Hendry and Higgins all square (From The Oxford Times)

Hendry and Higgins all square

12:16pm Friday 27th April 2012 in National Sport © Press Association 2013

Stephen Hendry and John Higgins were level after four frames of their long-awaited first Crucible meeting as Scotland had a day to savour in Sheffield.

While Hendry made his debut as long ago as 1986 and Higgins made his in 1995, they might have gone head to head in any year.

Bafflingly they have avoided each other, but the draw offered the opportunity for a second-round tussle at this year's Betfred.com World Championship, and with Higgins overcoming Liang Wenbo and Hendry crushing Stuart Bingham, the potential showdown became a reality.

Higgins, the 36-year-old four-time world champion, took the opening two frames of the best-of-25-frames match but neither player looked to have settled down.

Hendry, 43, who won the last of his record seven world titles in 1999, then responded with two classy breaks to draw level at 2-2.