<img src="https://sb.scorecardresearch.com/p?c1=2&amp;c2=6035250&amp;cv=2.0&amp;cj=1&amp;cs_ucfr=0&amp;comscorekw=Snooker%2CSport%2CWorld+Snooker+Championship+2005"> Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to navigation

Murphy halts Ebdon flow

This article is more than 18 years old

SHAUN MURPHY CONTINUED his journey from Captain Cod's fish-and-chip shop at a holiday camp in north Wales towards the Champagne and caviar of the winner's party at the snooker World Championship. He reached the final by beating Peter Ebdon 17-12.

Going into the concluding session at 12-12, Ebdon's overwhelmingly greater experience was thought a huge plus but Murphy, ignoring what he stood to achieve and cueing with the utmost confidence, reeled off five consecutive frames with a performance his victim described as 'awesome'.

There was no stopping Murphy after he secured the first frame of the day with a 62 break launched by an outrageous fluke. Further runs of 47, 72, 60 and 123 - his fourth century of the match and eighth of the championship followed - as Murphy succeeded where Ronnie O'Sullivan failed in the quarter-finals by breaking Ebdon's spirit.

It was reminiscent of Joe Johnson, another 150-1 outsider, who happened to produce the best form of his career when winning the championship in 1986. Johnson coached Murphy for a while last year and it would appear that Ordinary Joe's magic has rubbed off.

As a non-member of the sport's elite top 16 - Murphy, a previously underachieving world number 48, was required to qualify for the Crucible, and every other event on the snooker calendar. This requires many a night at an out of season Pontin's in Prestatyn.

Asked to describe the venue for hundreds of preliminary matches each year, where one man and his dog are considered a reasonable crowd, Tony Drago once said: 'Prestatyn is the kind of place you could kill someone, bury them, and no one would know.'

Actual playing conditions cannot be faulted at the camp that was the location for the 1970s comedy film Holiday on the Buses , but slogging it out with dozens of like-minded, similarly skilled young men hoping for a big break in both senses is not a holiday. Psychologically it can be hellish, and the mentally brittle soon perish.

Despite his immense ability, and even greater self-belief, there have been many occasions in recent years when Murphy has descended the stairs from the eight-table snooker arena at Pontin's following a painful defeat, walked past the sign for Captain Croc's Adventure Land, maybe bumped into children's entertainer Zena the Hyena and returned to square one.

Murphy, attempting to become the first qualifier to lift the trophy since Terry Griffiths in 1979, came close to missing out on a trip to the relative Utopia provided by a provincial theatre where 970 spectators and millions of television viewers watch your progress, rather than a confused camper who has taken the wrong turn en route to the Queen Vic Bar. Pressed hard by Joe Swail, he was relieved to win their final qualifying round encounter 10-8 but, passport stamped to better things, he has excelled.

'What Shaun's shown is big-match temperament. Some players revel in being centre stage but some become so accustomed to potting balls in those grey-walled cubicles at Pontin's they can't do the business anywhere else. What he's done is an inspiration to all the lads lower down the pecking order,' said John Parrott. Meanwhile, Ian McCulloch, another Prestatyn regular, went into the closing session of the other semi-final against Matthew Stevens locked together at 12-12 and sensing that another shock result in the same mould as his 13-12 win over Mark Williams in the last 16 was a distinct possibility.

Whatever the outcome, one thing was certain, the championship will reach its conclusion as scheduled tomorrow evening, unlike its unfashionable billiards equivalent staged at Pontin's - where else - in March. That event had to be cut short by a day, at a moment's notice, when the camp was double-booked .

Most viewed

Most viewed