Snooker: Whatever about jingling, the nerves of the 'aul Triangle of Ranelagh were jangling last night as its local hero slugged it out with Mark Williams in last night's epic world snooker championship battle.

Jason's snooker hall, slap-bang in the middle of the Triangle, is where Ken Doherty misspent his youth so profitably. Last night, it was filled with snooker aficionados of all ages, anxiously hanging on every frame.

Ranelagh has been through this before, six years ago when Doherty was crowned world champion for the first time.

"King Ken" can do no wrong in these parts. "He's our pride and joy, whether he wins or loses," says Jimmy McElroy from his cashier's desk in Jason's, as the 33-year-old Dubliner ground out yet another equalising frame.

McElroy recalled Doherty predicted before leaving for Sheffield he would win the world championship. "This year, he was really determined. He's a true Irish sportsman, a great battler," said McElroy, even as Williams went in front again.

Martin Cosgrave, manager of the hall where Doherty practices, termed it the "Ranelagh strategy": "Let your opponent get a little confident and then knock the hell out of him."

Nearby in Russell's pub, Doherty's relative Thomas Kearney nursed a pint nervously while predicting "he's saving the best till last. He'll never say die."

A single Tricolour fluttered from the upper window of the Doherty household in a row of houses around the corner, but no one could break away from the television to answer the doorbell.

His mother Rose is famous for not being able to watch her son's matches. Last night, she was rumoured to be in the Canaries. Or Kerry, said someone else. Or "out cycling," said one chiseller.

The next generation of snooker stars were crowded around a television upstairs in Jasons. Fourteen-year-old Adrian Tracey says he's skipped school to follow the tournament and claims to have beaten the champion twice. "I played him for a fiver and won, and then he doubled it and won it back."

According to John Kinsella (15), Doherty is "a good personality, he's not a phoney."

As the momentum swung back and forth, Martin Cosgrave promised the "red carpet treatment" for the local hero when he returns to Dublin next week. And he revealed the real reason why Doherty wanted to win the £270,000 prize: "He wants to move house in Ranelagh. Anyone would need a fortune for that."