The biggest reversal of fortune for twenty years, said Rob Walker as he warmed up the audience for the morning session on 22 April at the Crucible in Sheffield. It’s the World Championship and Ding Jun-hui – favourite to be at least in the semi-final against Ronnie O’Sullivan – was beaten 10-9 the night before by comparative newcomer Michael Wasley, after an unplanned late-night final frame, at a time when everybody should have gone home to bed. Mark Selby had just beaten Michael White; someone else had beaten someone else on the other side of the dividing screen. (Sorry, I can’t remember who they were – I was watching Selby!). But did we go home? No chance. We’d been told that Ding and Wasley were coming. I for one was cursing because I’d missed out on them earlier. And then suddenly it was spring: they hadn’t managed to finish their match in the afternoon and so they were dragged back late at night, long after the lights should have been out, for an emergency final two frames. They finished at ten past midnight. The staff on the doors wished us all a good morning as we left!

The first frame was all Wasley’s. It hardly seemed worth Ding staying up. But the second was harder work for Wasley – Ding is no slouch and is nowadays described as one of the best players in the world. That’s why 10-9 to Wasley was such a shock.

It’s a pity Ding’s not going to be playing Ronnie in the semi-final. They are good mates, and Ronnie was one of the people who gave him good support when he needed it after he arrived on the Western snooker scene from China some years back, nervous and a bit shy.

“We can’t tell what he’s thinking,” whined much of the press and some of the snooker commentators, reaching for the nearest stereotype. “That’s the trouble with these Orientals.”

“Leave him alone,” said Ronnie to the press, who were baiting a very sad-looking Ding after he’d been defeated in a final – by Ronnie himself as it happened. After defeating Ding on another occasion, Ronnie gave him a hug, and a kiss on the top of his head. Snooker can be like that sometimes. Then it’s good.

Now Ding is “one of the best players in the world”. But this week Wasley is the name on everybody’s lips. He might even get to play the semi-final. I don’t actually think he will this time. Give him a couple of years. He’s only 24.