Rocket Flies To Magical Maximum Ronnie OSullivan made a stunning 147, the 13th maximum break of his career, in a 6-0 victory over Matthew Selt at the Coral UK Championship. WATCH RONNIE COMPLETE THE 147 By Mark Rawlinson 147 Facts Its the 109th official maximum in snooker history. OSullivan has now made a record 13. Stephen Hendry has had 11. The Rockets 12th came at the Welsh Open in March, in the last frame of the final. He will win a £40,000 bonus from the rolling 147 prize pot, plus the £4,000 high break prize. However if someone else makes one during the Coral UK Championship, the prizes will be shared. Its the fourth 147 of the season. Aditya Mehta, Ryan Day and Shaun Murphy made the others. Its the third consecutive year that a 147 has been made in the final stages here in York. John Higgins made one in 2012 and Mark Selby last year. OSullivan created another piece of snooker gold as he hit a brilliant maximum break in the final frame, bringing the York Barbican crowd to their feet. The Rocket dominated the match from start to finish to secure his place in the quarter-finals, against Anthony McGill on Friday afternoon. In the last frame, he had the reds open early in the break and cleared the 15 reds with blacks with little trouble. With the adrenaline pumping, the four-time UK Champion almost over-cut the blue to a middle pocket, but it just dropped in after hitting the jaw. Firing the pink into the middle and screwing back for the black, OSullivan gave a fist pump before sinking the black to send the near-capacity crowd into raptures. Earlier, he eased into a 4-0 lead with top breaks of 76, 61 and 52. OSullivan then went for a 147 in the fifth frame, but could only make 89 before missing the 12th black. Im lucky that Im able to play to such a level and perform like that, said OSullivan after winning his eighth consecutive competitive match. I dont think there are many sports people that feel that feeling in their job. So I feel extra lucky and special that Im able to create the great moments. 147s definitely still excite me and get the adrenaline going. I already had the record at 12 and I thought someone will have to go far to beat that, but its always nice to add to that and make it more difficult for someone to reach. The fans will go home and feel like they want to come back and watch another snooker game. I feel like Ive done my job to make people want to come back and watch snooker again. I was shaking like a leaf at the end - the blue just about went in and on the pink I was shaking but I hit it good. I celebrated before the black because I thought I cant really miss. Although Ken Doherty missed one once so I thought dont make yourself look stupid. Selt said: I just didnt settle at all. I had a couple of chances early in the first frame - I think I missed the black and nearly fell over. I didnt play how I wanted to and didnt settle and I felt it was always going to be 6-0 from 3-0 onwards. Im more happy than he is that he made that 147. It was a great experience and I had the best seat in the house to watch it. I was sat in my chair when he went up for the yellow and I could barely sit down, I was shaking that much for him. Stephen Maguire was the last man through to the quarter-finals as he beat David Morris 6-3 on the other table. Morris was playing in the last 16 in York for the second year running, but he started tonights match slowly. Maguire led 3-1 at the interval, thanks to a top break of 108. Morris hit back to win the next two to draw level, with a 90 break in the fifth. But Maguire, who won the UK Championship ten years ago, saw out the win by taking the next three without reply, including breaks of 41, 74 and 41. It was a strange game, said Maguire, who faces Marco Fu tomorrow evening in the next round. I was looking at the score at 3-2 and I couldnt believe it was 3-2 because I felt like I was the only one that was making chances. He had a couple of cracking flukes to get him involved in the game and it could have been anyones really. To pull away from 3-3, I was chuffed to bits. Im pleased that Im playing in the evening again tomorrow because Im a little bit tired now. It means I can go out now and get a meal and watch everyone else twitching tomorrow afternoon.
Posted on: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 04:55:32 +0000