By Stephen Carley

The 1997 marked the end of an era when Welsh veteran Terry Griffiths finally bade farewell to the green baize in his match against fellow Welshman Mark Williams.

Williams potted a superb pink, eventually winning the shot of the championship, to win the deciding frame and securing a 10-9 victory. Griffiths saluted the crowd's standing ovation as he left the arena for the final time.

Defending champion Stephen Hendry was paired off with Andy Hicks. On paper the match was tricky and so it proved to be, but Hendry came out of it a 10-6 winner.

History was made in the 13th frame of Ronnie O'Sullivan's first round match with Mick Price. If you blinked you probably would have missed the five minute 20 second maximum compiled by the Rocket which earned him a staggering £147,000.

The Crucible had never seen anything quite like it, and probably never will again. O'Sullivan was so overwhelmed by the reaction that he threw his chalk into the crowd, forgetting that he still had two frames to win to secure the win. He won 10-6.

Anthony Hamilton put a premature end to Jimmy White's campaign by beating him 10-9. The result ultimately cost White his position in the elite top 16.

Qualifier Bradley Jones almost caused the shock of the round by taking John Parrott to a deciding frame. What a difference a frame can make. If Jones had won it he would have substantially added to his career earnings. As it was, he lost 10-9 and continued to struggle for form, almost resulting in the youngster quitting the game.

Leicester-based Scandinavian Stefan Mazrocis provided the major upset of the round by demolishing the previous year's runner-up Peter Ebdon 10-3.

Lee Walker also made an impressive start to his tournament when he beat Dave Harold 10-7.

Both Alan McManus and Ken Doherty progressed while Steve Davis had a welcome 10-2 battering of David McLellan.

An astonishing turn of events in the match between Tony Drago and Dominic Dale found the man from Malta 9-8 up needing just the last black off its spot to win. How Drago missed it only he will ever know, but more importantly, Dale knocked it in and won the next as well to win 10-9.

The second round saw Doherty beat Davis 13-3 with a session to spare and Walker continued his impressive advance into the quarter-finals with a 13-10 win over McManus.

13-12 was enough for Morgan to see off O'Sullivan while James Wattana, Hendry and Higgins all went through with ease.

The quarter-finals yet again ended in disappointment for Parrott as he lost 13-10 to Thailand's Wattana.

Robidoux ended a fantastic debut tournament for Lee Walker 13-8 but Ken Doherty made no mistakes in defeating John Higgins 13-9.

Hendry completed the last four line up with a 13-10 win over Darren Morgan.

Robidoux's best ever world championship performance came to an abrupt end with a 17-7 drubbing from Doherty in the semi-finals.

The Canadian started well enough, even going into the second session at four each, but from then on in there was only one winner.

Wattana was also looking good in his first Crucible semi-final. He gave Hendry a fight before losing 17-13.

Doherty's 18-12 triumph over Hendry in the final saw him established as the only player ever to win both the World Amateur and World Professional titles.

His win also marked the end of Hendry's five successive titles and was his first defeat at the Crucible since Steve James beat him 13-11 in the 1991 quarter-final.

Doherty was overjoyed at his victory, one which he thoroughly deserved.