Mark Selby wins world title to make it a feast day for Leicester Leicester City fan Mark Selby wins the world championshipMark Selby made it a feast day for the city of Leicester by winning the world championship to add to City's Premier League title
What a night this was for Mark Selby, the lifelong Leicester City fan. Within 15 minutes of his hometown team being confirmed as Premier League champions after Tottenham drew with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, he was winning the World Snooker Championship for the second time.
His first act after being handed the trophy by Steve Davis was to wave an LCFC flag high and proud. Had anyone told him this time last year that he would be enjoying a sporting double on this scale, the self-styled Jester from Leicester could only have assumed they must be snooker loopy.
“I can’t believe it,” he said. “I’m not sure what’s more of a shock: me winning it twice, or Leicester winning the Premier League.”
Not that it was easy. Like his heroes Riyad Mahrez, N’Golo Kanté and Wes Morgan, Selby was obliged to scrap all the way by the most obdurate of opponents. Ding Junhui, the first Chinese player to reach the final, gave the millions watching through the night back in his homeland a glimpse of what the future might hold in this sport.
“I think he really showed his class tonight,” the champion said of his opponent. “Ding’s an artist, I’m more of a scribbler.”
For those with a fondness for tension, drama and unease, sprinkled with the occasional moment of gob-smacking skill, this was a final to remember. It may not have featured the characters of old; there were no Hurricanes, Whirlwinds or Rockets on show. But for relentless, unyielding psychological warfare it was unbeatable.
Initially, though, Selby had threatened to run away with it, accelerating into a 6-0 lead in the first session. “I thought: this is easy,” he said of that early supremacy. “I should have known.”
Because Ding is nothing if not obdurate. Bringing new definition to slow, in the semi-final he had taken 4½ minutes over just one shot. At times here Selby must have felt he had been sitting in his chair as helpless spectator almost as long as his football team have been waiting for the title.
Perhaps exhausted by the late finish the night before, the pair had spent much of the afternoon session trading frames, each giving the other chances by succumbing to unforced errors.
Mark Selby holds a Leicester City flag up after winning his second world title
In the 22nd frame, for instance, first Ding, then Selby, then Ding again, then Selby again failed to sink entirely sinkable shots, failed to capitalise on the chance to take control and allowed their opponent back into it.
After missing one pot, Selby, normally so placid at the table, swung his cue around his head in frustration. Ding watched him retreat from the table, his face giving away no hint of emotion.
The new champion confessed afterwards that at times he despaired of his mistakes, and had won because he dug deep into his reserves of determination.
Yet despite his cue-swinging dismay, Selby emerged victorious from that frame and in the 23rd he assembled possibly the longest cue in snooker history to pop away a simple, albeit long-distance, red to ease away again.
But every time he appeared to take the initiative, Ding clawed his way back. In his lucky red waistcoat, the elbow of his resting arm bending entirely against expectation, the Chinese player did whatever was necessary to stay in contention. In the past he might have crumbled. No more. His resolve strengthened by the need to qualify, he did not yield. At one point, after Selby had taken a 16-11 lead, Ding came back and won three frames, making his opponent to wait 55 minutes between pots.
Then came the critical 31st frame, a game of cat and mouse, safety after safety, snooker after snooker, tension mounting as 35 minutes rolled into 40 minutes, to 45 eventually. After Selby won it to go 17-14 up, as he sat recovering momentarily in his chair, he got the news from a member of the audience that his team were champions.
Suddenly inspired, he was quite magnificent in the next frame, as if eager to get this over with so he could head to Jamie Vardy’s house party, and an uncontested 74 break secured his second title.
The last time he won was in 2014, when he shared a celebratory open-top bus ride with a City side just promoted to the Premier League. One thing is for sure: the bus ride this time will be epic.
