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John Higgins produced the most dramatic of recoveries from four down with five to play to beat Mark Williams 10-9 and secure his third UK Championship, his 22nd ranking title in all and a £100,000 first prize.
The 35 year-old Scot's triumph enabled him to topple Neil Robertson, the world champion, from the top of the rolling rankings, with Williams third, but most of all it completed an amazing journey back from six months' suspension for failing to report a suspicious betting approach.
Since its expiry on 2 November Higgins has won a minor ranking event in Hamm, reached another final in Prague and with this success recorded his 18th win in 19 matches. It was also a victory of deep family significance as his father is gravely ill. "It's not just for my dad, it's for all my family," he said, fighting back tears. "It means everything to me to be back playing and competing. It's what dreams are made of. I thought 9-5 was a mountain to climb but I never gave up."
Williams, disappointed as he was, had "no complaints" and added that, in a way, Higgins "seemed destined to win it". For Higgins, it initially looked like one match too many. He appeared jaded in the afternoon session in which only a 60 clearance for the black-ball win that enabled him to limit his arrears to 3-2 could have given him much satisfaction from a session that Williams began with a break of 83 and ended with one of 85, his two highest of the tournament.
Trailing 7-2 early in the evening, Higgins brought his immense pride of performance to bear, reducing this to 7-4 and almost snatching the next frame from 0-70. Needing a snooker, Higgins replied with 42 and laid a very awkward shot for his opponent but Williams made a significant escape and led 8-4 at the intermission.
Again Higgins responded with 105 but early in the next frame suffered a lapse of concentration on a simple straight pink and did not score again as Williams went four up with five to play. Two frames went to Higgins but Williams, initially with 61, was heading for victory until a tricky short-range red eluded him. Higgins replied with 40 but, after missing the last red along the side cushion, soon found himself needing a snooker.
From one, Williams escaped with a consummate swerve but another produced the required penalty points and led to the Scot closing to 8-9 and, through potting the last red of the penultimate frame, equalising at 9-9.
In the decider, Williams reduced arrears of 53 to 20 but the tide was flowing for Higgins and with a length-of-the-table double on the brown he was home. It was, said Higgins, his "finest hour" although he could point to no overriding factor which had brought it about except "just fate".
Despite failing at the last hurdle Williams at least reaffirmed over the week's play that there is a lot more to snooker than century breaks. His highest break in winning the 1998 Welsh Open, his maiden ranking title, was only 76 but he has always been a master of broken play and tactical, even scrappy, frames.
He is also, like Higgins, one of the coolest and most tenacious of competitors. On Saturday evening he went 74 minutes without potting a ball, a period in which Shaun Murphy scored 517 points in going from 6-3 down to 8-6 up in their semi-final.
"My long game was non-existent, really poor," said Williams of one of his customary strengths until "for some unknown reason" it began to function, most notably for a do-or-die last red which gave him the key to the tight, dramatic decider in his 9-8 victory.
Higgins and Williams go back as friends and rivals to the 1991 finals of the World Junior Masters, won by Higgins, and the British Junior Championship, in which Williams prevailed."Yes, we're still here," said Higgins. "A bit older, a bit less hair."
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