THE show is over and the snooker circus is leaving town. Until next year, of course.

Mark Selby fought off a brave fightback from Ronnie O'Sullivan to win the Betway UK Snooker Championship final 10-7 at York Barbican on Sunday night.

During a scintillating best of 19 frame contest, the 'Rocket' recovered from 7-2 down to trail 8-7 in his bid for a record equalling sixth UK crown.

But world champion Selby, the 'Jester from Leicester', showed true class to finish with back-to-back century breaks and become the first player since O'Sullivan in 2001 to win snooker's two biggest competitions in the same year.

O'Sullivan, the leading personality in the game, had made waves with his outspoken views and opinions during the first week of the competition but it was his snooker that did the talking in the final.

The game had been dubbed a 'Clash of the Titans' and, after a cagey start, the two players served up a 'Barbican belter'.

Things caught fire in the 12th frame when O'Sullivan, trailing 7-4, hit the first of five century breaks in six frames by the pair.

Exchanging centuries likes heavyweight boxers trading big blows, O'Sullivan hit 134, Selby replied with 137. O'Sullivan made 130, Selby 134. It was extraordinary stuff.

Selby wrapped things up in the 17th frame with a 107 break and joins an elite group of players to win the 'Triple Crown' twice.

O'Sullivan, who had survived a major scare against Marco Fu in the semifinals, hit the ground running in the final with a 124 break in the first frame. It was his eighth century of the tournament as well as the 100th century in this year's event.

By the interval, however, it was 2-2 with the tide turning firmly in Selby's favour.

The 33-year -old finished the afternoon holding a 6-2 lead after winning five consecutive frames and hitting a string of half century plus breaks including 87 in the eighth, his highest of the session. Whenever O'Sullivan had missed, Selby had nearly always punished.

The opportunity to rest and re-charge his batteries failed to make any immediate difference to O'Sullivan who was unable to stop Selby increasing his lead at the start of the evening session.

A break of 56 put Selby in command and, even when O'Sullivan got a look-in, he soon slipped up.

After returning to the dressing room, O'Sullivan emerged to make a positive 56 break and, with greater luck, would have made the clearance. His safety shot saved the frame, however, and prevented Selby winning a seventh consecutive frame.

O'Sullivan's revival continued in the next frame, a missed pink by Selby allowing him to come from 36-24 down to win on the final pink.

Suddenly, the 'bigger' shots began to go in again and Selby must have been sensing the danger.

O'Sullivan was a far more relaxed figure and breezed his way to a 134 break - the 850th century of his professional career - to reduce the deficit to 7-5.

But Selby's reply was impressive and he hit the highest break so far of the match, 137, to take the score to 8-5 and go within two frames of his victory.

O'Sullivan fired in a 130 break to make it 8-6. On television, pundit John Parrott described the action as 'snooker from the Gods.'

He then won the 15th frame by 82 points to nil as talk turned to the possibility of one of the greatest comebacks in snooker history.

Selby, however, held his nerve and produced back-to-back breaks of 134 and 107 to lift the trophy and scoop the £170,000 first prize.

For fans of both players, watching the final turned into a roller coaster ride of emotions.

Leeds-based artist Damien Hirst was among those cheering on the 'Rocket' - the pair having forged a close friendship in recent years.

The crowd generated an electric atmosphere and, overall, ticket sales have gone up by 10 per cent on 2015.

There have been shock exits over the last two weeks (Neil Robertson and Judd Trump), a maximum break by Mark Allen in the second round, and a father and son duo (Peter and Oliver Lines) reached the last 32 of a ranking event for the first time in three decades.

Pickering's Paul Davison flew the flag for North Yorkshire but made it only as far as the second round.

O'Sullivan, not surprisingly, has commanded the majority of the headlines and, hopefully, he will be back next year. One can never quite be sure with the temperamental 'Rocket'.

But the snooker lovers will DEFINITELY be back - for another two years, if not more - thanks to a new deal announced over the weekend between World Snooker and the Barbican.