WITH a final flourish John Higgins completed his first ever victory in the Embassy World champions ship at Sheffield last evening. Higgins closed out his 10-5 victory over Martin Clark with a century break, at last showing the form that has seen him installed as second man in the betting behind Stephen Hendry.

Beginning the second session 6-3 ahead the 20 year old world number 11 required only 93 minutes to add the necessary frames to set up a repeat of last year's meeting with Alan McManus.

And it is sure to get tougher against an opponent Higgins describes as "having one of the best safety games in the world."

For three days the polling pals from Motherwell and Glasgow must put their friendship on hold to battle it out over 25 frames.

"We are going to hate each other for three days before we can go back to being mates," said Higgins, trounced 10-3 by the world number six on his debut 12 months ago.