TWO of snooker's rising stars have won the right to take on living legends in the Travis Perkins UK Championship at York Barbican Centre.

Six-times world champion Steve Davis had won the UK title twice before his opponent tomorrow, 19-year-old Mark Allen, was born.

And people's hero Jimmy White is being challenged by 18-year-old Ding Junhui, from China, who some see as a world champion in the making.

These two best-of-17 second round matches start at 10am tomorrow and finish in the evening.

Allen, the world amateur champion from Antrim, who knocked out last year's UK beaten finalist David Gray 9-6 last night, has already beaten Davis this season, 4-0 in the Northern Ireland Trophy in Belfast in August.

The 'Nugget' has come to York on the back of an embarrassing blunder last month. He missed out on a place in the final stages of the China Open because he didn't realise he had to play a qualifying match.

Davis failed to turn up to play Ricky Walden as he was in Ireland for an exhibition, unaware that he was supposed to be playing in North Wales. Being in the world's top 16 he would not normally have to qualify for ranking events, but on this occasion he did because he was seeded 17th for China.

Junhui, who had no problems in seeing off Anthony Hamilton 9-3 yesterday, beat White 4-2 in a Premier League match in September.

Since he reached the UK semi-finals in York two years ago, losing to eventual champion Matthew Stevens, the 'Whirlwind' has slipped to 23 in the world rankings at the start of this season. Last year he withdrew from the UK because of illness during his opening match, against Allister Carter.

Nottingham's Michael Holt recovered from being docked a frame to beat Ricky Walden 9-8 in a dramatic match at the Barbican last night.

Holt was warned by referee Patricia Murphy, who is making her ranking tournament debut this week, for conceding a frame too early in the last frame of the final session, Walden leading the match 5-3.

In frame 15 the referee warned Holt for ungentlemanly conduct, in this case swearing. A player who is warned twice in a match is automatically penalised a frame.

This put Holt 8-7 down but he held his nerve to level and then won with a bravely crafted 56 in the decider.

Holt said later that he whispered one swear word to himself under his breath after missing a red, but the referee heard him.

Two frames earlier he had made a 144 clearance, the highest break in the championship so far.

Yorkshire star Paul Hunter's opening match, against Jamie Burnett, started this morning and finishes tonight.

UK defending champion Stephen Maguire's first opponent on Saturday, will be Joe Swail.

Updated: 11:02 Wednesday, December 07, 2005