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Working with both World Snooker Championship finalists was a dream and a nightmare rolled into one for Chris Henry. The highly respected coach, who has worked with a string of greats over the years, including Stephen Hendry and Jimmy White, found himself in that situation during the 2021 final between Mark Selby and Shaun Murphy.

A fabulous honour, no doubt, but also an episode that required the skill of a tightrope walker to keep all parties happy. How he divided his time before and during the match required military precision. Henry recalls: "It was very tricky and a very sensitive situation where you cannot be seen to have favouritism towards either player, especially in a world final. It was very unusual. I was really careful how I went about it, working out practice sessions for each player, making sure I'm available and in the changing rooms for certain lengths of time during the match.

"At the intervals, it wasn't going to be easy, because you've only got 15 minutes. That was a really tricky one. But I managed to get through it in the right way and it was about each player being at their best."

Discussions about the opponent were strictly off-limits. He adds: "We were never going to start talking about the opponent. We concentrated on the things they needed to implement to help them go out there and perform.

"It was wonderful, of course, but the nightmare was that you were going to have a winner and loser, guaranteed. So there was a negative tint, which was a shame. On reflection, it was a great achievement."

Henry also wanted to do right by both players after the match, which Selby won 18-15, but things didn't quite go according to plan. He explains: "I saw Shaun coming out initially. I thought he was going to be spending some time with his family and then they'd be coming down to the changing room.

"But then the press got hold of me and I did some interviews. I came back and Shaun had already left. He'd gone back to the hotel. So I spent some time with Mark celebrating. I then went to Shaun's room at the hotel and we had a chat, discussed the whole thing. He was incredibly disappointed, of course, which is normal.

"Ultimately, he'd got a world final, so his game was in good order. Of course, you can't say that in the moment, the disappointment level was too strong to want to take on board positives."

In his post-match BBC interview, Murphy had brought up Henry, saying: "Chris and I have worked together since 2013, been an integral part of my team since. Thank you for everything you've done in the last eight years but he'll be sacked in the morning! I'm thrilled for Mark, gutted myself, but thrilled to be part of such a great match."

The joke actually became a reality. Asked if he thought the players were happy with how he dealt with the situation, Henry, who worked exclusively with Murphy between 2013 and 2016, admits: "You can't say Shaun was overly happy because that was the end of our relationship.

"Whether he was going to make that decision after the tournament or not, I'm not sure. After that tournament, I think he wanted somebody solely in his corner to support him and not anybody else.

"When we first started working together in 2013, it was an exclusive deal; I wasn't working with any other players. That was until 2016 and we had a great period together; he won a lot of tournaments.

"Then in 2016, he decided he wanted to look at other options and other methodologies. When that happened, a lot of other players wanted to come on board and work with me. Since 16/17, I've always had a group of players I've been working with. I love working with different characters."

More recently, Henry has been working with Jack Lisowski, Elliot Slessor and Mark Allen. Earlier this season, just months after linking up, he helped Lisowski win his long-awaited maiden ranking title at the Northern Ireland Open.