Mark Selby

One four heaven

Thu Jun 11 03:42PM

Last weekend I was in China for the Jiangsu Classic and while the tournament didn't go to plan I did finally manage to get the first 147 of my career.

I'm really happy to get that monkey off my back because I've made so many in practice over the years but have never been able to produce one in tournament play.

I would have done better financially out of the break if I did it somewhere else though. For the maximum I was awarded the high break prize of £1,000 but would probably have got at least triple that if I had produced it somewhere else. In fact, if I did it at the Crucible it would have been worth £147,000 but maybe that is something I can manage in the future.

Hopefully, it will now get easier to produce another maximum given that I have experienced the pressure that goes with potting a 147.

I was of course nervous near the end of the break but not actually as tense as I thought I would be in that situation.

Obviously when you get to those final few balls the pockets start to tighten up but at the same time there was a feeling running through me that told me I wasn't going to miss anything.

Usually you don't think about a 147 until the frame is safe but the Jiangsu Classic is a very cut throat tournament where you play best-of-three matches and by the time I played Joe Perry I think we both knew we were likely to be knocked out of the tournament no matter what the result.

Therefore I was thinking about the maximum early doors, probably when I had around 30 points on the board.

The balls opened up quite nice for it. I had to play one shot around the table with two reds left to get back on the black and the yellow was very tricky too as again I had to go around the table to get on the green.

Other than that though, it was more or less straightforward and it was a great feeling to pot that final black.

The event took place in Wuxi City which is about 45 minutes from where Ding Junhui is from so they are big into their snooker there.

It is only when you visit places like that that you realise how big China is. You expect it from Beijing and Shanghai but the size of the other cities can take you by surprise.

I don't know what the population of Wuxi City is but it is a massive place. It was also very picturesque around our hotel too and we got a nice tour around the area the day before the tournament.

+++

I see the Australian cricket team have been complaining that they have to spend the next couple of weeks in my hometown of Leicester.

I think Ricky Ponting is upset because the last time they were there one of the players had their wallet nicked from the locker room or something but I think it has improved a bit since then.

Maybe they could kill some time by playing a game of snooker in one of the clubs in town? Although they probably wouldn't want to play at my club - it is a little out of town.

Log on to eurosport.yahoo.co.uk on Friday when Mark answers questions set by you the readers and where you will also get another chance to ask something.

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