It was glory for Graeme Dott in Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre early yesterday when he became the 888.com world champion following an 18-14 victory over Peter Ebdon.
The victory won him a £200,000 pay day.
After more than 13.5 hours of sometimes painstaking snooker, Dott finally scraped home after Ebdon, 15-7 down, pulled back to 15-13.
But the 2002 world champion who is now based in Dubai was never quite able to make up the lost ground, though in the end it was a desperately close call.
“The 68 clearance I made to go 17-14 was probably the best I’ve ever made. I just don’t know where it came from,” said Dott, a 50-1 chance to win the title at the start of the championship 17 days ago.
Ebdon who could be backed at 20-1, and Dott had been embroiled in a record-breaking 27th frame.
When Ebdon eventually potted the black to complete a clearance from the green of 25, the frame had taken 74 minutes, 08 seconds to complete, the longest ever in front of the television cameras.
That pushed to one side Steve Davis and Dene O’Kane’s 73 minute, 30 seconds previous longest TV frame set at the 1989 World Team Cup at Bournemouth, while the 69 minutes-long world final deciding frame shoot-out between Davis and Dennis Taylor in 1985 paled into history.
But the final brought about an amazing transformation as Ebdon, 15-7 behind going into the last set of 13 frames, clawed his way back to 15-13 and right in the thick of things, a break of 84 took him to within two of the Scot for the first time since Dott led 3-1 and 4-2. Eventually Dott stopped Ebdon’s gallop by taking frame 29 with a break of 66 to lead 16-13, only two short of the winning post.
Snooker and boxing entrepreneur Barry Hearn had issued a warning to the finalists before play started on the last day not to expect an invitation to next season’s Premier League unless standards improved in the chase for the £200,000 first prize.
It was unlikely that either player was aware of Hearn’s comments or even interested before the final resumed with Dott ahead 11-5 overnight and later extending this to eight frames.
Up until then Ebdon, the winner in 2002 and runner-up in 1996, had experienced a nightmare, doing very little right and looking incapable of making a serious challenge to Dott’s supremacy.
The Scot, winning five of six frames, recorded breaks of 65, 62 and 56 to get within three of what would be his first tournament victory.
Ebdon, though, is a fighter who does not know the meaning of the word defeat and as the final moved into the concluding stages, slowly but surely he pushed himself back into the reckoning.
His first task was to win frame 23 with the first century of the final, a clearance of 117 and with Dott unsure of himself, mistakes followed and a promising break of 51 let Ebdon in to snatch the next frame out of the fire with a clearance to the pink of 32.
Dott by now was getting shakier and shakier and it was no surprise when he also lost the next two frames to go in at the interval only four behind at 15-11.
Frame 25 saw Ebdon, 33-29 in front, record a decisive break of 34 and in the 26th when he was 38-4 behind, he returned to the table after Dott missed a red into a top pocket to compile a 66 to signal the final was very much alive again.
The tempo increased on day two and after 20 frames had been completed, the total running time was eight hours, 16 minutes, 56 seconds and the average time per frame was down from 28 minutes to 25 minutes, where it was to stay.
“If this was a boxing fight, it would have been stopped on Sunday night to spare the fans any more punishment. “They said the first World War would be over by Christmas and on Monday morning they were talking about this match in the same terms,” added Hearn.

John Dee
The Nation
Sheffield