THE Welsh dragon will walk into the arena in York tomorrow for a final snooker showdown after having had just enough fire-power to stem a once mighty 'Whirlwind' reduced to little more than a few feeble gusts.

Jimmy White's legion of fans trooped home from the Barbican Centre last night with hopes shattered as their hero mostly fumbled to a 9-7 defeat by Matthew Stevens in the first of the £615,000 Travis Perkins UK Snooker Championship semi-finals.

It was never classic snooker but at least kept the sell-out crowd on the edge of their seats as fortunes swung to and fro right to the end. Both cuemen made countless unforced errors, missed easy pots, and failed to take break-building chances.

The highest break was only 70 by White in winning the opening frame. After that it was a mixture of some brilliant single shots by both men but failure to capitalise on good openings.

Updated: 08:55 Saturday, November 29, 2003