Featured Image Credit: Mike Dunn
Topics: Snooker
Ben McCrum
It is believed that there is only one player in the history of professional snooker that has scored a 155 break and footage of it has emerged online.
For decades sports fans have debated which achievement was more difficult to pull off between a hole in one, a nine darter or a 147 break in snooker.
Overall, most people seem to agree that a 147 break is the most impressive, with someone achieving the maximum break only happening 216 times in professional tournament snooker, Ronnie O'Sullivan scoring the most with 15.
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However, there is evidence of one player taking this impressive task one step further, achieving a highly improbable, but no less impressive, 155 break.
In snooker, players can technically only score a break of anything between 148 and 154, with this being decided based on whether or not the opponent commits a foul before an uninterrupted break is scored.
But, in a very specific set of circumstances, a player can actually rack up an 155 break should there be no direct involvement from their opponent.
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A 155 break can only be achieved due to the free ball rule, which allows a player to nominate a different ball to pot if they are snookered on the object ball following a foul.
As a result, the player would have to nominate and pot the free ball - counting as one point - before potting the black as the colour and then compiling a maximum 147 break.
Although this has never been done in a televised tournament, there is evidence of Thai cueist Thepchaiya Un-Nooh achieving snooker's 'alternative maximum' during a practice match at a local snooker club back in 2021.
You can watch Un-Nooh's break below.
The Thai player, who is currently 43rd in the world rankings, was playing against fellow professional star Hossein Vafaei, who is 24th in the world, and is clearly overjoyed once he realises that the unbelievable break was caught on the club's CCTV camera.
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But, while Un-Nooh is the first player to make a 155 break on camera, other players have been able to achieve the break before.
Staffordshire-born cueist Jamie Cope, is believed to have compiled a 155 break during a witnessed practice match back in 2006 but, unfortunately, the feat wasn't filmed.
Former Wolrd number one Mark Allen also achieved a 155 break during a practice match in 2020, as per snooker.org, but once again it was not on camera.
And the legendary Alex Higgins is also said to have compiled a 155 break, as per various reports, although it is not known exactly where or when this happened.