Davis rolls back the years with victory against debutant - 13/09/2007

Neil Robertson 2-4 Steve Davis
Robertson's scores first
50-67 (Robertson 40, Davis 43), 46-74 (Robertson 40, Davis 73), 21-70 (Davis 69), 15-66 (Davis 41), 45-38, 93-14 (Robertson 69)

VETERAN Steve Davis rolled back the clock to start his 2007 PartyBets.com Premier League Snooker campaign with a bang.

Davis, at 50 the oldest player in the competition, comfortably defeated 25-year-old Neil Robertson, who was making his tournament debut, by a 4-2 scoreline.

"That was more prize money than I won in the whole of last season," joked Davis (pictured right) after winning £4,000 - £1,000 for each successful frame.

"In snooker you never know when you are going to play alright but I played ok tonight and you can't argue that I knocked a few balls in.

"On another day the game could've gone totally his (Robertson's) way but it takes a few times to get used to the pace of play with the 25-second shot clock."

The second round of the 2007 PartyBets Premier League Snooker came from the Malvern Theatres in the beautiful town of Great Malvern in Worcestershire.

Up first was six-time World Champion Davis up against Australian Robertson, who was making his first appearance in the Premier League after a fine 2006 season.

Davis had the first chance but lost position after a run of 43, before Robertson made a break of 40 in a nervy opening frame.

A lengthy safety exchange saw both players produce their best positional shots but the crucial moment came when Robertson missed an attempt at the yellow and Davis did the rest for a 1-0 lead.

Breaks of 73 and 69 helped The Nugget claim the next two frames to guarantee a point and at least a 3-3 draw from this match.

Davis and fellow veteran Jimmy White had been written off by bookmakers, who claimed they had little chance of winning the whole tournament.

But both players have showed what they are still capable of as White gained a creditable 3-3 draw last week, while this was also an impressive performance from Davis.

It got even better in the next as Davis clinched the victory. He originally had a good chance but missed a pink into the right middle pocket, while on a break of 41. However, his Australian opponent did not capitalise on this as the scoreline moved to 4-0 to stun Robertson.

The fifth was the lowest scoring frame of the competition so far but Robertson squeezed home a black from a tight angle to scrape a 45-38 win and celebrated in jubilant fashion, much to the amusement of the capacity crowd.