Hendry toiling despite maximum joy

Published on Tuesday 28 April 2009 22:11

STEPHEN Hendry will be richly rewarded for his 147 maximum break yesterday, but his Betfred.com World Snooker Championship title bid could be all over by lunchtime today.

His opponent Shaun Murphy was stirred into action by Hendry's mesmerising perfect clearance in the seventh frame of the day, which made the 40-year-old the oldest player to achieve the maximum feat in a ranking tournament.

Murphy won seven of the next nine frames to establish a 9-7 lead to take into this morning's concluding session, leaving him four frames away from a clash with Neil Robertson or Stephen Maguire in the semi-finals.

Hendry stands to pocket a 157,000 bonus, unless any other player makes a 147 in the next six days, and the tournament sponsors will make a separate 147,000 donation to Sport Relief. But if he goes out in the quarter-finals all the money heading his way will come as scant consolation to the seven-time former world champion.

Hendry has spoken of a strong belief that he can be champion again this year, ten years since he last triumphed at the Crucible. When he surged three frames clear on the back of his maximum break it did look as though the Perthshire cueman had rediscovered the prowess which allowed him to dominate the sport in the 1990s.

He was playing well enough to suggest only one match outcome was possible, but Murphy had other ideas. He reeled off five frames in a row, playing stunning snooker as Hendry's performance wilted.

Balls which would have found the centre of the pocket earlier in the match were wriggling out via the jaws to Hendry's frustration, and Murphy was clinical whenever a chance came his way. He raced through the frame following Hendry's maximum thanks to a break of 73, and when play resumed in the evening session Murphy began with runs of 137, 83, 104 and 80.

In the context of the match situation that sequence arguably was a greater achievement than Hendry's maximum.

However, the run came to an end when the man who once won 29 consecutive World Championship matches pounced for the 13th frame, with a break of 51. Murphy then won the scrappiest of frames to pull 8-6 in front. The earlier fluency had gone, but Hendry did not mind as he cleared from yellow to pink in the next frame to reduce his arrears to 8-7. But Murphy fired in a deadly 82 break in the final frame of the night, putting him in good shape.

Mark Allen will take a 9-7 lead into today's afternoon's concluding session of his match against Ryan Day. Allen edged ahead of his Welsh opponent by taking the final two frames this evening, the last thanks to a break of 64.

The winner of that quarter-final will face either John Higgins or Mark Selby for a place in the final.

Leicester cueman Selby made three centuries and a break of 96 in a high-quality first session of his last-eight clash with Wishaw's Higgins, but had to settle for deadlock at 4-4.

And there was good news for fans of the Crucible theatre in the announcement yesterday that the championship is to remain in Sheffield until 2014.

World Snooker's deal with the Sheffield authorities had been due to expire after the 2010 event, and Chinese officials had been keen to take it to the Far East, but the new agreement maintains a format that has been in place since 1977.

CRUCIBLE 147s

1983: CLIFF THORBURN v Terry Griffiths

1992: JIMMY WHITE v Tony Drago

1995: STEPHEN HENDRY v Jimmy White

1997: RONNIE O'SULLIVAN v Mick Price

2003: RONNIE O'SULLIVAN v Marco Fu

2005: MARK WILLIAMS v Robert Milkins

2008: RONNIE O'SULLIVAN v Mark Williams

2008: ALI CARTER v Peter Ebdon

2009: STEPHEN HENDRY v Shaun Murphy