John Higgins produced one of the greatest comebacks in snooker history to steal the 12Bet.com UK Championship from under the nose of Mark Williams in a thrilling 10-9 victory.

The Scot capped a fairytale return to British soil after his six month ban for failing to report an illegal betting approach by reeling off the final five frames, including one from a seemingly impossible situation where he required snookers, to take the title, and reclaim the world No 1 position.

And Higgins, who takes home the £100,000 first prize, paid tribute to the Shropshire snooker fans after his marathon victory that finished just before 11.30pm.

He said: “The atmosphere was tremendous in there. I’ve got to thank all the fans at Telford because of the atmosphere they have put on for me and Mark. It was a pleasure to play in the final, a pleasure to play in it.

“It means everything to me, just to be back playing and competing for the UK Championships and to be actually winning it. It means a great deal to me and it means a great deal to my family. It’s the stuff that dreams are made of. This is my finest hour on the table.

“I can’t put it into words. At 9-5 I was being totally outplayed by Mark. I somehow knew he was going to play some of his best stuff. It didn’t surprise me when I was 9-5 down but I just never gave up which I’ve done all week. I thought 9-5 was too big a mountain.”

Higgins has won 18 of his 19 matches since returning to the sport but the final frame decider here must surely rank as one of his best.

He built himself a seemingly-frame winning lead with a break of 66 but then suffered a horrendous kick on the black and then missed what would have been a match-clinching red. Williams began to clear up but couldn’t pot the brown and Higgins sealed his triumph with an audacious double the length of the table.