The Crucible Quiz: Greatest Matches

3rd Place: Judd Trump (25) Shaun Murphy, at the Quarter Finals in 2013

10% of the votes

We're gonna now relive which is the 3rd greatest ever match played at the Crucible - the greatest in the opinion of 10% of Snooker fans.

See how the votes worked by clicking here.

What happened before

Both players was coming very strong to this match, Judd became World Number One in 2012, and Shaun Murphy had a final in one of the last Big Events he had played, as he lost 6-10 to Selby in the UK Championship 2012.

In the championship, Judd never had been in trouble before as he had knocked out Dominic Dale and Marco Fu easily. Murphy beat Gould 10-5 in the first round, but struggled a bit against Graeme Dott in the last 16.

What happened during

Judd Trump got the opener, but he was going to keep a while away from the lead, as Murphy won the next five in a row, storming in breaks of 68, 61 and 82.

Trump wasn't playing good Snooker but he rarely had chances to show if he was or not. Anyway things slightly changed there, as Judd took a scrappy 7th frame by the final black, to stop Murphy's sequence and reducing the deficit to 2-5.

But Murphy was just too good, as he responded with rapid fire breaks of 76 and 91, to get a lead of 7(25)2. Judd Trump finally got nicely when at the table, as a break of 93 - highest of the match at that time -, gave him a confident frame. But there was really no stop to Shaun Murphy as he took the next for a 8(25)3 lead.

Things started to look unchangeable, just a question of time until Murphy get his place in the Semi-Finals. But Judd Trump, a great fighter when behind, find his form and Murphy scored just 46 points in the next five frames, as Judd took a 9-8 lead playing brilliantly safety game and with a top break of 118.

But Murphy didn't looked shocked, they still had a match and the 2005 World Champion leveled with a 128 - highest break of the match.

In frame 19, Judd knocked a 59 in the first visit, but Murphy also needed just one scoring visit as he took the frame by potting the final black to complete a 70 clearance.

But Judd didn't feel this frame as he won the next with a 77 Break, then took the 21st by the black after Murphy's 62 break. Trump had the lead now, 11(25)10.

Murphy won a scrappy 22nd frame, but a Break of 90 couldn't come in better time for Judd as he found himself one away from the Semis, at 12-11 up.

Then a Break of 88 from Murphy in the next, forced a decider in this best of 25 encounter.

Trump had already tried everything but Murphy never went 2 frames behind, Trump always had Murphy touching his back, and could he keep himself up for a decider?

In the decider frame, yellow, brown and green were all near green spot giving the players a nice chance for Snookers and making of this a very tactical frame. But nobody took advantage of this, as things started to go one way when Judd Trump took a small but important lead, taking advantage of 2 snookers in a row behind the blue, located in the bottom left side cushion. Murphy had a couple of unsuccessful chances and then suffered three Snookers in a row in the last red.

Judd potted the yellow to put Murphy needing snookers, and Shaun should play a decent snooker on the green, but surprisingly he went to pot it in the top right corner pocket. It was close, but came out and Judd potted green, brown and then Murphy'd shake his hands.

Trump was thrilled to survive the test of nerve, and said: "I'm happy, I'm really pleased to be into the semi-finals. But it was only one game. It's obviously tough coming from where I was behind.

A lot of people wrote me off but friends, family and management all believed in me. I believed in myself and I'm just really proud to have come back.
At 6-2 yesterday I was playing badly and I had to get out of there. I wasn't cueing the ball well and I was timing the ball very badly.
I went away, had a sleep, and felt like a different person, and felt like i was going to play well.'In the last two sessions I felt very good out there."

What happened after

Judd Trump went on to lose against eventual champion Ronnie O`Sullivan 11-17 in the semis, but still made a good year after that. Then in 2014 Judd won the Australian Open and reached to the final of both Champion of Champions and UK Championship, also losing to Ronnie O`Sullivan in both occasions. 

Shaun Murphy faced dark times, thought of quitting Snooker but came back strong, winning 4 titles in 2014, and making the new record of 3 Maximums in a year, and in 2015 he completed his triple crown winning the prestigious Masters.

Well, just want to say that I loved to comeback at this match, what a classic that was. It's gonna be forever remembered at the Crucible, and this quiz proved it
I'll post the 3rd place of the "Favourite Player' on Monday, February 2.

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