The previous year Williams also picked up the Liverpool Victoria UK Championship and the Regal Welsh Open on his home turf to place him at the top of the snooker tree.

BBC: Mark Williams

That was the year in which he became - as he remains - the youngest ever world ranking tournament semi-finalist and won that event, the Regal Welsh open, when he was 19.

BBC: Winning the hard way

Father and son Christopher Welsh Snr, 55, of Regal Walk and Christopher Welsh Jnr, 34, of Payley Close, led the plot, Liverpool Crown Court heard.

BBC: Liverpool gang jailed for multi-million pound drugs plot