In a casual mingling in the K Club three weeks ago, Scotland's multiple world champion Stephen Hendry, Ireland's Fergal O'Brien and England's Steve Davis roamed around the restaurant, their guard more down than usual. Hendry eyed the golf course and spoke of his beloved Loch Lomond more easily than his chances of another Benson and Hedges Irish Masters title; O'Brien, radiant and a father to be in September, hoped he had finally come out of the shadows, and Davis, dry as dust, gently went into bat on behalf of ageism.

The mood was relaxed and much of the talk centred on Ken Doherty's missed black for a maximum clearance in the final of the Masters at Wembley the previous week. Hendry was asked if he commiserated with Doherty's bad luck and the fact that he had allowed an £80,000 Honda car slip through his fingers.

"Nah," said Hendry. "We slaughtered him. We absolutely slaughtered him. Missing that black had nothing to do with luck."

Truth or fiction? Nonetheless Hendry's black humour was a back-hand compliment. His stablemate Doherty could shoulder a public slagging. After all, since the famous miss, the 1997 world champion has steadily knocked out easily the best run of form in two years.

A final in the Wembley Masters, victory in the Malta Grand Prix, a semi-final place in the Thailand Masters and Doherty is practising the observation made by eight-times Irish Masters winner Davis.

"The hardest thing in today's game with so many good players around is to hit a formline, hit a purple patch and stay there. And the only way to do that is to force it," he said.

While Doherty is in the first round draw against Wales's Matthew Stevens, rather than a cosy straight entry into the quarterfinals, his current standing is high. He is forcing it. A winner at Goffs two years ago by default after Ronnie O'Sullivan was thrown out having tested positive for cannabis, Doherty and O'Brien will face intense competition in their efforts to keep the crowd's interest partisan.

Scotland's Alan McManus is O'Brien's first hurdle in the opening match today followed by two warhorses, John Parrott and Davis, butting heads. Steven Lee's match against Jimmy White completes the four firstround draws with Doherty's match scheduled for the evening session tomorrow.

If O'Brien, playing in his third Irish Masters, can come through against McManus, another Scot, Hendry, awaits him on Thursday. The current title holder, although not as domineering as he was before losing focus of the game two years ago, continues by reputation to intimidate.

"It is certainly harder to win these days," says Hendry, "I feel that I'm playing very well in practice. But to convert that to tournament wins is not easy to do anymore. When I was dominating the game I would take for granted three or four tournament wins a year. I'd tremendous self-confidence. That's not there anymore."

O'Brien, too, argues that he is a changed player, one now prepared to move from the periphery and into the limelight. More importantly he can back his claims with a significant elevation in world ranking.

"I'm now in the top 16 and at the end of last season was ranked 11," says O'Brien. "That shows how far I've come. I'm not saying it will be easy because all of the top players are here. But now I've a stronger game, I'm stronger mentally."

Admitting that the only two players who ever intimidated him were Hendry and Davis, O'Brien will have to be strong and supremely focussed to brush aside Hendry. Doherty will too if he comes through to meet Ronnie O'Sullivan in Friday's afternoon session. Courting controversy as vigorously as Doherty craves normality O'Sullivan has the unnerving ability to turn on spectacular snooker if he's in the mood. Whether he is on or off-key is anyone's guess.

There is also the out-of-sorts John Higgins and probably the best potter on the circuit, Mark Williams, kicking into the quarter-final stages of the competition on Thursday and Friday in an intense six days of snooker. As Davis pointed out, such is the quality of the field that his match against Parrott in the first round would have been a final some years ago.