JOHN HIGGINS found his form just in time to send Scotland into the last four of the Castrol Honda World Cup in Bangkok yesterday.
The world number two failed to win a frame in the opening session of the quarter final against Northern Ireland even though the top seeds led 5-3.
But the 21 year old from Wishaw struck a rich seam of form after the North's captain Dennis Taylor had beaten struggling Alan McManus to reduce his country's deficit to 7-6.
Higgins fired in a break of 76 to beat Joe Swail, and an 84 to whitewash Taylor before rounding off proceedings with a run of 73 against Terry Murphy to complete a 10-6 victory.
His only disappointment came when missing the chance of his first ever professional maximum 147 break after potting 10 reds and nine blacks in the 16th frame.
"I thought it was on from the 40s," admitted Higgins, who lost the chance of winning a Subaru Legacy worth £40,000 awaiting the tournament's first maximum.
"But the main thing was that we won the match. I guess I owed Stephen Hendry and Alan a couple of frames as they pulled me through this morning when I couldn't do a thing right."
Captain Hendry acknowledged Higgins' part in the victory. "That's the best we've played as a team in this competition. We may let him have a beer tonight," said the world champion.
On a more serious note, Hendry added: "As top seeds, we were disappointed not to be playing on the main match table, although I understand the reason why with Thailand playing on the same day as us. England got through on the good table and we struggled on the bad one.
"We would love to play Thailand now in the semi finals and England in the final," added Hendry.
Taylor said after his team's defeat: "Scotland must be odds on favourites but we would all like to see the Republic of Ireland win the tournament."
James Wattana, who is synonymous with Thailand snooker, kept an engrossed host nation's hopes alive in the competition by beating Mark Williams on the pink to secure a 10-9 quarterfinal win over Wales.
Anthony Davies beat Noppadon Noppachorn to make it 8-8 but Wattana beat Mark Williams to put Thailand one up with two to play. Mark Bennett potted brown, blue and pink to beat Tai Pichit after the Thai had missed a brown hanging over a pocket to level at 9-9 but in scenes of immense tension Wattana contrived a yellow to pink clearance to put Thailand through.
