Key events
Selby 8-11 Brecel Luca misses a pink to left corner but it doesn’t matter, the frame is over. He might’ve begun to wonder overnight, having lost a big lead against perhaps the best match-player in the world, but he’s returned cueing beautifully.
Selby 8-10 Brecel (0-57) Mark pinks white to bottom cushion but Luca isn’t arsed, clipping a long one to right corner, and this looks like another to him. What a start this’d be.
Selby 8-10 Brecel (0-44) What would you wear if you were a snooker player? I don’t think I could manage that girl guide neck-thing Luca has, nor Si Jiahui’s beige syoot, and definitely not Judd Trump’s shoes or Shaun Murphy’s trouser. Anyhow, Luca flukes a red but having returned to baulk is on nowt so sticks the green safe.
Selby 8-10 Brecel (0-43) Mark steers a long red towards right corner but catches the near jaw and gets close but not close enough; so close he leaves a starter for Luca. Very quickly, and thanks in large part to a delicate black to left corner, he’s properly in the balls. He seems impervious to nervousness at the moment, and if he gets a favourable split when splatting the pack, the frame will be at his mercy. And he goes at it as I type that, hitting the wrong red, the power at which he played the shot offering him difficult options but options nevertheless. So he drains to right-centre, playing with pace because there’s a red nearby that he doesn’t want to leave, but after a brown is half a roll short of position on the next ball. Reprieve for Mark, who’s now stuck on the baulk rail.
Selby 8-10 Brecel A run of 113 and consider the smack well and truly laid down. Luca is into the session and looks totally chill – the word chilled has been retired, the Guardian understands – out there. Two weeks ago, he’d never won a t match at the Cruce.
“It’s 51 years since the last man stepped off the moon and 40 years since the first 147 at the Crucible,” advises Roger Kirkby, “and yet, more men have stepped on the moon than have made a 147 at the home of snooker. That’s how hard it is to accomplish the feat.”
And then there’s Shaun Murphy, in the studio, who’s made a 147, chucked a nine-darter and hit a hole in one.
Selby 8-9 Brecel (24-88) Luca’s technique is so easy, and he eliminates balls until he needs a delicate cut-back black for the frame … sinking it easily into right corner before fluking the final black. A century to accompany the frame looks imminent.
Selby 8-9 Brecel (24-46) Swerving into what’s left of the cluster, Luca doesn’t get much in return, but a red eased to blind left-middle maintains the run and he’s just about top-side of the blue which allows him back up the business end. This looks a lot like 10-8, and is a message to Mark that last night’s comeback hasn’t deterred him.
Selby 8-9 Brecel (24-16) Mark – yes it’s first-name terms because these are our friends – leaves Luca with a tricky safety shot to play and he can’t get the white safe, leaving claret all over; chance. But have a look! He misses a red to left corner, leaves it near the jaw, and Luca gets himself away then strokes down a tricky black. He needs a good start, and as a red is sent long to the yellow bag, he looks there for it…
A word for Brendan Moore, who’s reffing his final snooker match after 18 years on the tour. A gentleman of the game, and I’m fairly sure he’ll be feeling emotional as this epic accelerates to a close.
The boyz: baized. And off we go!
Email! “Out of interest are you watching on BBC or Eurosport?” asks Darrien Bold. “My wife and I tend to switch between the 2 depending on:
This is a good question. At the moment, I’m on BBC through force of habit, but we’ll see ow we get on. I’ve got to confess Murphy has grown on me in recent times and I really enjoyed him and Kyren Wilson in comms together; love Hazel but think Radzi is sound and improving; agree on Angles.
“If I can just cut out the little mistakes I’ll definitely win,” Luca tells BBC – problem being “little mistakes” is sort of his thing. Balls you can’t believe he can pot, balls you can’t believe he hasn’t potted. I sort of feel like he’s missed his chance, but if he gets a good start this afternoon, you never know.
In other world championship news, check the elation and despondence here.
We’re in the Cruce with Hazel who’s such a good broadcaster, and one upon whom I’m certain we can rely to extract tears from both winner and loser at the end.
Ahh man this does my heart good. Look at his little face!
Eurosport call:
This is lovely. I love Mark Selby.
Preamble
Growing up in the 80s and 90s, life was simple: Steve Davis was the best at snooker and Eric Bristow was the best at darts, then Stephen Hendry was the best at snooker and Phil Taylor was the best at darts. Which meant that, despite the occasional interloper – your Joe Johnsons and your John Parrotts, your Keith Dellers and your John Lowes – we could absorb into world championships secure in the knowledge that whoever won won because they were the best player in the world. It gave us a sense of enormous well-being.
Now, though, things are very different. Because there are too many players who are too good, the world champion is whoever happens to hit world championship-winning form when it’s world championship time – which brings with it good and bad aspects. The old way gives a sense that what we’re watching really matters in the cosmic scheme of things because by anointing the best, it tells us an important fact about the world, and dominant champions drive interest in sport, people tuning in to see if someone can turn them over. But, on the other hand, because standards nowadays are so uniformly high, the field comprises numerous potential winners which invests every contest with significance and teases the prospect of new champions experiencing the greatest moment of their life or old champions either feart their time was over or that this might be the last time.
Which brings us to Luca Brecel and Mark Selby. I’ll level with you: I didn’t think Luca was ready for this. We’ve known for years that he’s a blazingly unique talent, but I wasn’t convinced he had the B-game to hang with the best over the stretch, or the meticulousness to pot enough of the balls he should. Real talk, I still don’t. But incredibly, Ronnie O’Sullivan – who barely ever misses an easy pot and who almost always makes you play well to beat him – collapsed with the line in sight, playing Luca onto a streak, after which a further streak was good enough, just, to see him by Si Jiahui. So now he sits one last streak away from winning the big one, experiencing a moment he’s waited for all his life and striking a blow for thirsty and easily-distracted geniuses everywhere.
Problem for him is he’s playing Mark, and what a total joy it is to see him at a snooker table, in love with the contest. An obviously top bloke, he overcame difficulties in childhood – his mum abandoned him when he was eight then his dad died of cancer when he was 16 – to become quadruple world champion, but recently took a break from the tour, finally addressing the depression that had dogged him for years. So now, he’s back in a good place, a winner even if he loses here – and he’ll know that, but he sure as hell won’t be thinking it.
All of which is to say none of us have the slightest clue what’s going to happen next. Will Luca take a legacy-founding first title, or can Mark nab a fifth? This is going to be intense.
Overnight score: Brecel 9-8 Selby
Play: 1pm-ish BST
