Mark Williams hasn't had the greatest of seasons this year: the Welsh snooker star won only one of his opening five matches in ranking events.
But in the clinching frame of an Embassy World Championship first round stroll against Robert Milkins (Williams won 10-1) today, he made the first - and, in all probability, the only - 147 maximum break of this year's tournament at the Crucible theatre, Sheffield.
Two-times former world champion Williams potted 15 reds, 15 blacks and all the colours in just under 10 minutes - a display of elegant coolness that will net him a guaranteed prize of at least £147,000. Unless he has to share it, the high break prize (another £14,000) will also be heading his way.
"I weighed up the options and thought I may as well go for it," he told the BBC. "I couldn't believe how calm I felt – until I got down to the last couple of colours. On the black, I thought 'just roll it in', and then 'that'll do nicely!'."
The feat makes Williams the first Welshman to record a Crucible maximum, and puts him in illustrious company.
Canadian Cliff Thorburn was the first player to make a 147 at the Crucible, a fluked red putting him on the path to glory against Terry Griffiths in 1983. Thorburn's Sheffield trail has since been followed by Jimmy White, Stephen Hendry (against White in a superb 1995 semi-final) and Ronnie O'Sullivan, who's so good he's done it twice (in 1997 and 2003).
The pick of that bunch? For my money, it was White's bravura effort against Tony Drago in 1992 - one of the six years in which the Whirlwind reached the final.
Confidence buoyed, perhaps Williams will feel he can round off a below par campaign by doing the same.
