Jester from Leicester Mark Selby has lifted a third Crucible World title in four years - making him the fifth man since 1977 to lift the trophy more than twice.
Only Stephen Hendry, Steve Davis, Ronnie O'Sullivan and John Higgins, whom he beat 18 - 15 in this year's BetFred World Championship final have won the title more than twice.
Mark Williams has lifted the trophy twice.
When he lost to Selby in the final in China pre World Championship, he tweeted that the last frames of the China Open were the reason why The Jester was the best in the World.
In 2014, Selby won his first, after being 10 - 5 down against the Rocket and at the time it was claimed as a momentous victory as Selby won from behind to win 18 - 14.
Mark Selby did what Mark Selby does last night after victory at the Crucible - he belted out Sweet Caroline at a party pic.twitter.com/fDuHIiagVl
— John Skilbeck (@JohnSkilbeckPA) May 2, 2017
This year, the story pattern was much the same with the Jester being 10 - 4 down and trailing by three frames over two going into the third. But the man nicknamed by some as Sat Nav Selby managed to navigate his way to a thrilling 18 - 15 victory over a tired Higgins in the final session.
Higgins, 41, made a slight comeback after the final mid-session interval and knocked in a brilliant 111 break, but it wasn't enough to stem the tide of a dominant Selby.
Selby, 33, has won five ranking events this season with also winning back to back at the end, including a China Open win over Mark Williams and then the World title over Higgins.
2005 winner Shaun Murphy tweeted it right:
Congratulations @markjesterselby absolutely phenomenal achievement. We all better up our games #ilovesnooker
— Shaun Murphy (@Magician147) May 1, 2017
Only Ding Junhui and Stephen Hendry have won five ranking titles in a season, and this puts Selby on 12 ranking titles in all.
The winning machine Selby actually has four World titles to his name! He was the WEPF World 8 ball pool Champion in 2006. He was also a runner-up in 2015 at the Chinese pool World Championships.
Higgins, who was denied a fifth World title, now shoots up to World number two - and the Scot from Wishaw has been number two on four other occasions.
Selby picked up prize money of 375,000 pounds - knocking him over the million threshold for a season - and has held the number one spot for a record 813 days consecutive at the top - and in total a whopping 1554 days - 6 seasons.
74 tons were knocked in, in the Championship the same as 2011, with Ronnie O'Sullivan's 146 - the highest break of the tournament. For pure brilliance Mark Selby's 143 was regarded as one of the best breaks because of the nature of where the reds were on the cushion, and for the cracking positional play needed to make the clearance.
Controversial Frames
Frame 31 is synonymous with controversy.
In 2015, Stuart Bingham and Shaun Murphy were involved in a 64 min frame where the Ballrun had to ask permission to Olivier Marteel to go to the loo as the frame was so long.
This year, frame 31 had controversy for a nestle up to the black as Selby had allegedly not touched a black. Referee Jan Verhaas, refereeing his sixth World final, stood by his decision, and said he didn't see the cue ball touch the black - but Selby thought he had - but the slight controversy ended in Selby putting it out of his mind and going on to win the title.
World Championship Qualifiers
It seemed an age since April 5th when 128 of the best players met at Ponds Forge International Sports Centre just up the road from the Crucible in Sheffield and were trying to be one of 16 players to reach the last 32 of the BetFred World Championship.
It was only an in form Stephen Maguire who managed to be the last qualifier standing in the quarter-finals - but was beaten by Barry Hawkins.
At the qualifiers, Gary Wilson, who gave the great Ronnie O'Sullivan a run in the first round, made an incredible 147 on route to his debut at the Crucible.
And not forgetting the great run from 11 times World Champion Reanne Evans after her win over Finland's Robin Hull in the first round, to win her first match at the World Championship was a real achievement for the Dudley cuewoman.
Who's on tour next season?
Next season is sure to give snooker fans more drama - as new qualifiers for the tour bed in to their new lifestyle as professionals.
So far, we have new tour professionals in Chris Totten, who won the EBSA European Snooker Championship and Alexander Ursenbacher, winner of the U-21 event.
The IBSF qualifier is Iran's Soheil Vahedi and Under-21 the Chinese Xu Si.
Another Chinese player also takes up a tour card in Lyu Haotian after winning the Asian Snooker Championship 2017, defeating India's Pankaj Advani in the final.
It was announced at the 40th Crucible pre-tournament gala celebration that messrs Ken Doherty and Jimmy White would be given wildcards for the next two years - as service to the game after they had been relegated from the tour this season.
In the Under-21 ACBS Snooker Championship category, teenager Yuan Sijun could be another talented Chinese player thrusted onto the professional scene in snooker.
Talented teens Yan Bingtao and Zhou Yuelong's excellent run to their Crucible debuts this season, means more Chinese players will no doubt be eager to make an impact on the scene and deliver some dramatic matches in next season's scene as have Bingtao and Yuelong and others such as Xiao Zintong.
Ding's the word
Ding Junhui stays in fourth in the rankings, but his recent runs in Crucible semi-finals and the final last year mean the Chinaman will be eager to produce the goods next season. Every year that Ding fails to win the Worlds, is a year that it gets tougher with so many players in the line for potential World Champion status. One such man in the running is Kyren Wilson, who will also want to get past the quarter-final curse next year. He had a nightmare with his tip in his match with the four times World Champion John Higgins. His coach Barry Stark explains in the video below...
Judd Trump - who was hyped up this year as a contender, will hope a shoulder injury or any other form of bad luck will not get in the way of his attempt to go one better than 2011 where he lost to John Higgins in the final in the future.
John Higgins was very close to winning a 29th ranking title. He still has it in him to win majors, but will the great Ronnie O'Sullivan be able to beat him to it next season?
