• Snooker World Championship

Davis leads Higgins after first session

Steve Davis recieved a warm welcome from the Crucible crowd © Getty Images

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Six-time world champion Steve Davis continued to roll back the years with another scintillating display as he set up a 6-2 lead over reigning champion John Higgins in the last 16 of the Snooker World Championships.

Davis, who claimed his last World Championship title in 1989, received a fantastic reception from the Crucible crowd, hopeful of more magic from the 52-year-old, and quickly found his stride with a winning break of 53 in the opening frame.

Higgins responded with a workmanlike break of 60, but soon found himself behind again as his opponent reeled off a clearance of 48. The Scotsman levelled again but could do little to stop a rampant Davis taking a significant advantage of the best-of-25 encounter.

The veteran chalked up four consecutive frames, notching his first century of the season in the process, to establish an unlikely four-frame overnight lead.

World No. 2 Stephen Maguire reeled off four consecutive frames to wrap up a 10-4 win over 2003 Crucible semi-finalist Stephen Lee.

The Scotsman looked in fine form throughout the match and took full advantage of several instances of poor positional play by his opponent to open up a 6-3 lead at the midway point.

Lee began the evening session in more fluent fashion with a classy clearance of 95 but Maguire was in no mood to let the Englishman back in and extended his lead with breaks of 114 and 67.

Lee had chances to win both of the last two frames but fluffed good openings with yet more questionable positional play, allowing Maguire to book a place in the last 16 with two more clinical clearances.

Former world champion Shaun Murphy fended off a hugely concerning fightback from Gerard Greene to limp into the second round of the Snooker World Championships.

Murphy, who won the event in 2005, carried an 8-1 lead into Thursday's afternoon session, requiring just two more frames for victory. However, the "Whiston Warrior" took just one of the opening seven frames before eventually crawling across the line 10-7.

Greene lost eight consecutive frames in the pair's opening session, but it was he who put a run of form together to hit back to 9-7, amassing breaks of 65, 67 and 92 to draw within two frames of his more illustrious opponent.

However, Murphy remained cool to pull out the victory, and he now faces Ding Junhui in the second round.

Mark Allen created Crucible history in the first session of his second-round match with Mark Davis, hitting the first ever 146 break recorded at the home of the snooker.

Allen had to watch from his chair as Davis raced into a 2-0 lead on Thursday but, having turned the tables to go ahead 3-2, he then wrote his name in the history books on his way to securing a 5-3 end-of-session advantage.

A 146 has never been hit at the Crucible, although there will be no £146,000 prize for Allen, who pays the price for potting a pink rather a black. He can console himself with a healthy lead, although Davis responded with an 80 of his own to narrow the gap to two frames by the end of play.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.