WHILE there are few people around who would begrudge Steve Davis his great return to form, there were probably a couple who felt, as they wandered out of the arena at Goffs last night, that the younger lads deserve their turn in the limelight too.
Take Ken Doherty. Everybody recognises his talent and most reckon, with no major title to his credit over the past couple of years, that he's probably due a big win. This looked like just the event in which he might get it, if it weren't, that is, for the intervention of a certain Englishman.
Last season, Davis, who has won this event eighth times, beat the Dubliner at the semi final stage and, more recently, in Wembley, he coasted past him on the way to the British Masters title.
The first hint that the same thing was about to happen in this year's Irish Masters came as early as the first frame when, after a break of 34, Doherty missed a simple red into the centre. After that, he hardly threatened to reverse the trend.
"It was an easy shot and after I missed it, it just never seemed to happen for me," said the World, number seven afterwards. "I don't think it's anything to do with playing Steve because, to be fair, I beat him in the play offs of the European League this season and when you play as badly as I did tonight, then you're going to get beaten no matter who you are playing against."
Prior to the interval, the match was dominated by the Londoner who steadily worked the table for a succession of solid, but, with the exception of a 72 in the second frame, generally small breaks that gradually edged him into a 4 0 lead.
Then, the Irish number one gave his many supporters some cause for hope with a break of 81. The revival was shortlived, though. The 27 year old made an error when trying to play safe on the pink at the baulk end, allowing Davis back to the table where he proceeded to finish things off.
A break of 24 was enough to restore his lead to four frames and in the seventh, he potted a stunning red early on to start a run of 73 points that guaranteed him a 6-1 win and a quarter final match with Peter Ebdon - whom he also beat at Wembley - tomorrow.
Stephen Murphy left Goffs yesterday with every reason to hold his head up high. The 27 year old arrived home a couple of weeks ago with tickets to his first round match against John Parrott for some 400 of his closest friends and he went desperately close to making a long overdue mark on, snooker's big time.
He made the better start to the match and, after a long barren spell in which a 3-2 lead was transformed into a 4-3 deficit, he did remarkably well to push the former world champion all the way to an 11th frame, only to pass up a marvellous opportunity to clinch a place in the last eight.
Parrott, who had shown a glimpse of his best in the sixth when he produced a break of 129, drew first blood in the decider with an 18, but then missed a straightforward black.
Worse was to follow for the 32 year old Englishman as Murphy fluked a red into the centre and put together 17 himself. Then, with the match seemingly at his mercy Murphy replicated his opponent's error on the black and this time there was to be no let off as this year's European Open finalist stepped in for a 51 break.
If the Irishman was disappointed with himself, then the visitor, who meets defending champion Darren Morgan in the quarter finals tomorrow, was clearly relieved to be staying on at Kill a little while. "I thought for a while it was going to be a carbon copy of last year when I was all over Joe Swail like a rash and then he produced a break of 60 in the last to send me home."
