Snooker World ChampionshipJohnny Watterson recalls some of the great comebacks at The Crucible and finds none to quite match Saturday's heroics by Ken Doherty

After practice yesterday Ken Doherty walked up Church Lane beside The Crucible Theatre and brought the Sunday morning strollers to a halt. It was difficult to say whether the awe in their expressions was in confronting Doherty in the flesh or that he had simply jogged their memory about what had taken place on Saturday night not 50 metres from where they were standing.

Coming into the final session at 15-9 down, Doherty's enthralling haul back of Paul Hunter to win 17-16 was the most gripping semi-final ever seen at the tournament. It is also being hailed as the greatest comeback in tournament history, principally because of the late stage of the match and the fact that Hunter had only to win two frames from the nine-frame session to go through to the final.

Instead Doherty won eight out of the final nine. While there have been other huge turnarounds, none have been completed within such fine margins and under such extreme pressure.

The match immediately drew on memories of Denis Taylor's 1985 championship victory over Steve Davis. Taylor fell 8-0 behind in the final's first session before creeping back into the match to win it 18-17 on the black.

Seven-times winner Stephen Hendry was also responsible for depriving Jimmy White of what would have been his one and only World Championship win in 1992. The Scot was trailing White 14-8 in the final and the Londoner coasting towards the trophy when Hendry completely turned the match around. Winning 10 frames in succession, Hendry blew away the Whirlwind 18-14 to earn his second championship.

England's Nigel Bond also came back from 9-2 down to beat Cliff Thorburn 10-9 in the first round in 1994, while Doherty's opponent today, Mark Williams, transformed the 2000 final when he came back from six frames down. Chasing Matthew Stevens, Williams emerged from a 13-7 deficit to claim the £240,000 first prize.

"It was just that Ken did it at such a late stage in the tournament. It was so close to the line," says five-times winner Steve Davis.

"Sure there have been comebacks before but not as last-gasp as that. It was quite an amazing match of snooker and an incredible comeback by Ken, who was able to produce great calmness towards the end when it would have been understandable for him to have cracked himself.

"After making the comeback, that sometimes does happen where the other guy then recovers and you're the one who finds it hard to get over the finish line. Quite an incredible outcome.

"All players miss balls at that stage in a match but Ken was very calm one frame behind with two to go. Off the top of my head, no I can't think of any other comebacks that rank with it. Obviously Dennis and myself, 8-0 in a final, but that was first day and by the end of the first day it was 9-7 to me. It wasn't the same type of comeback."

Clive Everton, a BBC commentator and editor of the magazine Snooker Scene was in the commentary booth for the match that attracted a peak viewing audience of 4.6 million people in Britain. The coverage began on Grandstand before switching to BBC Two and was extended by two hours to follow the match to its conclusion.

"It was the most remarkable final-session recovery. We've had people winning from 8-0 down like Dennis in the 1985 final but he had three sessions to get that back. A recovery with your opponent so near the winning post like that is unprecedented," said Everton.

"It was fascinating to see the psychological shifts. Hunter wouldn't have been human if he hadn't thought to himself, 'well I'm going to win this'.

"There are certain commanding leads in sport that people never lose from and this was supposed to be one of those. His composure was gradually shaken and then it cracked.

"It was particularly agonising for Hunter because as it began to dawn on him that the unthinkable could happen, you could almost see him disintegrating inwardly."

Doherty revealed after the match that since last November, he has been working with the Galway-born sports psychologist Liam Moggan.

Doherty also spoke with Moggan before going into the final session on Saturday.