Ken Doherty lost out 10-9 to Mark Williams in a tense UK Championship final in York last night. The Welshman won £84,500 and the title, snooker's second most prestigious event.

Doherty had shown all his fighting qualities earlier when he fought back from 9-7 down to bring the game to the final frame. However, although he got the first opportunity at the table, he was undone by an in-off.

The match was a hard-fought affair as both players struggled to capture the form that had seen them streak to the final. Frames were proving tense, attritional affairs. It took 12 frames for the match's first and only century break, Williams registering 128 to level the match at 6-6.

The first session set the tone for the match as the players began their long day disputing the £84,500 first prize.

Only Williams's break of 86 to lead 2-1 decided a frame in a single scoring visit. His long potting, apart from a wonderful green from distance which cleared the way to a black-ball success and a 5-3 lead, was not of the deadly quality he showed in beating the world champion Peter Ebdon 9-3 in Saturday's semi-final.

"I was up for it and I blew him away," said the 27-year-old Welshman, who reached the final with an overall frames tally of 36-10 from his four victories.

The mixed standard of play may have had something to do with their comparatively unproductive record in finals. Doherty had lost 16 of his 26, including two UK championships, Williams 12 of his 25, winning only six out of 17 in the past three years.

Frequent high finishes are fine but a player needs major victories in televised finals to impress himself on the general public. Williams did this in winning both the UK and world titles in the 1999-2000 season and was eager to secure his first success on British soil for 26 months.

His back-to-back triumphs in the China Open and Thailand Masters last March made little impression because they went unwitnessed by television viewers, even though they had put him top in the updated world rankings regardless of last night's outcome.

Doherty emerged the sharper after the break and compiled a 62 break before poor positional play left him with a difficult last red. He missed and Williams produced one of the shots of the tournament to sink the red. However, he was unable to take advantage and Doherty clinches the points to level the match.

The next four frames were shared equally before Williams made what seemed the decisive move of the match, winning back-to-back frames to put him with in a frame of the title.

However, Doherty's battling qualities then came to the fore and in one of the more tense frames of the match, Williams seemed to buckle under the pressure and Doherty stole in to close to within one frame.

Better was to follow for the Dubliner in the next frame as he registered a 79 break, his highest of the match, to bring the game to the final frame.