Right: I’ll confess that I am no snooker expert, but I know my way around a table enough to state with confidence that Shaun Murphy won’t be topped for best shot at the World Championship. This is quite special.
Murphy was up against a living legend of the sport, Ronnie O'Sullivan, when he found himself in a bit of a pickle (OR SO WE THOUGHT!!!).
Early in the fifth frame, the cue ball was tucked just behind the yellow, and it looked like hitting the one red he had to aim for and getting the white safe would be near-impossible.
But after mentally accessing the angles like only a bow-tie’d snooker supremo can, the Englishman stunned the Crucible by playing the white off three cushions, bringing it back to glance the cocky little red into the middle pocket and leave himself with a strong set of options for the next shot. Commentator John Virgo correctly dubbed it “unbelievable”.
Marvel:
The shot didn’t intimidate O'Sullivan, though. The five-time champion was in typically merciless form as he took a 6-2 lead in the second-round match.
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Matt Tate is a freelance journalist and contributor at for Shortlist. Formerly Stuff Magazine’s news editor and based in the UK, he’s been writing about consumer tech for around eight years, with a particular focus on gaming.
For his sins, Matt is a huge Tottenham Hotspur fan and unfortunately spends a lot of his time scanning his published work for Spurs-related digs that may have been slyly inserted by editors. Otherwise, he’s often buying Lego sets he can no longer accommodate and trying to perfect his carbonara recipe. He can be found tweeting (mostly about football and video games) at @MattWTate.