SNOOKER'S rapidly changing face is sharply reflected in the £190,000 Benson and Hedges Irish Masters, which starts this afternoon at Goff's Auditorium in Kill, Co Kildare.
It is the 19th staging of an event which, as usual, has attracted all of the game's top players including the holder, Peter Ebdon, and world number one, Stephen Hendry.
Scotland's Alan McManus gets the tournament under way against Darren Morgan of Wales at 2.0 p.m. this afternoon and Ireland's main challenger, Ken Doherty, will meet Jimmy White tomorrow afternoon.
White's non exempt status highlights the dramatic decline of the Londoner, who was twice a winner of this title in 1985 and 1986. Since then, he has won only three matches at Goff's and a slide down to a provisional 12th in the world rankings deprives him of a customary quarter final place this week.
John Higgins, who is very definitely at the opposite end of the success spectrum, will be in action later tomorrow in a first round match against the mercurial Thai, James Wattana.
Having started this season as number 11 in the world, the young Scot has made such astonishing progress as to be the current, provisional number two, only 620 points behind Hendry.
Both players will be in action in the British Open in Plymouth next week when Higgins, the defending champion, could actually take over the number one spot, given that the losing quarter finalist, for example, will receive 1,520 points.
The situation emphasises the extent of the challenge facing Hendry in his determination to hold onto number one status until the end of this decade.
"John is very definitely a future world champion," said the "senior Scot, clearly hoping, one suspects, that the elevation to such status may still be some way off.
In fact Higgins will not be 21 until May but has recently moved into a new detached house, not far from his business base in Lanarkshire.
"I was worried about being a one season wonder," said Higgins, reflecting on earnings of £284,000 last season. So, he was particularly relieved to win the German open in Frankfurt last December, beating Doherty by 9-3 in the final. In fact the Dubliner had earlier ended Hendry's 15 match winning streak with a 6-3 semi final win.
Arguably the most gifted wildcard choice to make a debut at Goffs, Higgins is seeded to meet Hendry in the second semi final on Saturday night.
To get there, however, he must follow a win over Wattana with a quarter final victory against Steve Davis who has become something of an institution at Goffs with eight Irish Masters titles to his credit.
Joe Swail from Northern Ireland lost the chance of a World Championship first round match against White, when he lost by 10-9 at the qualifying stage to Scotland's Ewan Henderson last Thursday. But Goff's has been good to Swail. He earned £18,000 there last year by progressing to the semi finals where he was beaten 6-3 by Hendry.
Doherty faces a World Championship first round match against qualifier, Nick Terry of England. Though battling to achieve consistency this season, the Dubliner has reason to be pleased with his record at Goff's where he won a first round match by 5-3 against Dave Harold last year before going out to Hendry by 5-4 in a tight quarter final clash.
Not surprisingly, the top players have welcomed the increase in the duration of first and second round matches to 11 frames. In fact Hendry went so far as to say: "All of the players will appreciate the change which will enhance this very popular tournament."
The Scot, who was 27 on January 13th, has a very moderate record at Goff's where his only triumph was in 1992 when he beat Doherty in the final. However, it would be unthinkable to have him as anything other than favourite this week as he starts the countdown to the World Championship in which he will be attempting to equal the record of six triumphs, held jointly by Davis and Ray Reardon.
