The current flurry of 147 breaks in the professional ranks shows no signs of abating as first Matthew Stevens and then Ding Junhui added to the collection today at the PTC12 event in Sheffield. Incredibly, this marks the first time that there have been two official maximums recorded on the same day…
EDIT: In fact, this appears to actually be the second time that this is happened as both John Higgins and Stephen Maguire did in fact complete maximums during different tournaments on the 24th March 2000. Thanks to all those who spotted that!
Click here to view my full 147’s page.
The first to achieve the feat today was Welshman Matthew Stevens who compiled his maximum in the final frame of a 4-0 victory against talented amateur Michael Wasley early in the day. For him it marks the first maximum break during his 17-year professional career, though not without a few other near misses, indeed attempts against Ian McCulloch and John Higgins at the Crucible immediately spring to mind.
As if that was not enough however, just hours later there was to be a second 147 of the day as Ding Junhui notched up his third career maximum break during the third frame of his match against Brandon Winstone. Following it up with a break of 133 for good measure, the maximum sees Ding become only the fifth player in history to have made more than two official maximums, joining Ronnie O’Sullivan, Stephen Hendry, John Higgins and James Wattana in that exclusive club.
As a side-note, congratulations are also due to referees Hilde Moens and Ben Williams who in charge of the respective matches in the process officiated their first maximum breaks in professional competition. They follow Brendan Moore and Leo Scullion who both also refereed their first professional maximums recently, compiled by Ricky Walden and Mike Dunn.
Finally for those who have been asking me on Twitter, unfortunately neither breaks are available to watch on YouTube as there has been no live-streaming for this stage of PTC12, most likely as broadcasters Eurosport still have their three contracted days for the event to come in January as originally scheduled.