When a final shows alarming signs of developing into a real drubbing in the afternoon session, contingency plans to placate potentially short-changed punters swiftly kick into gear. With Ronnie O’Sullivan leading Ding Junhui 7-1 going into the concluding set of frames tournament director Mike Ganley had Willie Thorne, Darren Morgan and Dominic Dale on standby at the Newport Centre to do a Big Break-style exhibition if the contest ran for four frames or fewer from 7pm, or not beyond the mid-session interval. As it turned out, their presence was required, which could be seen as an act of supreme benevolence from World  Snooker seeing as the delirious crowd had just witnessed history with O’Sullivan making a record 12th career maximum break to win the match.