Snooker: Parrott crashes out of qualifier

Jun 30 2007 Liverpool Daily Post

FORMER world champion John Parrott slipped up at the final hurdle yesterday in his bid to qualify for this season’s Shanghai Masters.

The experienced Liverpool potter looked well on course for victory over Stoke young gun Jamie Cope in the final round of qualifying at the Pontin’s Holiday Park in Prestatyn, North Wales.

But the 43-year-old squandered 3-0 and 4-2 leads as Cope battled back to qualify for the first tournament of the new season.

“John will be disappointed that he lost, but even at 3-0 down I fancied my chances of winning,” said Cope, twice a ranking event runner-up last season.

“He’s (John) a very good player and even at his age he plays a great standard of snooker.

“But I’d have been really disappointed to have lost to him. I got to the China Open final last season and I’ve been looking forward to playing in China again.”

Parrott won the first three frames of the match on black ball deciders, leaving world number 22 Cope to curse his bad luck.

But the player nicknamed The Stoke Shotgun for his quick potting speed, hit back with breaks of 105 and 56 to reduce his arrears.

Everton fan Parrott, nine times a ranking event winner, pinched the next frame for a 4-2 lead, only for Cope to reel off the last three frames to send the Liverpudlian out.

There will be Merseyside-based players at this year’s tournament after fellow professionals Andrew Higginson, from Widnes, and Liverpool’s Rod Lawler both failed to qualify.

Higginson, runner-up at last season’s Welsh Open in Newport, slipped to a 5-2 defeat to Scott MacKenzie, as Lawler went down 5-4 to part-time potato planter David Gilbert.