MARK SELBY scooped his second UK Championship title over the weekend, defeating Snooker's Rocket Ronnie O'Sullivan 10 - 7 finishing off with a 107 in the final frame he needed to clinch the title.
Selby, 33, is seven years off 40, and has ten ranking titles to his name. That's the same number of titles as Jimmy White, and the Jester from Leicester is eight off Mark Williams's tally of 18.
The Leicester potter has already wracked up four ranking titles this year, with three this season, including the World Championship, Paul Hunter Classic, the International Championship in China where he hammered Ding Junhui 10 - 1, and the UK Championship where he prevented Ronnie O'Sullivan from winning his sixth UK title and a 29th ranking title in York.
It doesn't always go to plan in Crazy Snooker.
— betway (@betway) November 26, 2016
See who conquered the course here: https://t.co/GvRWPu050B#BaizeOfGlory pic.twitter.com/t83sJ0nXmF
The Jester, in 2014, also, ironically prevented the Rocket from winning his sixth World title, and equalling Steve Davis.
In this year's Betway UK Championship 2016, Selby and O'Sullivan made 10 centuries each and helped the tournament have 105 tons in total.
Snooker ton talk
The record for the most tons in a UK Championship came in 2008 where 111 tons were made in total. The second highest tally of tons was in the 2003 UK when there were 108 tons made. Ronnie O'Sullivan is joint with the most number of tons in a UK Championship with seven-times World Champion Stephen Hendry who both have 12 tons.
Mark Selby in York became the sixth man in snooker history to win both the UK and World in the same calendar year. Ironically, it was the Rocket 15 years ago who won both in the same year. He has seven Triple Crown titles in between the Masters UK and Worlds. Three Masters. Two World titles. And now two UK titles.
Ronnie O'Sullivan, who celebrates his 41st Birthday this week, today (Monday), said after his loss in York that he was enjoying his snooker and treating it as a bit of a holiday and reiterated his view that with so many tournaments now on the calendar, it's a bit like waiting in the queue at a bus stop and you've just got to wait your turn in line.
The Rocket is now 12th in the rankings after having a very short spell outside the top 16 (17th) Selby has been World number one in the sport for at least five seasons. Mark Allen managed to hang on to the £10,000 and the high break of 147 he made earlier on in the Championship.
Title talk
With Selby dominating this sport and only in his early thirties, there is a real possibility that by the time he is 40, he will have surpassed Mark Williams's 18 ranking titles.
Working out the maths, if he wins even two titles each season, then that's 14 ranking titles added to the ten he has already won. He's already won three this season, and there's still nine ranking titles to go!
With there being so many tournaments now on the snooker calendar, Selby really has a good chance of winning at least two a season!
What do you think?