At the Ponds Forge venue in Sheffield, a short stroll from the theatre where the biggest event on the snooker calendar begins next week, Davis clinched a 10-9 win on the final black.

The 57-year-old six-time former world champion has missed out in qualifying in each of the last four years, and must still come through two more rounds to earn a place in the tournament, but Stoke cueman Cope was a significant obstacle in his path.

Davis had predicted his qualifying bid would "end in tears", and it still might, but he held his nerve impressively after Cope had looked like pinching a win from the brink of defeat.

After leading 4-0 and 9-7, Davis saw Cope battle back to force the deciding frame.

Despite Davis making a break of 52 to lead by 28 points in the winner-takes-all finale, Cope was allowed back to the table and had chances to tie up a place in the second round of the preliminaries.

However the 29-year-old Staffordshire cueman missed the pink, and Davis potted it from long range before - with the rest making the shot all the more difficult - he clipped in the black from a testing angle.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the black-ball deciding frame that saw Davis lose 18-17 to Dennis Taylor in the 1985 World Championship final, watched by 18.5million after midnight on BBC Two.

Kurt Maflin or David Grace will await Davis on the next step to the tournament he once dominated.

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Page 2: 04:16"It was a struggle, the whole game was scrappy but I just dug in there," Evans told the World Snooker website. "I'm happy to have stuck in there with a player who has been world champion and has so much experience, and to have given him a fright.

"I'm not used to playing these long matches so it's good experience for me.

"From the start I could see that he was under it, he was twitching a bit. I just couldn't manage to take control of the match.

"I didn't play my best today, I just scrapped and fought all the way. There's no reason why I can't beat people like Ken if I play a bit better.

"If I could play in events like this more often, you never know. The ladies game is very different. I've got to take the positives.

"If it had gone 9-9 I think I would have won. I felt really good out there, although there were a few nerves. I just kept losing position because I'm not used to the tables."