KEN DOHERTY and Fergal O'Brien completed a sparkling Irish double in the last session of second round matches in the British Open snooker championship at Plymouth last night.

Doherty 4-2 down, recovered to Andy Hicks 5-4 and O'Brien defeated the former British champion Jimmy White 5-3.

A break of 120 had taken Doherty 2-1 in front but Hicks, who lives just a few miles from the venue, went ahead. However Doherty picked up the pace of the game again.

O'Brien, who faces the Irish Masters Darren Morgan for a place the quarter finals (Doherty plays Ronnie O'Sullivan), delivered four successive half century breaks in five frames to beat White. They were a 65, 60, 61 and 78.

"This is my best win of the season and I need a good run here if I am to get in the top 32," said O'Brien.

But it was the end of the road for Dennis Taylor and Joe Swail. The 1985 world champion lost 5-4 to Peter Ebdon after a near four hour tussle, while Swail fell 5-1 to Stephen Hendry, the current world champion, in just 114 minutes.

Taylor was bitterly disappointed his season had come to an end at the hands of the 1995 Irish masters champion.

"Peter did not deserve to win, he'd gone, he was all over the place," said Taylor. "I don't know how many flukes he had but there was no way he should have won this match. I wanted a good run here to finish the season with a bit of a flourish." Taylor had breaks of 98, 60 and 47.

Defending champion John Higgins scraped into the last 16 with a nail biting 5-4 win over Jason Ferguson. The off-colour Higgins trailed 4-3 and then 31-5 in the decider but came back to snatch the match in a tense finale.

"I was shaking all the way through that last frame," said a relieved Higgins, who was unable to practice on Wednesday due to a stomach upset.

"I don't think either of us played particularly well and I'll have to cut out my mistakes if I'm going to go anywhere in this tournament."