Following their match yesterday both Jamie Burnett and Stephen Maguire spoke in their press conferences about the betting patterns on their match…
To watch each player answer questions on the subject, please click here to be taken to the Shropshire Star website.
Also to view the missed black, click here to visit the BBC.
Here is a transcript that I have typed up in case the accents prove to be a bit tricky!
Jamie Burnett:
Interviewer: “How do you feel you played Jamie?”
Jamie Burnett: “Erm, I didn’t feel comfortable at all mate to be honest, going into the match I know Stephen pretty well, we’ve practised throughout the years and I know how tough a player he is, so going into the match I wasn’t really in good form, I’ve had a bit of cold for the past two weeks. I was a wee bit lucky to qualify to be honest, I feel a little bit sorry for Jamie Cope now after that performance but I don’t know, I missed a lot of balls, it’s weird, I seem to know what balls I’m going to miss if you know what I mean, it’s crazy, I’m on the shots, I just get a feeling I’m going to miss, I get back up, I say to myself maybe it’s a bit of inexperience at this level but, I struggled all the way through really.”
Interviewer: “Did you miss a lot of balls…”
JB: “Yeah mate yeah, it was weird, I felt really comfortable at the start of the match, at the second session, I actually felt he was there for the taking you know, Stephen missed a couple of balls and I had three or four great chances, you know I flicked the black with my finger to go 5-2 down instead of 4-3, and it was, I could not believe it. I’ve done it in practice a couple of times and thought it was funny but I didn’t think it was something that could ever happen to me in a match it was a bit…I don’t know what to say, I feel as if I’m throwing away matches against the top players, you need to take every chance you get and if you get two chances in one frame against them you know you are lucky, so to get chances like that against one of the top players and to sort of throw the match away is a bit embarrassing to be honest.”
Int: “Had you heard before that there was talk that the result was going to be 9-3…”
JB: “My friend actually phoned me up the other day and said that they took the betting off, I don’t know what the script is, you know what I mean, there have been a few things over the last few years with snooker and matches are going to be this score and that score but that’s got nothing to do with me, I don’t particularly care. It was weird at the start of that last frame I thought to myself I need to try my life off here just in case there was something stupid being said or anything like that and in the last frame there I was doing all my shots and thinking I need to get this, I need to get this in case you know people start talking and it was probably the most pressure I’ve ever been under in my life to be honest, but like I say that’s nothing to do with me, I don’t take anything to do with that at all, I just go out there and play, try to win and if there is something else behind that and if there’s people doing anything that has nothing to do with me then I’m not interested, I just play snooker and that’s it.”
Int: “So just to be crystal clear about this, you had no knowledge whatsoever of any suspicious betting patterns or bets on a 9-3 scoreline ahead of the match?”
JB: “No, no like I say my friend phoned me up the other day and said that they took the betting off and I said alright, ok, no problem, that was it, nothing else said, I’m not interested in anything else like that at all. If anybody has got anything to say about it then I’ll talk to anybody, I don’t have a problem with that.
Int: “But you can perhaps see how eyebrows might be raised, with some of the shots you missed in the closing frames, including the deciding black, you seemed to miss that by quite a margin, it doesn’t help your cause does it frankly?”
JB: “Yeah absolutely not, going into that last frame I felt a lot of pressure, I heard a couple of people saying a couple of things but like I say I’m not interested in that, I don’t care, I play to win all the time, regardless of who I’m playing, what it’s for, the UK final or the first round at the start, I play the same all the time and like I say if anyone has got anything to say to me I don’t care, they know where I am.”
Stephen Maguire:
Int: “A bit of a battle mate?”
Stephen Maguire: “Aye tough game, I knew it was always gonna be a tough game, we know each other’s games inside out, it’s not easy playing somebody from Scotland as usual but 9-3 is a good victory.”
Phil Yates: “Stephen there was a load of speculation beforehand about money on 9-3 and towards the end there from 7-3 to 9-3, frames were extremely weird, would you get any vibe about the match?”
SM: “No, not at all, I heard a little bit of word that there was a lot of money on the match and stuff but it’s nothing, I’m there to play a snooker match, I’m not there to listen to people who bet money, that’s up to them if they want to bet money if they think they’ve got an inkling or something. But last night, for me to come out 6-2 up last night was unbelievable because you know there was a few frames that were very tight and I managed to pinch them just with a couple of forty breaks and then started off well today, it went exactly the same as yesterday. And then the last couple of frames went exactly the same as last night, I just had to kinda plod away and pinch them.”
Int: “Were you surprised Stephen at the amount of balls he missed in the closing stages, even the black right at the last he seemed to miss that by a wide margin and given what has emerged about the betting patterns and the fact that certain bookmakers stopped taking bets on a 9-3 scoreline, it made eyebrows raise more than they would ordinarily raise if you catch my drift.”
SM: “Well I don’t know if you have ever been involved in a snooker match but when you are 8-3 down in front of millions of people it’s not the nicest feeling and I could see that in his face, there was no way he was going to win the match from then, I can tell, I’ve been in that situation, I just wanted out of the arena. Surprised that he missed the black but it was a thin cut and the way he played the blue and the pink he was playing quick, as if maybe it was if they go in, they go in, if it goes 8-4 then I’d have probably pinched the last frame anyway but I’m just glad to get over the line.”
I would be surprised if there is any wrongdoing involved here, but hopefully there will be a thorough investigation into the match in any case because not to do so would severely undermine the credibility of the sport.
More news as we get it…