Snooker: Single-minded Murphy is hurt by double standards
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Your support makes all the difference.With John Higgins enjoying a day's respite prior to attempting today to convert his 36th appearance in a ranking final into his 22nd title, the second semi-final of the UK Championship here saw Mark Williams, seeking his third UK title eight years after his second, take a 5-3 interval lead over Shaun Murphy.
Earlier in the week, Williams described his win over Stephen Hendry as "the worst I've ever played as a professional" but managed to raise his game when it was most needed to end the giantkilling run of Mark Joyce, the world No 60, 9-7 in the quarter-finals.
Yesterday, Williams performed rather better and Murphy rather worse than he did in eliminat-ing Neil Robertson, the worldchampion, in the last eight. Out of the blue, Murphy won the 2005 world title as a 150-1 qualifier but, following his triumph at theCrucible, sank back somewhat unobtrusively into a group of leading players until he won the UK title here two years ago.
Some of the gloss was taken off his capture of the 2009 Premier League title by Ronnie O'Sullivan's admission that he had competed in the Norwich Half Marathon on the morning of the final – "to test myselfphysically ad mentally" – and hehas become the most forthrightcritic of behaviour he considers inappropriate for a player ofO'Sullivan's standing.
"Pathetic and unprofessional" was Murphy's assessment of O'Sullivan at first declining to pot the last black to complete a 147 in September's World Open until the referee persuaded him to do so. "It was disrespectful to the peoplewho had paid to watch him play,"he said.
Murphy is not the only player who believes that the circuit revolves around O'Sullivan to an unacceptable degree, although he cannot reasonably complain that he played in front of a handful of spectators this week while the other side of the arena was packed to see O'Sullivan, who remains the game's top box-office attraction.
More legitimately, Murphy criticises O'Sullivan and other leading players who have not supported the new Players Tour Championship. Murphy has played in all 12 of the minor ranking events the PTC comprises, topping its order of merit, while O'Sullivan withdrew from 10, some without prior notice, an omission likely to lead to disciplinary action.
Barry Hearn, the chairman and majority shareholder of World Snooker, is particularly keen for top players to support PTC events in Europe, a project in which, he says, "we're all in this together". "David Cameron says that and it's true," said Murphy, a committee member at his local Conservative club. "In snooker it's about time some of the people who can row do some of the rowing."
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