Allen on cue to emulate Ken at Crucible

So different are our two men at the snooker this week, it’s a wonder one of them doesn’t pull cheese from his waistcoat pocket. One is outgoing, charming, universally liked. Stick ‘Ken’ on an envelope and it will find him.

Wherever the rest of the year now takes him or us, we need Ken in Sheffield in April to restore some small sense of order.

But he can’t win it, surely. What makes great old snooker players go to pot? Ken’s ex-manager Ian Doyle reckoned his game followed the rest of the country down the tubes. “He got involved in buying property. Maybe that took an edge off his concentration and his game.”