Murphy becomes Premier League Champion for first time - 29/11/2009

RONNIE O'SULLIVAN 3-7 SHAUN MURPHY
O'Sullivan's scores first
9-119 (Murphy 111), 36-87 (O'Sullivan 35, Murphy 38, 32), 11-100 (Murphy 40, 31), 65-51 (O'Sullivan 34), 88-0 (O'Sullivan 88), 67-61 (O'Sullivan 49, Murphy 34), 27-75 (Murphy 33), 3-126 (Murphy 47, 75), 0-63 (Murphy 63), 67-75 (O'Sullivan 67, Murphy 67).

SHAUN Murphy has won the PartyCasino.com Premier League Snooker competition for the first time in his career. Murphy claimed the trophy with a 7-3 victory over defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan in front of a capacity crowd at the Potters Leisure Resort in Hopton-on-Sea, Norfolk.

Murphy raced into a 3-0 lead but O'Sullivan won the next three frames to go in at 3-3 at the interval but Murphy clinched four successive frames to take the title.

"It feels amazing," said a delighted Murphy, who earns £51,000 for his success and ends O'Sullivan's hopes of winning the tournament for the sixth successive year. "It would have been a great achievement for Ronnie to win it six years in a row and he deserves a lot of credit to win it five years in a row. After losing a 3-0 lead I was about to go into panic mode had it not been for my manager Brandon who said the right things to me and I might've twitched up had it not been for that. To go 3-0 up against Ronnie is almost the position you don't want to be in as you know he will hunt you down."

A downbeat O'Sullivan added: "I'm disappointed but Shaun was strong, scored very well and looked confident around the table so he deserved to win.

"It goes to show that the 25-second shot-clock doesn't mean much if you're not feeling well or confident in your own game."

Murphy's victory completes a remarkable turnaround as he had started his league campaign with two defeats, was bottom of the table for a number of weeks and only scraped into the semi-finals by winning one more frame than Stephen Hendry.

O'Sullivan made a bad start as he lost the opening frame. O'Sullivan missed a long red with his first shot of the match before Murphy went into the pack but missed a red. However, it did not prove costly as O'Sullivan missed a black off the spot and Murphy made him pay with a break of 111.

Murphy doubled his advantage by taking the second but had a good piece of fortune in doing so. He made 38 before he missed a short range red into the middle pocket but O'Sullivan was unlucky as he potted a black, cannoned into the pack but then watched a red disappear into the middle pocket. Murphy then made 32 to wrap up the frame but O'Sullivan, who had only potted four balls so far, wanted to get some practise time and compiled a rapid 35 but still trailed 2-0.

It became 3-0 with Murphy claiming the third and O'Sullivan, at this stage, was struggling. Murphy moved 40 ahead before O'Sullivan had another bad slice of luck. His safety saw a red clip the blue and the red ended up over the pocket and Murphy did the rest from there.

The fourth frame was a scrappy affair as both men made mistakes. Murphy led by 20 but went in-off and a break of 34 gave O'Sullivan the advantage. He looked to have the frame in the bag but potted the green and watched in horror as the cue ball followed it into the pocket. If Murphy cleared up the rest of the colours then we would have had a respotted black ball finish. But Murphy faultered on the black and O'Sullivan finally got off the mark to win the frame 65-51.

That frame may have proved to be a turning point in the match. O'Sullivan suddenly seemed to have rediscovered his form and a break of 88 in only six and half minutes pulled the score back to 3-2.

O'Sullivan ensured the match would be tied at 3-3 for the mid-way interval as he edged a tight sixth frame. Murphy looked to be heading into the break with a 4-2 lead when he was ahead by 43 points before missing the decisive red. But O'Sullivan recovered with a series of stunning shots, including a pot on the green which saw the cue ball bounce off three cushions to gain perfect position on the brown, a shot described by commentator Phil Yates as the best shot of the whole competition.

Both players were not at their best but Murphy moved in front again by taking the seventh frame. The highest break of the frame was Murphy's score of 33, although he kept doing enough to slowly move the score along before two fouls from O'Sullivan led to Murphy regaining the lead at 4-3.

Murphy produced some of his best snooker of the final in the eighth frame as scores of 47 and 75 after O'Sullivan had gone in-off took the score to 5-3 in his favour, only two away from claiming the title.

Murphy rattled in a break of 63 to regain his three-frame advantage. O'Sullivan's hard work to pull back from a three-frame deficit seems to be in vain as he now faced a similar situation. But it would need a sensational recovery as Murphy was one away from winning the trophy.

O'Sullivan looked like winning the tenth frame as he scored 67. But there was still 67 on the table. But the decisive moment came when O'Sullivan fouled twice and then left a chance on a red. Murphy did the rest to win the competition.