‘I hate being right’ – Murphy pays tribute to Wu after defeat in Crucible final
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Murphy, who compiled 12 centuries at the Crucible, is aiming to continue his rapid scoring form at the inaugural Snooker 900 Global Championship.He joins fellow world champions Ronnie O’Sullivan, Luca Brecel and Kyren Wilson in being seeded through to the quarter-finals of the 20-player invitational event in Reading.
Other key figures involved include Jimmy ‘Whirlwind’ White, Stuart Bingham, Ken Doherty and Matthew Stevens, with a round of four matches being completed every day until the final on Sunday at 12:00 and 18:00 (BST).
The £100,000 tournament is being staged between Tuesday until Sunday, with each frame lasting a maximum of 15 minutes under the pressure of a 20-second shot clock.
The early rounds are the best of nine frames with semi-finals the best of 11 and a best-of-19 frame final.
O’Sullivan has plenty of experience of coping with a shot clock, having won the World Seniors title in Sheffield on Sunday with a 10-4 final win over Joe Perry that saw him hit five centuries.
For Murphy, it is a form of the game he believes should become the norm at every major event to counteract time-wasting tactics.
The 2005 world champion produced the only 147 break in the history of the snooker Shoot Out in 2023, a feat achieved in a remarkable seven minutes and 35 seconds.
The break was even more impressive, coming under the pressurised confines of a shot clock which restricts competitors to only 15 seconds for the first five minutes of the frame, before being reduced to 10 seconds for the second half of the frame.Speaking on his podcast, Murphy made the case for a key change to how snooker should be played.
“I’d bring in a shot clock. And I’ve been saying this for 20 years, so I’m super-consistent on this,” he said.
”30 seconds. I think a shock clock that is unemotive, unemotional.
”It can’t be swayed, it’s not open to opinion, and it takes all of the pressure off the referees.”
The concept of a shot clock has been given more traction after world champion Wu and Mark Allen played out the longest frame in Crucible history in the World Championship semi-finals, the 14th frame lasting an astonishing 100 minutes and 21 seconds after the balls went awkward.
‘A tactical move’ – Allen ends stalemate by potting black
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O’Sullivan is due to continue his mini UK tour by taking to the table at 20:00 on Friday night with a possible match against fellow crowd-pleaser White, if he can win his tournament opener against Billy Castle on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Wilson could take on Ken Doherty at 12:00 in the opening quarter-final, with Murphy facing a possible clash against Matthew Stevens or Joe Perry at 2pm and Brecel potentially facing Stuart Bingma at 18:00.
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