World Championship Snooker: John Higgins makes 147 maximum break at the Crucible

• Watch all the 147 breaks in Crucible history

Maflin had come close himself in the first round, as had Tom Ford, but there's no substitute for the class and bottle of a four-time world champion, and Higgins never looked like missing once his own chance had opened up.

The final red was potted with the telescopic rest and left him ideally placed on the black. With all colours on their spots, that left Higgins with a task he'd completed a thousand times before, and he did it as though just another clearance in just another tournament.

Of course it was so much more, the 10th maximum of his career, the 11th in Crucible history, and the first since Stephen Hendry's in 2012. And it adds to one of the most impressive World Championship records in the sport: Higgins now has a 147 break to go with eight appearances in the final, four of which he's won.

Higgins, who went on to lose 13-11, will pick up a cheque for £55,000 should nobody match this wonderful break.

Should that be the case, it will be the third year running that Higgins has made the highest break in the World Championship and the fourth in which he's made a break of 140-plus, as he looks for a fourth successive final appearance.

Higgins' maximum was the sixth of the season and first since Kyren Wilson bagged one at the Welsh Open in February. There were 12 in the 2018/19 campaign, including one for Higgins himself in his native Scotland.

He joins Cliff Thorburn, Jimmy White, Hendry, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Mark Williams and Ali Carter as the seventh individual player to have scored a 147 in the sport's most famous arena.

Live snooker returns to Eurosport and the Eurosport app. Watch the World Championship from 31st July – 16th August with analysis from Jimmy White.

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