So, it's time to cast our minds back to an unbelievable day at the York Barbican:
Shaun Murphy Vs Ali Carter
Shaun Murphy had the first chance of the semi-final after a missed long pot from Carter left Murphy a red to the yellow pocket, which he played well. A good recovery red took the break to 18 after trying to split the reds. However, he broke down on 34 after missing the blue when opening the reds, which left Ali a chance, but the mistake didn’t cost Shaun as Carter missed a red to the yellow pocket. This gave Murphy another chance, but he missed a red along near the cushion on 8. A poor shot out of a snooker from Shaun, left Carter in with a good chance to cancel out Shaun’s lead at the very least. He missed a red with the rest on 26, and left another red over the corner for Murphy, but he went in-off on the yellow with his lead now 8. A nice long pot from Carter got him back in with a frame winning opportunity and some good shots on the last red and then the following brown to get on the yellow made it a golden opportunity, and a good break of 27 left Murphy needing a snooker to tie on the pink, but he couldn’t get it and Carter took the 1-0 lead. A cracking long red got Murphy going in the second frame, and a good screw off of the pack from another red made it a golden early chance to level the match straight away, but he ran out of position on 16 and missed a long red to keep the break going. Carter then played a good red to get in himself, and a fantastic split of the reds early on in his break gave him an even better opening to double his lead. He converted that opening as a break of 77 put Ali Carter 2-0 ahead. A poor early safety left Murphy a good chance in the third, with the reds nicely spread fairly early in the break it was already a fantastic chance to get his first frame on the board. The break ended on 42 though when Murphy ran out of position and had to play safe. A poor safety shortly after from Shaun, left Carter with a magnificent chance to steal a frame that Murphy looked to have control of. A good split on the last 2 reds, made it an even better chance as Carter already had a 10 point lead. He had to play safe on the last red though after knocking it safe, and Carter had a 17 point lead. A superb pot on the last red from Murphy though, gave him the chance to steal after Carter had full control of the frame, and made a nice 27 to get his first frame on the board at 1-2. Another brilliant long red from Murphy gave him the first chance in the fourth frame, and once he took the break to 28 with a good split of the reds from the black it was an excellent opportunity to square the match. That was exactly what he did with an excellent break of 86 to make it 2-2.
Ali had the first chance after the mid-session break after a
good pot to the middle gave him the chance, but he could only make 17 before
running out of position. He soon had another chance though after Shaun Murphy
played a poor safety shot to leave Carter an easy long red. He made a nice
break of 40 to leave him 65 ahead with 75 on before deciding to play safe when
he had a couple of tough reds on. Ali then knocked in a nice long red after a
foul from Murphy which left Shaun needing snookers. Shaun couldn’t get the
snookers though and Carter went 3-2 in front. A good early red gave Shaun
Murphy the first chance of the sixth frame, and he then opened the black up,
but Shaun didn’t play the best possible split which meant that the break ended
on 22. Ali Carter than had a pretty unbelievable fluke after he missed a red
into the middle, which gave him a great chance to go 2 frames clear again. He
took advantage of his good fortune though as he went 4-2 up with a 101
clearance, ensuring that he wouldn’t be trailing going into the evening
session. Murphy needed to respond and he started off with a superb long red
once again to get in again, and a well cut red recovered things to take him
onto 7. He went on to make 34 before having to play safe, and he then potted
another extraordinary long red only mounted to 1 as he didn’t land on a colour
and had to play a snooker. Murphy’s next chance came from Ali’s attempted
escape which left Shaun in again with a golden chance to close the gap to a
single frame. A break of 49 ensured it as Murphy signalled his attack and made
it 3-4. The last frame as incredibly tense and scrappy with both players having
chances but with the colours not ideally placed, their early breaks weren’t
amounting to much. Ali Carter then had the ultimate fluke already with a 15
point lead, to fluke a red and then get perfectly on the black in baulk. Carter
made 34 from it before missing an attempted double, which would have been frame
ball with a lead of 49 with only 51 on. Murphy then missed a red which bounced
off of the table, leaving him needing snookers, but he didn’t get a chance to
play for them as The Captain potted the penultimate red with the black to seal
his 5-3 end of session lead.
Shaun Murphy started the final session off with another
terrific long red to get on the black. Murphy looked good early on but didn’t
have the best split of the reds, and a poor positional shot soon after left
Shaun a tough red which he missed and left in the jaws for Ali to have a golden
chance of his own to go three frames in front. Some good recovery blacks into
the corner and then the middle pocket soon had Carter back in good position,
following some loose shot, but a counter attacking break of 79 was enough for
Ali to extend his lead once more to 6-3. Murphy had the first chance of the
tenth frame after potting a red over the pocket before missing a long blue,
which gave Carter another good opportunity to score. Once he’d got the black
back on its spot it was a great frame winning chance for Ali. In the end,
Carter couldn’t get in good position to open the reds and had to play safe on
51 with a 50 point lead. Shaun Murphy gave himself a good chance after a nice
long pot got him in, and with the reds and the colours all well placed a break
of 59 from Shaun pulled the score back to 4-6.
Ali Carter knocked in a top draw red to get in first in the eleventh
frame and once he had the reds open from the next shot it was already a golden
opening for him to restore his 3 frame lead. That was exactly what he did,
bouncing back with a brilliant break of 80 to go 7-4 ahead now. Shaun Murphy missed a really tough long pot
early in frame twelve under some pressure to pot it, because having not done so
he left The Captain an early chance to fly away with the frame. A kick ruined
his position though and he was forced to play safe on 16. After Shaun made a
long pot and went straight in-off to leave Carter with the balls at his mercy
to move 4 frames ahead. Carter made a nice break of 40 before he missed a tough
cut on a red leading by 60 with 75 on. Murphy was in big trouble with a safety
shot though, and left Carter an easy red to get on the black, which left Murphy
needing a snooker. Shaun couldn’t get them though and Ali Carter went off to
the mid-session break with an 8-4 advantage, 1 frame from going into the UK
Championship final.
The Magician really needed to weave his magic to get out of
this one with a victory, and he started to get his magic wand out producing a
good long red to get in in the thirteenth frame, and he converted the chance
that he got with a top draw break of 76 with some brilliant pressure shots
included making it 5-8. After Carter put a red over the corner early in the
next, Shaun had another good opportunity to make a big contribution and make
Ali Carter sweat in his seat. Murphy made 49 before missing a tricky red.
Carter then got in with a good red to get on the black which was on the brown
spot, giving him his first chance of any kind to try and win the match, but he
missed a red when he was close to the cushion to give Murphy another chance to
keep the comeback dreams alive. However, he then went in-off from the black to
open the frame up again, with Shaun 35 ahead with 6 reds left. An absolute
bullet of a long red got Shaun back in again, but he only made 6 before missing
a tough red, which gave Carter another chance to try and close the gap in the
frame at least, but Carter soon ran out of position. A missed long red from
Carter, left a long red for Shaun which he nailed once again, and a well cut
red along the cushion left Carter in a position where he could only tie the
frame and another good long cut this time gave Shaun the frame this time and
reduced the gap to 2 at 6-8. Another brilliant long pot got Shaun in again at
the start of the fifteenth, and a brilliant shot to screw through the reds from
a red made it into a golden scoring opportunity very early on in the break.
Score is exactly what he did as another superb 105 closed the gap to just a
single frame now at 7-8. A poor safety from Carter in the next frame left
Murphy an easy starter, and a good early split of the reds again made it into a
fantastic opening at a very early stage of the break and once Murphy had got to
36 all of the reds were nicely spread for The Magician to force a decider. A fantastic recovery red to the
middle took the break onto 63 and the following black took him over the winning
line in the frame, and in the end a break of 78 was enough for Shaun Murphy to
force a decider and make it 8-8.
A great long pot from Carter this time gave him the first
chance in the decider, and a good split of the pack from the blue took him to
21 and put him in a decent position to try and win the match in a single visit.
However, he missed a fairly simple red with the rest on 32 and all of a sudden
Shaun had his chance in the decider, and a fantastic red to the yellow pocket
recovered position and took the break to 17, and another good cut to the left
corner took it on to 25. However, a bad shot on 39 ended the break prematurely
as Murphy couldn’t get on a colour so he was forced to play safe with a 7 point
lead. A top safety from Shaun Murphy had Ali Carter in all sorts of trouble
soon after and Carter tried and missed a long pot trying to pot his way out of
it. This left a fairly tricky red to the middle for Shaun but he had no
problems and was in again with a brilliant chance to seal the match. Shaun
cleared up to and including the blue to complete the comeback winning the match
9-8 and going through to the UK Championship final. What a superb display of
snooker from both players, and a brilliant comeback from Shaun Murphy.
This is what Shaun Murphy had to say to me when looking back on this incredible contest a few weeks ago:
This match was always going to be slightly more difficult
than a usual semi as Ali and i are good mates off the table and that always
changes things and not least because we were playing for a place in the final
of the second biggest tournament in our game.
I remember playing ok to start with but never really got
into the game if that makes sense. Sometimes in snooker it can feel like you're
there purely so your opponent has someone to play against and that’s how it
felt to me. Ali played really good stuff and after the first session and a bit
found himself 8-4 up in a race to 9. Obviously at that point i had nowhere
really to go but forward and decided in my chair whilst the referee was re
racking the balls that i was going to try to attack my way out of trouble. I
hadn't really considered losing either at that point which sounds a bit odd but
i knew i had been playing well and my belief was high.
So i just kept playing the right shots as i saw them and
luckily for me, they all went in. For the next 5 frames everything i looked at
went right. It was just one of those run of frames that doesn't happen all the
time, but when it does, special things tend to happen. I still look back at the
video of that game and it inspires me to never give up even when things look
bleak, it’s never over till it’s over.
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