a tendency to strike out desperately, when he is subjected to persistent pressure. So it was in the final frame in which Doherty never wilted under the increasing strain of battle. Eventually, with a 20 point lead, Hendry made an ill advised thrash at the second last red left it for Doherty and the Irishman, administered the ultimate sanction.

From the outset, however, it had looked markedly different for the Doherty. Indeed, in a virtual blitz lasting 29 minutes, Hendry took the opening two frames, with a clearance of 119 in the first and breaks of 51 and 75 in the second, to which Doherty's response was a modest total of 17.

At that stage, the capacity attendance were desperate for a response, any response that could ease Doherty into the match. Yet for all that, the Dubliner looked to be the calmest person in the arena as he steadily picked off points, capitalising on two uncharacteristic errors from the 1992 champion.

He won the third frame with breaks of 24 and 40 and went on to draw level at the mid session interval with a fine, 65 break in the fourth. Significantly, this was a break in which the run of the balls clearly favoured him, notably in a fluke on a black which bobbled around a centre pocket and stayed out, before running across, the table to finish in the opposite pocket.

Doherty raised his hand in the customary gesture of apology but Hendry's face remained grim. One suspected that he was becoming acutely aware of an extremely daunting task ahead. As it happened, the point gained emphasis in the next in which Doherty achieved his most telling fluency of the match so far.

Nine blacks dominated the scoring in a superb clearance of 121 - the third highest break of the match so far. As red after red found the target and Doherty progressed to the colours, the crowd could barely contain their delight at the quality of the play.

The fact was that they were watching snooker of the highest order in the best match of the week. Indeed former world champion John Pullman was prompted to describe Hendry's winning clearance in the sixth as "the best break of 106 that I have seen." Its merit lay in the fact that the position of the colours forced him to start with two yellows and a brown and then work largely with the pink in a break that contained only three blacks.

The tempo dropped somewhat after that. Overall, however, it remained a contest to savour as no more than one frame separated the players at any stage. It's fabulous to beat Stephen at any time but here at Goffs is really special," added the Irishman, who was runner up to Hendry in the 1992 final.

He went on: "This tournament is very dear to my heart and it's one that I want to win. Three centuries: it was a great match. I felt totally relaxed and at ease with my game but I know that I face another tough match against Steve (Davis) tomorrow night."

Meanwhile, for a wealthy sportsman who has scaled the heights of snooker achievement, including six world titles, it is perhaps inevitable that there should be a mundane aspect to much of Davis's current activities. But after this latest success, he claimed that the Irish Masters was different.

In the event, the 38 year old so called Ginger Magician showed he is still capable of weaving some wizardry in his chosen pursuit. For instance, there was a clearance of 105 to the pink to level the match in the second frame. And another clearance of 82 from the eighth last red, secured a 3-2 lead in the fifth.

Indeed Davis achieved such dominance over the mercurial Thai that the Londoner was well worth a lead of 5-2, courtesy of a break of 60 in the seventh. But the old killer instinct is not quite as sharp as in former years; the hunger for success has been sated through countless tournament victories.

So it was that Davis allowed his opponent back into the match. With a break of 67 in the eighth, Wattana narrowed the gap to 5-3. And he was within sight of winning the ninth as well, when, with blue, pink and black for victory, he got the first two but failed to finish his work. Instead, it was Davis who despatched the black into the same pocket that had denied Wattana.

Making his 15th appearance a Goff's since 1981 he missed the 1986 tournament Davis, now world number nine, was exempted through to the quarter finals for possibly the last time.