Ken Doherty reached the final of the UK Championship for the second time last night with a 9-7 victory over Stephen Lee in York.

The Irishman had an outrageous fluke on the pink to thank for his success as he staved off a fine comeback from his opponent.

It was far from a classic, with two normally fluent break-builders both struggling to find any consistency and frequently missing pots they would usually be expected to make with little trouble.

World number four Doherty had the better of the afternoon session and opened up a 5-3 lead, capitalising on a disappointing performance from Lee.

Wiltshire 27-year-old Lee failed to reproduce anything like the scintillating snooker he played to crush title-holder John Higgins 9-2 on Wednesday and Doherty did not need to be at his best to take command.

When the contest resumed last night, the Dubliner immediately edged further ahead but then Lee suddenly got his act together and levelled at 6-6.

Doherty regrouped and put himself on the brink of the final by taking the next two frames, rattling in the only century break of the match, a 106. Lee stayed alive by winning a scrappy frame 15 and the standard plummeted even further in the next with the duo clearly feeling the pressure.

It could still have gone either way on the colours, with Lee hoping to force a decider, but Doherty had his nose in front and when the pink bounced off three cushions and rolled into a baulk pocket, it was all over.

"The luck of the Irish must have been shining on me," said Doherty.

SEMI-FINAL: (4) K Doherty (Irl) bt (8) S Lee (Eng) 9-7. Frame scores (Doherty first): 70-0 76-61 69-0 57-61 67-60 39-74 66-48 0-79 68-0 9-79 0-95 1-68 61-1 106-0 (106 break) 52-73 58-42.