John Higgins and Stephen Maguire crash out of 2011 World Cup Snooker at Bangkok Convention Centre
Scotland’s team of John Higgins and Stephen Maguire crashed out of the 2011 World Cup Snooker at the hands of Northern Ireland’s Mark Allen and Gerard Greene. The Scottish pair got defeated in a decider
frame and lost 3-4 at Bangkok Convention Centre on Saturday, July 16. It was a major blow in the tournament, as Scotland was one of the favourites to clinch the world cup title.
Scotland had a strong run in the event from the beginning, staying unbeaten until the end of the round robin formatted group stage, to reach the knockout stage against Northern Ireland. Scotland led
their group with 13 points after four victories, followed by Hong Kong in second place with 11 points.
Higgins and Maguire beat Marco Fu and Fung Kwok Wai in their last group match to make it to the quarter-final stage against Northern Ireland’s Mark Allen and Gerard Greene. As expected, the quarter-final
clash was a thriller that ended in a sudden-death frame, where Higgins lost at the hands of Allen by the score line of 27-86.
Reigning world snooker champion, John Higgins, spoke to the reporters after the match, “I'm absolutely gutted. Fair play to Northern Ireland as they played some good stuff and Stephen didn't get a
chance in his single games - he was frozen out.”
He added, “The story of the match is my two terrible misses on two reds; the last red in the first frame against Mark and then the red at the end of the last frame when I was 20 up. If you miss those
then you don't deserve to win. Stephen never got to the table and I've been struggling all week.”
Meanwhile, Maguire commented that it is different when a player plays in a team as he has to think collectively during the match and not for just himself. However, he was happy to have teamed up with
the world snooker champion and gained a lot of experience playing at Bangkok Convention Centre.
The Scottish pair will now fly to Australia for their next tournament; 2011 Australian Goldfields Open that begins on Monday, July 18 at Bandigo Stadium arena in Victoria.
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