THE Nugget is glowing brightly again but the Whirlwind has been blown away.

It was a tale of highs and lows yesterday for the two oldest players in the PowerHouse UK Snooker Championship in York.

Steve 'the Nugget' Davis was not merely glowing after coming from 5-1 down to beat his former practice partner Mark King 9-7 at the Barbican Leisure Centre last night, he was positively buzzing.

But Jimmy 'the Whirlwind' White is back home after losing 9-4 to Scot Drew Henry.

"I have turned the corner," 45-year-old six times world and UK champion Davis said about the way he is playing these days.

"I don't know why, maybe it is mental attitude. I feel relaxed around the table and where not long ago I would not look beyond 16 breaks, I am ready to go beyond that now.

"I turned it around in a game I really should have lost," he said of last night's triumph. "I am pleased how I kept control and I cued nicely.

"I had to work hard to win the last two frames of the first session to start tonight 5-3 down, but the longer the game went on the stronger I got and in the last frame I was really up for it."

Davis, currently ranked No 25 in the world, is fighting to get back into the top 16 and last night's victory gets him there provisionally.

"That doesn't really count," he said. "It's the position at the end of the season that matters. But I'm 4-2 up this season in matches against top 16 players."

His next match, which starts on Monday night, will be against world No 4 John Higgins or No 31 Allister Carter, who play their second round match tomorrow. And Davis is relishing the possibility of playing Higgins, a top 16 opponent.

Davis started his fightback against King with a 131 break in frame seven. From 6-3 down he won the next four frames. King hit back with a 71 break to draw level, but Davis regained the lead and finished with a 92 break to win the match. White admitted after his defeat to Drew Henry that he is lacking confidence.

"I struggled from start to finish," said the 40-year-old Whirlwind, who found himself 4-1 down, pulled back a frame with a 113 break but was 6-2 behind at the start of the evening session. He won the night's first two frames but even then said he knew he was struggling.

"I came to the UK Championship full of enthusiasm and it is disappointing the way I played. I could not get any fluency going," he said.

"I have been putting in the hours in practice, but I have been doing it on my own so maybe when I start practising again next year I will have practice games against Tony Drago and David Gray and other players."

Quinten Hann made a quick UK exit after flying here from his home in Australia. He was beaten 9-7 last night by Hong Kong's Marco Fu, who fought back from 6-2 down.

Hann flies to each tournament from Australia and has made more than 50 flights to Britain to play in tournaments.

Surprise win of the day was world No 33 Robert Milkins knocking out world No 16 Joe Swail 9-1.

There was no play today as the arena was being re-rigged for BBC television coverage starting tomorrow.

Tomorrow's matches

Second round

Noon: Ronnie O'Sullivan v Adrian Gunnell, John Higgins v Allister Carter, Mark Williams v Anthony Davies. 7pm (to finish): O'Sullivan v Gunnell, Higgins v Carter.

In tomorrow's Evening Press: Win semi-final tickets.

Updated: 13:31 Friday, December 06, 2002