YORK (England), Dec 7: World No 1 Mark Williams survived a mid-match fight-back from Nick Dyson to record a 9-6 victory and progress to a last-16 tie against Alan McManus in the 2001 UK Championship Friday.

The Welshman, who has now won his first match in ranking tournaments on an amazing 34 consecutive occasions, began the second session 6-2 up and must have expected a comfortable evening at the Barbican Centre.

That was not the case as Cheshire’s Dyson, ranked 51, compiled breaks of 104, 89, 45 and 78 to haul the former world champion back to 6-6 in the space of 47 minutes.

The mid-session interval came at the right time for Williams as he was able to compose his thoughts, and he knocked in a brilliant 137 total clearance when the match resumed to regain the lead.

Runs of 31 and 24 gave him the 14th frame and he wrapped up the match in the next with a 65.

Six-time UK champion Steve Davis was left to focus on his BBC commentary as he lost 9-6 to Matthew Stevens.

Davis started the session 5-3 down and won three of the first five frames, making breaks of 54 and 127, to pull back to 7-6.

The turning point came in the 14th frame when Davis missed on 37 and Stevens made a decisive 49. The Welshman closed out the match in the next with a 50.

Ken Doherty from Dublin resumed his match 6-2 up and had little trouble in seeing off Terry Murphy from Northern Ireland 9-4.

Murphy made a 101 in the 11th frame to make it 7-4 but Doherty got through to a last-16 match against Dominic Dale with breaks of 62 and 31.

Dave Finbow announced earlier this week that he intends to retire at the end of this season, but on current form he looks sure to go out on a high note.

The world No 47 from Worcester, aged 33, beat Dave Harold 9-8 and will face either Ronnie O’Sullivan or Ali Carter in the last 16. He is already guaranteed a cheque for pounds 11,500.

Starting 5-3 behind, Finbow refused to let No 15 Harold pull away, taking the lead for the first time since the third frame at 8-7 and then winning the decider with a break of 44.

Round two results:

Robin Hull bt Mark King 9-2; Dominic Dale bt Graeme Dott 9-6; Mark Davis bt Joe Swail 9-5; Alan McManus bt John Parrott 9-6; Peter Ebdon bt Michael Judge 9-4; Tony Drago bt Fergal O’Brien 9-8; Stephen Hendry bt Drew Henry 9-7; Stephen Lee bt Anthony Hamilton 9-8; Mark Williams bt Nick Dyson 9-6; Ken Doherty bt Terry Murphy 9-4; Matthew Stevens bt Steve Davis 9-6; Dave Finbow bt Dave Harold 9-8.