Graeme Dott won the World Championship this morning with 18-14 victory, despite Peter Ebdon launching a spirited comeback in the final session.
While there were realistic Scottish hopes that the championship might provide Stephen Hendry with his eighth world title or John Higgins with his second, Dott was a little considered 50-1 shot.
Dott, a 28-year-old Glaswegian from the Rangers stronghold of Lark Hall, where some residents have even been known, in their antipathy to Celtic, to paint their grass a different colour, Dott himself claims that he prefers to avoid anything green, an obvious problem for a snooker player.
Feisty competitor that he has always been, he tends to grind out results rather than with a stream of frame-winning breaks.
In his 12th year as a professional, his total number of tournament centuries stands at only 60 although this does include a maximum, albeit un-televised, in the 1999 British Open.
Although Dott resumed 11-5 ahead yesterday, victory couldn't be assumed. In the 2003 final Ken Doherty trailed Mark Williams 10-2 and 11-5 but levelled 11-11 only to lose 18-16.
Ebdon, weary as he looked when he walked out of the arena at half past midnight on Sunday, was widely expected to make inroads on his arrears yesterday afternoon only for the gap to increase from six to eight with Dott only three from the winning post.
Assisted by a break of 56, Dott kept Ebdon scoreless in the day's opening frame before Ebdon threatened a revival, a break of 78 giving him the next frame and a largely tactical struggle of 31 minutes the one after.
There was a potential psychological turning point at 12-7 when Ebdon, from 0-63, obtained the snooker he needed to tie.
The crisis passed, though, and from 13-7 Dott improved to a 15-7 interval position by means of a late 65, amazingly his highest break of the final at that point, and a 35-minute frame in which he completed his recovery from 40 behind by clearing from last red to brown.
Ebdon refused to give in without a fight, however, reeling off six frames in a row to cut Dott's advantage to just two frames at 15-13 as the time approached midnight.
It was a dour affair with both players adopting a safety-first approach. The 27th frame lasted 74 minutes, setting a new record for the longest-ever televised snooker frame.
The players shared the next next two frames to leave the score 16-13, before Dott won the crucial frame - after Ebdon slipped up - and there was no stopping the Scottish man in, what turned out to be, the final frame of the championship.
G Dott (Sco) beat P Ebdon (Eng) 18-14. Frame scores (Dott first): 12-79 62-53 91-1 70-48 71-9 31-67 78-6 53-20 53-20 63-16 25-66 6-124 72-47 51-65 61-5 92-16 75-0 0-100 44-67 75-41 90-31 70-49 22-117 (117) 51-66 29-67 38-70 59-65 0-84 78-16 17-99 69-61 70-31.
