FORMER world champion Dennis Taylor crashed out of the British Open in Plymouth last night. World number 11 Dave Harold ground out a 5-2 win over the 1985 world champion to further boost his chances of remaining in the elite top 16 next season.
Peter Ebdon took another step closer to joining a select band of players to have won back-to-back ranking events with his 5-2 win at the £330,000 tournament.
The world number three, a winner of the Thailand Open in Bangkok last month, dropped the first frame to Yorkshire rival Jimmy Michie.
But apart from one other hiccup when the Pontefract potter pinched the fourth on the pink Ebdon looked in total control.
He knocked in a break of 88 to level at 1-1, made 59 in the third and came out after the interval to fire in runs of 42, 62 and 59.
"Jimmy's a dangerous opponent if you let him get among the balls so this is a good result," said Ebdon, who now plays Nottingham's Anthony Hamilton tonight.
Antony Bolsover defeated world number two John Higgins in the opening round but found Martin Clark, the world number 33 from Sedgeley, a different proposition.
Clark, who has never progressed beyond the quarter-finals of a ranking event in seven attempts, must beat Steve Davis to get another crack at breaking his hoodoo.
The 28-year-old West Midlander came from 3-2 down against the world number 86 from Sheffield obtaining 32 penalty points in the sixth frame to spark a three frame unbeaten burst that brought him a 5-3 success.
World champion Stephen Hendry hardly broke sweat as he strolled into the third round with a 5-1 win over Paul Wykes, ranked 102, in 116 minutes.
Not even an unscheduled 60-minute hold up due to an earlier match over-running could phase the cool Scot.
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