By Phil Harlow & Julian Shea BBC Sport at The Crucible

1 Find out more about McCulloch

Ian McCulloch's hard-earned win over seventh seed Peter Ebdon must rank as one of the highlights of the 32-year-old's career.

And McCulloch - whose repertoire of agonised facial expressions as the prospect of victory approached provided almost as great entertainment as the snooker - was in no doubt about his motivation for seeing off the 2002 world champion.

"I was thinking about what my wife would say if I got beaten!" admitted McCulloch.

But after a performance of that quality - not to mention the minimum of �17,600 prize money for reaching the last 16 - McCulloch can surely look forward to a few weeks of domestic bliss.

Despite seeing a 9-7 lead slip away and turn into a 10-9 defeat, Wales' Ryan Day has received a ringing endorsement from opponent John Higgins.

Higgins, the 1998 world champion, knows a thing or two about young talent after amassing 15 ranking tournament victories since turning pro in 1992.

"Ryan's in the same mould as Matthew Stevens and Paul Hunter who were coming through a few years ago," he said.

"He is going to be a top player for many years to come."

No pressure then, Ryan.

It seems as though peace has broken out in the war of words between Quinten Hann and Andy Hicks.

After having a day to reflect on his altercation with Hicks at the end of their first-round match on Sunday, Hann appears to have seen the error of his ways and is keen to repent.

"I've seen it on television and I'm not proud - I was out of order," Hann admitted to BBC Radio Five Live.

Unfortunately, that's not nearly so entertaining as a good old-fashioned bit of aggro so don't expect to see quite as much coverage of Hann's semi-apology as you did of his outburst.