sport news Why the clock is ticking on snooker's spiritual home - and the two cash-rich ... trends now

It's a rabbit warren of dressing rooms, green rooms and rehearsal rooms behind the curtains. And when the snooker moves out, it will stage Sir Scallywag and the Battle for Stinky Bottom.

But this weekend the Crucible in Sheffield extends beyond its honourable role as a provincial theatre to assume its place at a summit of the sporting scene.

Lord's and Wembley, to name but two, may possess longer and deeper significance in the national psyche, but as the spiritual home of a green-baized obsession, abetted by blanket BBC television coverage, there is nowhere remotely to touch it.

Or so we might have thought. That was until Barry Hearn, snooker's godfather, raised the possibility that the World Championship may decamp when its current deal to host the event expires in 2027. 

His ultimatum to Sheffield City Council is this: build a new bigger 'Crucible' nearby with a capacity of between 2,500 and 3,000 people, or we are heading out of town.

Saudi Arabia is talked of as a possible replacement. Such a move would represent the end of a 50-year-old tradition, an era closing, an identity changed.

It would be left to the ghosts of the past to inhabit our imaginations. Of Terry Griffiths winning the original live televised final in 1979. Of Steve Davis claiming the first of his six titles as a callow youth two years later. 

Of an emotional Alex Higgins celebrating his second championship holding his baby boy. Of Jimmy White, alas, perennially missing out on the title.

And, the most glistening memory of all, 1985 and the final black, watched on BBC2 by 18.5million, still the biggest post-midnight audience ever in this country.

This week I bumped into Dennis Taylor, who held his cue aloft after triumphing that night, by the Crucible's stage door – the entrance used by players, officials and media – and he told me he wanted the championship to stay exactly where it is. 

'I've been coming here every year from the very start in 1977 and it means a lot to me,' he said. 'It's magical,' he added, as if speaking for generations of snooker lovers.

If the mid-Eighties summon the most indelible Crucible nostalgia, the hits have kept rolling since, taking in the two best players of all time: Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O'Sullivan, winners of seven world titles each.

And only the other night electric tension still sizzled. It was merely a second round match, but an absorbing one on the best day of the tournament so far.

Into the deciding frame. John Higgins falls 62 points behind Mark Allen. Higgins – rumoured to retire had he lost – steps up to the table and plays like a man possessed. He starts his comeback with an outlandish double. 

'The bravest shot I have ever seen,' Hendry declares. Holding his nerve to trouser the final red as the crescendo approaches, Higgins brings the house down with a scarcely believable clearance of 71. A bit of folklore.

So moved by his play, and the atmosphere that inspired it, 48-year-old Higgins went to his dressing room to cry tears of joy. 

'The venue takes it out of you, but also gives you the most incredible moments,' he reckoned.

The seeds of all this fervour were sown by the late Mike Watterson, businessman, sports promoter, football chairman, commentator and amateur snooker champion. 

I went to see him a few years ago in his Chesterfield bungalow. Only he could have called it (his bungalow that is) 'The Crucible'.

'My wife Carole had been to watch a play a couple of nights before with

read more from dailymail.....