The last Embassy World Championship was also one of its greatest, not a fag-end's last drag but a full, languorous, billowing exhalation of excitement as Shaun Murphy became one of its most remarkable champions in its 30 years.
The youngest winner, at 22, since Stephen Hendry first won in 1990, the biggest outsider, at 150-1, since Joe Johnson beat Steve Davis in 1986 and the first qualifier to win since Terry Griffiths in 1979, this fresh-faced born-again Christian is the antithesis of the chalk-complexioned inhabitant of dingy snooker halls who for so long has been the caricature of mis-spent youth.
He had not won a match here in his previous visits and qualified for this tournament only by winning two matches at a holiday camp in Prestatyn at the end of February.
And yet there was a whiff of destiny about his 18-16 triumph over Matthew Stevens, a player whose natural expression is that of a man who fears he may have mislaid his winning lottery ticket and who certainly lost his way here after starting the day with a four-frame overnight lead.
In recent years Stevens has auditioned for the role of Sheffield's nearly man, played for so many years by Jimmy White. In the previous five championships he had reached at least the semi-finals four times without winning it. He reached the final once before, five years ago, when, by cruel coincidence, he was also beaten 18-16, by his fellow Welshman Mark Williams.
But this was less his defeat than an an astonishing victory for the eerily composed Murphy who, with the 16-16 score-line demanding a three-frame shoot-out, produced breaks of 97 and 83 to win the next two, which thus became the last two.
The packed audience were more than happy to see the final go into the last session after Stevens had built up a 10-6 overnight lead. Snooker crowds, like night-clubbers and those who go to Ken Dodd's famous five-hour gigs, carry with them the naughty notion that they might miss the last bus home. They come for the long haul
The Rotheram-based Murphy, who is ranked 48th in the world, though that will now go up to 21st, was certainly determined to give them that. He won five of the seven afternoon sessions as Stevens looked even more tortured than normal.
The older player's frustrations were never more evident than in the 22nd frame, the one in which Murphy drew level, which lasted almost 41 minutes. On Sunday, on his way to the theatre, Murphy had been held up by Sheffield's half-marathon. He was determined this match would run the whole course.
He had reached the final by beating three former world champions, in John Higgins, Steve Davis and Peter Ebdon, firing the balls down as quickly as Paul Newman's Fast Eddie up against Minnesota Fats in The Hustler.
He immediately put Stevens under pressure yesterday by winning the opening two frames of the day. He had a break of 51 in the first and 56 in the second when, with seven reds and seven blacks, he had at least one eye on a share of the prize for a maximum 147, which had been achieved earlier by Williams.
Stevens stopped the rot in the 19th frame but it was far from convincing. He missed a simple red after his opening break of 38. He should have moved four ahead again in the next frame. He took a commanding lead of 60 but then missed a red into the corner and Murphy answered with a most impressive clearance of 80.
Murphy was even more impressive in the next with a total clearance of 137. When play resumed in the evening, following the parade of former champions, it was Murphy who looked dominant against the hesitant Stevens before the Welshman rallied with his most composed snooker of the match. But the remarkable Murphy came back once more to storm home with runs of his trademark long, clean pots.