Ray Reardon’s modern era record of six world championship wins was the target of Steve Davis when he made his annual, more often than not lucrative, trip to Sheffield in the spring of 1989.

Snooker’s king of the eighties triumphed at the Crucible in 1981, 1983, 1984, 1987, 1988, and was a short priced favourite to end his decade of dominance at the pinnacle of the sport.

He did so without breaking sweat. During the course of his five matches he accumulated 70 frames, dropped only 23 and won with a session to spare three times.

Steve Duggan was beaten 13-3 in the last 16, Mike Hallett was humbled by an identical margin in the quarter-finals but Davis reserved his most ruthless performance for the final.

There was to be no late night drama that May Bank Holiday Monday as Davis inflicted what remains the heaviest defeat in Crucible history. He beat John Parrott 18-3, winning thirteen of the closing fourteen frames.

“I feel like I’ve been punctured. All the air has gone out of me,” Parrott said.

Those with tickets for the unnecessary concluding session had to make do with an exhibition match between the euphoric Davis and, cruelly, the deflated Parrott.

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