SNOOKER sobriquets such as Hurricane and Whirlwind seemed decidedly alien to the nature of events at Goffs yesterday. But Welshman Darren Morgan cared nothing about the funereal pace of play when he captured the Benson and Hedges Irish Masters with a 9-8 victory, over Steve Davis in a largely dreary final, saved only by a hectic last frame.

It was the first significant professional victory by the 1987 World Amateur champion, who joined paid ranks eight years ago. Beaten in two finals, he was also bucking the odds in head-to-head matches with Davis, which were 4-2 in the Londoner's favour going into this clash.

Morgan (29), collected top prize of £70,000 in an extended battle that covered a period of more than 10 hours. To do so he had to withstand an extraordinary, last-ditch rally from Davis who was competing in his 10th final at Goffs, having taken this title on eight occasions since 1983.

Yet, for all that success, it was also an important tournament for the so-called Ginger Magician, who is without a win since the Regal Welsh Open, 14 months ago. And there was no doubting his commitment in a hectic final frame the third time this event had gone the full distance in successive years.

After an early break of 55 by Morgan in the fateful 17th he was eventually 42 ahead with one red remaining. But in attempting to escape from a cleverly-laid snooker from Davis, he hit the black. Now the Londoner could tie with all the balls, but he actually improved his position with two further snookers.

Amid nail-biting tension, Morgan effectively secured victory by potting a difficult, long red into a corner pocket, followed by the black. "I was afraid I was going to miss out yet again, but things eventually came right for me," he said. "I'm thrilled."

Davis looked like dominating the weekend, having earlier applied the same, painstaking precision in a semi-final victory over the home favourite, Ken Doherty.

Yet, there were extended periods in the final when even fiercely partisan supporters must have been tempted to settle for any result as frames dragged on at an average duration of over 30 minutes.

With the match extending late into the night, Morgan faced the prospect of very little sleep prior to his next competitive assignment this afternoon. Through an extraordinary fixture foul-up, he is due to meet the Leicester-based Stefan Mazrocis in the first round of the British Open at 4.0 this afternoon - in Plymouth.

It will involve a 9.30 am flight From Dublin to Exeter, where a ear will be waiting to take him the remainder of his journey in England's south-west. "Quite frankly I could do without the hassle but my opponent refused to change," said the Welsh left-hander yesterday. "But I'm so excited, I probably won't be able to sleep anyway.

Though Davis won the afternoon session by 4-3, Morgan had the highest break, a third-frame clearance of 94 to the blue. And he also dominated the start of the evening session, squaring the match once more with a break of 44 for an eighth frame, lasting 42 minutes. From then on, they continued to trade frame for frame, until Morgan eventually won two in-a-row, the 14th and 15th, to edge ahead for the first time at 8-7.

Meanwhile, Doherty was back at Goffs yesterday - in a very different role than he had anticipated after a sparkling, quarter-final victory over the world number one, Stephen Hendry, on Friday night. Instead of competing in the final, the Dubliner was no more than an interested observer.

He was honest enough not to hide his disappointment at losing by 6-4 to Davis in a five-hour, second semi-final the previous night. "I feel absolutely gutted," he admitted. "This was my best chance so far in the Irish Masters. I felt I was playing better than anyone else in the field but I lost to a better tactician who, to his credit, stuck to his game."

As it happened, quite reasonable hopes of an all-Irish decider had disappeared by tea-time on Saturday. At that stage, Joe Swail had departed the scene, losing in the 11th frame of the first semifinal to the solidly consistent Morgan.

So, the Belfast player had to settle for the same finishing position as 12 months ago, though his reward of £15,500 was £2,500 less than on that occasion, due to a restructured prize fund.

Whatever about the let-down of Swail's defeat, home fans were positively crushed by events later in the evening. They would have seep Doherty as being splendidly positioned to become the first Irish winner of the title since Alex Higgins in 1989.

The rather special challenge of a marathon battle, however, was summed up succinctly by Davis when he said afterwards: "I can score heavily when the balls present themselves, but when you make mistakes, you must play a different game." In the process, he showed himself to be far more adaptable, tactically, than his 26-year-old opponent.

The turning point came in a 43-minute fourth frame in which Davis needed five snookers, got four and totally disrupted Doherty's concentration, despite losing the frame to go 3-1 down. An indication of the damage was that the Irishman could manage a highest break of only 28 for the remainder of the match and proceeded to lose the next four frames in a row.

It seemed that the effort of beating Hendry had made that particular match feel like a final to the Dubliner, who couldn't lift himself mentally for another daunting challenge within 24 hours.