Paul Hunter bowed out of the Embassy World Snooker Championship at The Crucible last night.

The Leeds youngster was defeated 10-8 by six-times world champion Stephen Hen-dry in an absorbing first round match, the world No 2 recovering from 8-7 down.

Now the Scot faces Brad-ford's James Wattana for a place in the quarter-finals.

Hunter, who practises in Yeadon, was aiming to complete a miserable day for the stars because both Steve David and Jimmy White bowed out.

Davis was black-balled to a 10-9 defeat by world No 74 Joe Perry, while White was always on a hiding to nothing against Scotsman Alan McManus.

At least Davis has six world titles to his name. White has none and probably will now never capture snooker's greatest prize. The 36-year-old Londoner went down 10-7 to world No 8 McManus and was in subdued mood later.

"I'm going to have a very long holiday," said the six- times Sheffield runner-up.

"Mentally I wasn't there. My mind was wandering. I didn't feel like I was going to perform which is quite soul destroying."

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