A PROUD tradition of Irish achievement at the Wembley Conference Centre wasn't quite enough. Ken Doherty eventually succumbed to a familiar adversary, John Higgins, in the last few frames of a thrilling final of the Benson and Hedges Snooker Masters last night.

The Dubliner was attempting to follow the lead of compatriots Alex Higgins (1978 and 1981) and Dennis Taylor (1987) by adding this prestigious title to his World Championship triumph of 1997. But after twice coming back from two frames down to the world's number one, he eventually lost a thrilling battle 10-8.

"It was great to get to my first final here and the crowd brought the best out of both of us," said Doherty afterwards. "But I'm obviously very disappointed with the outcome. I feel as if I'm going away empty-handed. Still, I plan to be giving it another go next year."

In this, the 25th anniversary staging of the tournament, there was handsome compensation, however, in a runner-up prize of £80,000, almost twice his modest tournament earnings of £41,700 going into the tournament.

Higgins, who now holds the World Championship, the UK Championship and now the Masters, praised his opponent afterwards. "Ken is one of the best battlers in the game and I couldn't seem to shake him off," he said. "After he had won four frames in a row to lead 8-6, I was prepared to shake his hand if the score went to 9-6."

Doherty, who beat another Scot, Alan McManus, in the semfinal on Saturday, knew he had to be at his best to have a chance against Higgins. In the event, he overcame early nerves when recovering from deficits of 1-3 and 2-4 to be level at 4-4 after the afternoon session. Indeed it was a measure of the evenly-balanced nature of the match that they were still level, at 6-6, at the mid-session interval last night.

Higgins, who is renowned as one of the game's great tacticians, took the opening frame of the evening with a break of 78 and looked set for a runaway victory when he added the next with a break of 43. But Doherty's response was even more dynamic than in the afternoon.

With a 90 clearance to the pink, he closed the gap in the 11th frame and maintained the momentum to devastating effect in the next. Having done the difficult part and with the break standing at 100 entering the colours, he had only to mind his work for a clearance of 127. A loose shot on the blue, however, brought it to an end on 109, which became the highest break of the match.

More importantly, he had drawn level once more. And when they resumed after the mid-session interval, it was Higgins who began to look vulnerable. From 64 down, Doherty won four frames in a row to lead 8-6. And he did it in style, playing some of his best snooker since the World Championship triumph of two years ago. Fluent potting and some delightful positional play delivered a winning break of 59 in the 13th, giving him the lead in the match for the first time.

Then came a brilliant 95 in the next, by which stage one was prompted to question just how badly Higgins was affected by a reported stomach upset. But he wasn't about to lie down under the onslaught. The Scot potted eight reds and eight blacks in the 15th frame. But he lost position on the ninth red and after a break of 64, was forced to content himself with winning the frame, thereby closing the gap to 8-7.

The cyclical nature of the battle then gained further emphasis in the next, when Higgins opened up a lead of 65-0 with five reds (67 points) remaining. Doherty needed five reds, five blacks and the colours to steal it. He got the necessary 40 points off the reds but missed a difficult yellow.

So, they were level for the fourth time in the match. Now it became a matter of mental strength entering the climactic stage of an absorbing struggle. And as he had shown so often in the past, Higgins was more than equal to the challenge.

Doherty conceded the initiative through a slack safety shot early in the 17th frame which let Higgins in for a break of 32. With a later break of 33, the Scot regained the lead.

By that stage, most observers were expecting Doherty to force a last-frame decider, but the match ended short of the full distance. Again it was a modest but extremely valuable early break of 26 which set Higgins on his way. And with a lead of 36 points entering the colours, he left Doherty facing what proved to be a fruitless pursuit of snookers.

A sparkling performance from the Irishman wasn't quite good enough.