5 REMARKABLE MISSES IN SNOOKER HISTORY

If you're a snooker player I'm sure this is a terrible topic! We don't mind a missed shot when it's our opponent, but mistakes can be so difficult to take and can make you suffer for months, even years!

The best players in the world are subject to that too, of course, and some of their mistakes are forever engraved in sport's history. Here are the five most remarkable mistakes in snooker history (no order there - I just couldn't rank them!):


Ken Doherty's black for a 147 in the 2000 Masters final.

This was definitely a day that the 1998 World Champion would like to forget. Doherty was losing 9-5, but scored 140 points in frame fifteen before missing a routine black for what would've been his first career maximum break, and also the first 147 ever made in a Triple Crown final.

Doherty made his first and only career 147 only 12 years later, and the first - and so far the only - 147 in a Triple Crown final happened in 2015. Click here to watch.


Ronnie O'Sullivan's pink over the pocket in the 2014 World Championship final.

This miss just can't be forgotten. Ronnie had lost six of the seven frames prior to an 11-11 scoreline. But a chance in frame 23 might've put him back on track if he had not missed a pink over the pocket. It's really a shot hard to explain, since Ronnie hit the pink with a lot of power even though he didn't need the black. Referee Brendan Moore in the background can be seen taking his glove off before the miss and commentator Willie Thorne says "why so hard I ask myself" after the shock. The session (short of frames because it had been going for too long) ended with Selby up 12-11 and from there on the final was all Selby's. Click here to watch.


Steve Davis black ball final in the 1985 World Championship.

The most famous match ever, not a lot more to say about it. Dennis Taylor's shot after Steve Davis overcut a reasonably simple black to the corner pocket gave him his one and only World Title. Davis, who had won three before that and went on to win another three after, still says it hurts him to this day. Click here to watch.



Steven Hendry re-spotted black in the 1998 Masters final.

The 90's were Hendry's decade. But his era had its downs as well as its ups. One of these downs is his worst ever missed shot. 

Actually, I think technically it's the hardest shot in this list with the white tight to the cushion playing a dead straight black softly into the middle pocket. The fact that it was a decider which Mark Williams had forced after being 6-9 down, and the black had been re-spotted, didn't help. Williams of course, potted the black and completed the comeback. Click here to watch.


Jimmy White black off its spot in the 1994 World Championship final.

This one hurts not just Jimmy I suppose, but every snooker fan that believes he deserved a world title for his talent. In his sixth World Final - fifth consecutive -, White went all the way to a decider against Stephen Hendry, who had already beaten him in three finals, including the previous two years'. 

He had a great chance in the decider to finally write his name on the trophy, balls were set as practice, but it was just not meant to be - and everyone realised that when Jimmy missed a black off its spot. Being the killer that he was, Hendry cleared up and all Jimmy had to say was the iconic sentence "he's beginning to annoy me". Too bad it was the ending instead, as White never managed to reach that far at the Crucible again. Click here to watch.


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