O'Sullivan hits maximum

It was the fifth maximum break of O'Sullivan's career

Watch Ronnie O'Sullivan's 147 break

Ronnie O'Sullivan made a superb 147 during his 5-1 second-round victory over Drew Henry at the LG Cup in Preston.

It was the world champion's first maximum break of the season, earning him a prize of £20,000.

His opponent could only watch on as O'Sullivan potted with authority to complete the frame in six minutes.

He rarely looked in trouble during the break, but needed to pot a superb green with the rest.

That was the hardest colour clearance I have ever done

Ronnie O'Sullivan

O'Sullivan then looked to have overrun the final pink, but managed to cut the ball into the right middle pocket before lining up on the black.

Cheers rang around the arena when the 25-year-old potted it for his fifth competitive 147 - the 21st scored in televised tournaments.

"The balls were perfect around the black, but I was not thinking about a maximum then," he told BBC TV.

"That was the hardest colour clearance I have ever done."

The "Rocket" then took the next two frames for a 4-0 lead, before Henry battled back to take the fifth frame to cut the deficit to three.

But O'Sullivan wrapped up proceedings in the sixth frame to secure his berth in the next round.

Ebdon fights on

Only Stephen Hendry, with eight 147s, has more maximums than O'Sullivan and he advanced to the last 16 after a 5-1 defeat of Mark Davis.

Paul Hunter joined Hendry after taking only 86 minutes to breeze past Alfie Burden 5-1.

Peter Ebdon also went into the third round after beating Nottingham's Anthony Hamilton 5-4.

Ebdon looked in trouble as Hamilton led 3-1 at the interval. But last year's British Open and Regal Scottish Open winner enhanced his reputation as a fighter by claiming four of the following five frames.

All-Scottish affair

In Wednesday's later games, the richly talented Matthew Stevens crashed out of another world ranking event by losing 5-2 to Joe Swail.

It was not a great display from Swail either, but the 32-year-old from Belfast came through to beat the world number six from Wales.

From 2-2 at the interval, Swail dominated the remainder of the contest to set up a quarter-final against Londoner Barry Hawkins or Hong Kong's Marco Fu.

In the day's last match, Alan McManus beat former Grand Prix champion Dominic Dale 5-3 to set up an all-Scottish quarter-final with Stephen Hendry.

McManus, who capped a solid display with a 120 break in the fifth frame, has faced Hendry on 27 occasions since 1990, winning only eight.