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Ben Harrison 147 at Northern Snooker Centre, Leeds, 11/02/12

Postby Roland

To set the scene: Ben had just finished playing his group matches in the Paul Hunter Open and qualified for the final stages to be held in late March. He was hitting the ball beautifully and in his last match broke down on 72 when going for a 147 (which at one stage contained a silly plant to keep it going). He finished off with a 113 "clearance" (hammered the black for 120 as you do).

So after the obligatory McDonalds, myself, Ben and his friend Ashley hired a table for a few practice games. Right from the off Ben stated his intentions of getting a 147, and it was a mission for me and Ashley to get that first red down to try and stop him, which we did for the first few frames much to Ben's annoyance. :D

Then in one frame he broke off and left me 1mm from the baulk cushion. I told him he'd overhit the shot because the white bounced. In effort to thwart a 147 attempt I went for the "dump shot, Cliff Thorburn etc etc" to stick a red in baulk. I dogged it and got the double kiss something like this leaving Ben an easy red to get on the black.

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Early on in the break Ben left this red on purpose (obviously all the other reds are approximate), I thought he must be playing for blue before he played the shot:
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He went into the reds on about 40 and the pink went up the table past the middle pocket. Ben was clearly annoyed, I was amused; still over 100 to get, plus he's not good on the next red and how's he going to get on the next black cueing down over other reds? Like this at pace:

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Fast forward about 2 minutes and suddenly he's on 97 with 2 reds to develop (this was following a succession of precision positional shots, picking off the previous two reds with no margin for error). At this point he was giving every shot due care.
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But he was too straight on the 15th black and chose to leave a difficult yellow:
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Which he duely nailed...
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...but landed awkward on the green. I looked at Ashley, he looked at me and shook his head - "Left-handed?" Yep, left-handed green to yellow pocket and perfectly on brown.
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Then on the blue Ben was still working out how to play the pink. He was about 1cm off dead straight:
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I had a walk around the table but couldn't see how best to play it, and I didn't want to put him off. It was quite funny with adjacent tables in play oblivious to the 147 attempt. Anyway, Ben hard stunned the blue which the pocket nearly spat back onto the table, but thankfully it stayed down:
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Myself and Ashley were sitting in line with the pink, both willing Ben on. I thought he was taking it to middle but instead he nailed it to the corner. Great shot, both of us knew it was home before it was half way to the pocket.
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The black wasn't the easiest, but it was duely potted. My first ever live 147 and to make it even more special, I was the opponent. <cool>

Ben, come on here and take a bow son.

Re: Ben Harrison 147 at Northern Snooker Centre, Leeds, 11/0

Postby Roland

yeah phone filming - "so what were you doing when you witnessed your first live 147?" me: "I was stood like a lemon holding an electronic device whilst staring into a small screen trying to keep my hand steady so as not to waste the moment to savour later instead of savouring as it happened"

:redneck:


I fielded a 147 <cool>

Was thinking on 120 "That's pretty cool, I've had someone get 15 reds and 15 blacks against me". Awesome colour clearance at the end of it. :bowdown:

Re: Ben Harrison 147 at Northern Snooker Centre, Leeds, 11/0

Postby Roland

It makes me all the more happy for that to be my first witnessed 147. It was on a Riley, not one of the match tables if you get my meaning! Nice big pockets but all 36 shots went in clean as a whistle. Well, one black wiped its feet but was played with a lot of side so was always going to drop.

Re: Ben Harrison 147 at Northern Snooker Centre, Leeds, 11/0

Postby Roland

He got a 128 in the next frame by the way.

NSC is a really nice club. It's stylishly laid out with a "Deep South" American feel, paintings of famous snooker people all over. I don't know how many tables there are but we were on table 28 so that gives an indication. The main match table is in a pit with paintings of World Champions looking down, and there are tables and chairs looking down onto the main table adjacent to other match tables and some US pool tables. I think there are more tables upstairs but I've not been up to have a look.

I'll probably go down and watch Ben in the knockout stages so I'll take a few photos. You can get an idea from this (which I took slightly tongue in cheek afterwards)

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Re: Ben Harrison 147 at Northern Snooker Centre, Leeds, 11/0

Postby Witz78

just saw these pearls of wisdon Twitter

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@BenHarrison147 u are the worst snooker player ever willie Thorne would beat u now !! top 16 jog on


haha good old dazzla20 is obviously worried Sonnys trying to take over his mantle as most hated man on Twitter