Mark Selby beats Shaun Murphy in World Snooker Championship final – as it happened

So there we go: another world championships is in the books. What on earth are we going to do tomorrow? Ta-ra!

Selby raises the trophy from the stem, but with no kiss – perhaps that’s a corona situation – and his daughter joins him on the floor. What a competitor he is and what a player he is too, one of the greatest we’ve ever seen and will ever see. Steve reckons he’ll finish with more than four of these and Hazel notes he’s got nine majors from 12 finals which tells you that when he’s in form, he doesn’t give it away. His family join him for some snaps and this is all very beautiful – come on snooker, come on sport. You absolutely adore to see it.

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Overall that was a disappointing effort. Hazel had him going when she asked about the hard times, but failed to follow in and he quickly relaxed again. Maybe next year.

“I wish you’d come to me first,” he says. “How can I follow that brilliant speech?” He was delighted to have won one, but four is a dream, and he notes how good it is to see Shaun back, praising him as a credit to the game. He had “some really, really dark days” a few years ago, but has fought his way back and thanks Chris Henry, noting that Shaun was the first to bring him in. Last year, he was still pretty fragile but got to within one frame of the final and felt much better this – his goal now is to get back to number one, and with tonight’s cheque he’s within striking distance of Judd Trump.

The question on everyone’s lips: can Hazel make Mark cry? Here we go!

“Unfortunately for me, I’ve known him since he was nine,” says a magnanimous Murphy. “He broke me last night”. He says the overnight lead was too much, and that life on tour, especially for those who don’t live in the UK, has been hard. He thanks all the fans for coming out - “sport’s nothing without the fans,” he surmises, paraphrasing Matt Busby, “you’ve brought me back”. Asked about how much help he gets from Chris Henry, the coach he shares with Mark, he responds with “nothing today,” letting him know he’ll be fired tomorrow. He says he’s gutted to lose but really happy for Mark and proud to have been involved in a great match - that was a lovely interview.

Ah man. Selby is brilliant - he now has more world titles than Spencer and Williams and as many as Higgins, with only O’Sullivan, Davis, Reardon and Hendry above him in the modern era. Given how hard he works and how hard he competes, none of them safe. Well expletive played; well expletive played both men.

What a player, what a match, what a competition, what a sport!

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In comms, Stephen says he won’t criticise Shaun’s shot choice because it was on, but wonders if the hesitation cost him and stopped him fully committing. Meanwhile, Mark bags the blue, gets a decentish bounce ... and it’s the pink to go seven in front with seven left! The tension! What a shot, bang into the poicket and around the table ... and her comes the black! He gets down ... he gets up! He chalks ... he gets sown!

Righto, here we go. In Shaun’s box, his sister covers her eyes as he sinks the pink and tries to get behind the red ... falling a little short. It’s not, as previously reported, quite stuck on the cushion either, which makes things harder ... out comes the rest ... he hesitates, and in comms they think he’s changed his mind to play safe ... but no! He takes it on, contacts the cushion too soon, and it’s in the jaws ... again! This expletive game. Mark bounces up like a jack-in-the-box that’s had too much Sunny D, and I think this is over. I think.

It’s in the jaws! Stephen’s surprised he didn’t take an easier ball to middle and fully commit - instead he played what he thought might leave things safe if he missed. Well, he does and he doesn’t, leaving Shaun a chance to close the gap to one. That looks a way away when the white runs near the side, but a lovely cut-back recovery pot keeps the break going ... until a cannon on the brown, following the bagging of the yellow, means it’s over. So it’s a safety that leaves a tempter – on the one hand, Mark’s only 10 percent on the long ones tonight and if he misses it’s 17-16 – other hand, if he sees it away, “it’s the championship”. Except he plays a containing safety, to Jayvee’s surprise – no doubt Mark appreciated the entire crowd laughing when this was duly noted – a sensation compounded when the balls come to rest and he’s left one which Shaun despatches! There’s work to do yet because there’s a red stuck on the side, but in the meantime what might we be about to see! THIS GAME!

We’ve seen some unfathomable comebacks in Crucible finals – Mark’s perpetrated them in two of the three finals he’s won – but not many from so close to the line. Which is to say that if Shaun hauls this one back, we’re watching something that will go down in the annals of the game. But, as I type that, he leaves a starter close to left middle and Mark sees it away, then gets to work; the bottom red of the cluster, which he’s addressing right now, might well be the key shot ... and it works out just about OK, leaving a black that’ll necessarily leave a difficult next ball. “The championship here,” says Stephen in commentary, because if it goes down – long, to the green pocket – he’s on the black. Here - we - go!

A monstrous run of a hundred and something – my iPlayer cuts out – makes it a second straight ton for Shaun, and we got ourselves a ball-game! How will Mark’s nerves be now?!

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Shaun runs a little lower than he’d have hoped, so has a nasty little cut-back black ... and it’s there! The next red’s a toughie too, but it works its way down, then another cut-back black – with cannon – that takes him 66 ahead with 75 left. This is a colossal effort given the circumstances, it really is – he’s been chasing position for a while now. Another nails red – to the green pocket – makes the frame pretty much safe, and he gets to work removing the easy balls that confirm things.

Hello! A poor cue-ball from Shaun offers Mark a chance at a longish red – you’d expect him bag it, profiting from an opponent’s inferior safety being extremely his thing – but he clatters it into the near knuckle and this is as good a chance as Shaun can have hoped for.

Now then. A rare poor safety from Mark leaves a red sticking out; Jayvee reckons it’s too risky but Shaun disagrees, a lovely cut and a lovely kiss allowing him position on the brown. But after his second red, the angle on the black forces him in and out of baulk ... and he jawses a plant that’s not set. Ach! So Mark sees it away, side cushion first, winds up on nowt, and plays off the other side for the pink only to feather a red first. But he gets it second go and off we go with some safety.

That’s a tremendous piece of work from Shaun, a break of 100 – the 107th ton of the tournament, improving on what’s already a new record – narrowing the deficit. If he can get the next chance, Mark will start to wonder...

There we go. Shaun eliminates the aforementioned, and stays alive for another frame at least.

A little run-through red develops the black, and though the reds above it aren’t beautifully spread, there’s plenty to go at at which to go. It’d bea decent microcosm of the match were Shaun to get to around 50, miss, and watch Mark clear up, but four reds and four blacks will do it from here and there are no obvious obstacles in the way.

Between frames, the Nugget notes that Shaun might’ve been 5-1 up after six but wound up 3-3, and when he looks back, if he loses he might fancy he lost it then. That said, he had chances last evening too and couldn’t force them home; anyhow, Mark misses one to middle then Shaun misses it too – even though it looks about to drop now he’s walked away from it. That might be enough to settle this, only for Mark to miss the next red – I don’t think anyone expected that. Can Shaun capitalise?

Of course we are! That is a blinder of a total clearance, 120 all told, and Mark is one away!

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“When he’s playing this well he’s almost unplayable,” says Hendry in commentary; what an accolade that is. Down goes a nerveless black, then a red, then a blue, the frame over and then some; the only question is whether we’re getting a third ton of the match.

Mark’s played an excellent match so far, because Shaun hasn’t handed him this by any stretch. In particular, he’s punished errors with extreme prejudice – his ability to keep it together under pressure has been the major difference here, which isn’t to say Shaun has crumbled, he hasn’t, just that he hasn’t done it as well.

Mark can do this all night, playing safety from top to bottom. But a really good shot from Shaun, leaving the white tight on the side and near left corner, with the black blocking its route to the cluster, will test him. Two minutes of thinking is what it takes to find a solution, sending one towards baulk and sticking the white behind the black again ... but though Shaun finds an alright response, he leaves one to the middle that, if it goes down, will leave the table ready to be rinsed. Shonuff, that’s what happens, and this is nearly did.

Oh Shaun! Mark misses, then Shaun does too! It wasn’t a gimme or anything like it, but when you’re three behind with six to play, you’re struggling if you can’t see those away. He doesn’t leave it, at least, though with a red up in baulk this is shaping up into the bitty kind of thing Mark relishes.

Right then, here it is...

Today is Barry Hearn’s last day in the job, and he’s done alright hasn’t he? He tells us that this has been the hardest year, noting that every time you think you’ve seen it all, something new happens to amaze you. For my part, I’ve spent a fair bit of time in Bazza’s company, and though it’s fair to say that our politics don’t align, he has a phenomenal charisma that we’ve seen revolutionise not just snooks but darts and boxing too. Thanks, it’s been a trip.

In other news...

“The standard isn’t stratospheric now,” returns Shaun Lawson. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s very good – but if it was stratospheric, no way in the world would three different players in their mid-40s still be right up there. Ronnie wasn’t wrong in what he said last year about that.

One reason is because the game was in so much trouble in the 2000s – very little money, few tournaments – that a whole generation’s path was blocked off. It’s quite similar in that sense to what happened with darts for a good 10-15 years after the breakaway. Both sports have taken a long time to recover.

Meanwhile: Reardon’s prime was when the cloths and balls were much heavier, there were desperately few tournaments – and he dominated totally, with an iron grip. It’s illogical to treat Steve Davis as unquestionably in the top five all-time but not to do the same with Ray, because the standard wasn’t so much higher in the 80s either. Reardon, Davis, Selby and John Higgins all mostly win/won by feeding off opponents’ mistakes. O’Sullivan and Hendry are in a different category - because they both had many different ways of winning.”

I don’t think that’s a fair appraisal of Higgins, who knows his way around the table but is also a potter. I didn’t see Dracula so I’m not best-placed to rule, but I’m not sure White, Thorburn and Parrott weren’t better than Charlton and all the rest. In addition, Williams was in tremendous form before he encountered Selbz, who also whacked Allen. That’s a pretty decent effort, and his performance in the 2014 final, when he ultimately deconstructed Ronnie, was one of the greats. As for the overall standard, there are more superb players knocking around than ever before.

Shaun’s problem today is that he started four behind and hasn’t been able to win more than two on the spin – and he’s only done that once. He needs to sort that immediately after the mid-sesh.

This is excellent from Shaun, carefully and competently removing balls, a tremendous pink giving him a great chance of securing the frame at this visit. The remaining four reds are difficult and the lead 52 with 67 remaining ... and with the rest, he jawses the first of them! It looks like it’s still going down, but at last second realises it’s not Mark who potted it, so bounces back out! Eesh! Mark, though, misses his shy at it, and Shaun sinks a blinder that takes him close. A black follows, then another red with the rest – it tries to stay up but can’t – and that’ll be enough.

Mark takes a long old time seeking a way out of a tricky situation - he’s not snookered, but with reds splayed all over the show, needs to get the white safe ... and finds a route off black cush to hit one on the side. That’s a brilliant shot, not just in execution but in conception – in commentary neither Ken nor Angles spotted it. But his next shot leaves one and here comes Shaun, who surely needs to take this frame – and the next one for that matter. He starts well, and begins clearing routes for the black.

He opts for the latter and a poor shot offers Shaun a shy. He can’t take the long starter, but gets away with it and the exchange continues.

“On the Reardon chat (or indeed the comparison across eras of any sport),” says Andrew Moore, “I think the assumption should be the standard then would be the same as the standard now if you transferred the players across, and vice-versa. All a player can do is dominate the era they are in, so for me that means Reardon, Davis and Hendry remain the best.”

That’s a fair point, but I’m not sure I agree – Jim Courier and four majors and Lleyton Hewitt has two, but only because they played in the interregnum between Edberg/Becker/Lendl and Sampras and Sampras/Agassi and Federer respectively. On top of that, dominating then, when the standard was unarguably lower, and winning four in seven now, when the standard is stratospheric are not equivalent to me. But I might well be wrong on all of the above.

Mark attacks a long and nails red, misses by plenty, and a double-kiss saves him from leaving it. This game. Shaun then misses a baulk-cushion red but at no cost beyond the four away, so we wind up playing safety.

“I’m personally a fan of Selby,” emails Yas K, “and interesting the reversal of fortunes these two ‘friends’ have had. Murphy took his first in title in 2005 and this is his third loss, whereas following defeat in 2007, Selby has been the dominant force since 2014 and will be collecting his fourth in seven years. He’s basically doing what Higgins didn’t.”

Not having a prime O’Sullivan and Williams knocking about has been quite helpful; I guess he did well to find a few once that was no longer the case for any of them.

Back on the table, Shaun foul-misses when trying to tickle a red, then finds a really good shot that leaves Mark a teaser: does he attack a long red, or try and navigate back to baulk?

You’ve got to laugh (unless you’re Shaun). A black that means the prospect of a ton remains takes its shoes off before going down, then goes down. But the last red doesn’t, so dat guy Selbz makes do with going four in front, and it’s hard to see a comeback from here.

Yup, Mark extends his lead again, and if he wins the final two frames of the mini-sesh, he’s a four-time champ!

We’re not serious yet because the reds are split but not spread – Mark could’ve arranged that earlier, didn’t, and when he does try he slides off a red as predicted by Ken in commentary. So it’s back to balk with a nifty lead for company; Shaun goes hard at a long one, misses off the knuckle, and Mark clips home another that thinks about staying out for quite some time. The bags are with him tonight, and here comes a black that, if the following cannon works, will mean the frame ... and down it goes! Shaun is in all sorts now.

“The six-times world champion, Ray Reardon - whose game Selby’s most closely resembles - would like a word,” emails Shaun Lawson. “He gets forgotten in these discussions and he shouldn’t. Reardon is so great, he’s even the man responsible for turning Ronnie O’Sullivan into a dominant match player! Ronnie would certainly have fewer world titles had it not been for his input.”

I didn’t forget Reardon, who featured prominently in the show I mentioned a few minutes ago, but when picking the best I don’t think we should look at world titles and nothing else. Dracula was the best of his era, but the standard then is very different to the standard now, and his two extra wins – assuming Selbz wins tonight – are not worth more than the calibre of opponent yerman has beaten, not just in finals but through the rounds. Anyway, an error from Shaun lets Mark in, and he quickly drains for red-black. Yes he does!

And there it is! Again, Shaun closes the gap, and again, he salutes the crowd ... but can he take it on from here?

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Sensational shot! Shaun sticks home the yellow, then runs through to develop the aforementioned green; he drains it, then floats back for the broon! This, the blue, and the frame is his...

There’s a red on the side cushion, not far from the middle pocket, and another on the opposite side, not far from the corner pocket; the remaining two are stuck together, just below the pink. So Shaun plays a controlled cannon into the latter – that’s very nicely done – but playing a cut-back red, he goes in-off into the centre! This absolute game! Mark then has a shy at a long pot as misses – the ref takes a dim view of the shouting this elicits, his ensuing chastisement provoking a self-righteous round of applause from the knowledgeable Crucible audience. Ah man, it’s been a while – I never thought that old chestnut would fill my room with chopped raw onions. Anyhow, after a further miss apiece, Shaun attacks a brute along black cush ... and down it goes! Screwing up the table off the black, he gets a kiss off the green that makes it a harder pot that it would’ve been – should he get that far – but he’s in with a chance that five minutes ago he’d have paid everything for.