Mark Williams Rolls Back The Years To Win A Third World Championship

If Mark Williams’ status as a snooker ‘legend’ was ever in any tiny doubt, it’s not any more.

The 43-year old Welshman came through an 18-16 Crucible thriller against John Higgins to land a third world title – 15 years after his last – and then delivered on his promise of stripping naked at his press conference.

This magnificent performance from a player who last won here in 2000 and 2003 was quite simply unbelievable. Only a year ago, he failed to qualify for the World Championship and was by his own admission very close to retiring from the sport.

It is also a victory for the same man who three years ago was crowned world seniors champion and was encouraging the sport’s MC Rob Walker to introduce him into the arena of main professional events as ‘The Welsh Has-Been’.

Fast forward a year and he’s won the biggest tournament of the season, climbed up to number three in the world rankings and proved the old cliché that while form many temporary, class is certainly permanent.

This caps off an incredible season which has seen Williams win three world ranking titles for the first time since 2000 when he won the World and UK Championship double along with the Thailand Masters.

His Crucible crown here adds to wins earlier in the campaign at the Norther Ireland Open and German Masters and takes his career tally up to 21.

Despite a career of exceptional achievement, Williams has often had to live in the shadow of his fellow class of ’92 graduates Ronnie O’Sullivan and Higgins who are now both into their 30s when it comes to winning ranking titles.

But this was a moment when Williams was centre stage and showed the snooker world yet again of what a fine talent he really is.

Williams has always been and will always be one of the most popular characters in the sport. His naked cameo to finish off the tournament was classic and it comes just two days after he tweeted from a kebab shop at 2.30am following his late-night semi-final over Barry Hawkins when he had less than 12 hours to go until starting off in the final against Higgins.

But for those who know Williams, this really is no surprise. He’s never been one to take things too seriously and it’s this laid-back approach which probably helps him to be so good under pressure. During the final, he was caught on camera helping himself to minstrels from one of the fans in the crowd.

He’s always been one to do things his own way and his performance in this year’s championship has definitely been no different.

The trio of players in the class of ’92 are now all into their 40s and still bossing it on the top stage. Between them, they’ve won 10 of this season’s 20 ranking events and this latest win for Williams takes their tally of world titles to 12 from the last 21 years.

All you hope is that as they continue to show their absolute class, the younger generation of players are at home watching every ball of what it takes to achieve greatness like these boys.