By Elliott West
Introduction
The World Championship is notorious for producing late-night thrillers and snooker fans didn’t have to wait long for one. This time it occurred in the first round match between Shaun Murphy and Stephen Maguire. These two players have had a rivalry that first began when they were juniors, playing in an under-15s tournament at Willie Thorne’s snooker club in Leicester. A match where both families didn’t see eye to eye on the format of the match. Shaun Murphy later recounted the experience, saying:
“I think I remember playing him when I was maybe 11 or 12 in an under-15s tournament at Willie Thorne’s club,’ he said. ‘It was funny because the Maguire family wanted to shorten the length of the final because they had a long journey back to Glasgow having been in Leicester all day. My father wouldn’t allow it, which annoyed Stephen, and he beat me 3-0!”.
Shaun Murphy
The Battle
This meeting has sat in the memories of both players for over 30 years and so when they met at this year’s World Championship, you could cut the tension in the air with a knife. Maguire got off to a good start, I say good but he wasn’t exactly playing well. The 6-3 overnight lead was largely down to the Scot being able to scrap it out and take advantage of his opponent’s lacklustre play.
They say tomorrow is another day and it certainly turned out this way when these two players resumed play on Sunday. From 6-2 down, Murphy surged into a respectable 8-7 lead. Murphy threw aside the accusation that he had missed too many balls previously producing a blistering 130 total clearance in the first frame, his 576th career century.
Although Maguire got off to the weaker start, he was able to test the weakest component of Murphy’s armoury. Shaun is known for his powerful pots and high breaks but his weakness is his safety play. This letdown spilt into their play including a 72 minute battle in the 14th frame, a frame that had almost everything and kept both the players and the audience on the edge of the precipice until Murphy eventually won the frame. A frame that went Murphy’s way thanks to a tight pink cut into the yellow pocket and the black to the bottom right bag.
This match was turning into a scene from a Rocky film with a despondent Maguire clearly flagging and bloody as he fell slumped against the ropes but he wasn’t down for long. Breaks of 90 and 82 left his opponent shell shocked and with only one frame required to book his place in the second round, the Scot got off to a flying start with a 46 break. Murphy seemed gone when he entered the snookers required stage and try as he might, he couldn’t stop the Maguire steam roller. The Scot prevailed 10-8.
Afterthoughts
This was a match that contained everything that you would want to see in a snooker match and those that paid for a ticket certainly got their value for money, even those who got to see it, thanks to the early 10-7 demolition of Barry Hawkins by the talented young Welshman, Jackson Page. Maguire tainted the match with an inaudible expletive about his rival whilst a frenzy of social media activity ensued, trying to decipher exactly what he said. I will keep my thoughts on the episode to myself but I will say that it wasn’t great sportsmanship. Unfortunately, the Scot is prone to seeing red when he plays, famously fracturing his knuckles in a match after banging his fist down on the rail of the table in disgust. A wake-up call for Maguire and his fist because the snooker table always wins these battles.
Stephen Maguire now plays Zhao Xintong who dispensed Jamie Clarke with a 10-2 victory. Stephen will have to up his game if he is to get past this impressive Chinese player who has already won the UK Championship and the German Masters. I feel Zhao is starting to get on a roll, a journey that has been ten years in the making. A player who was first spotted as a talented player when he was a child, picked out by Mark Williams when he played him in an exhibition in China.
Meanwhile, Jackson Page awaits the winner in the match between Mark Williams and Michael White. Williams leads his fellow countryman 7-2, a session that included a 138 break by Mark and a 5-0 lead at one stage of the match.
There was also an impressive 10-5 victory by Ronnie O’Sullivan over David Gilbert and Anthony McGill leads Liam Highfield 6-3 going into Bank Holiday Monday’s play. The reigning Northern Ireland champion Mark Allen gets the ball rolling when he starts his match against Scott Donaldson at 10 am.
