Neil Robertson is Australian, he knows cool but in that moment on Monday night he completely lost it. When the last black ball of the 18th frame fell into the pocket, Robertson stretched his arms up – and didn’t want to put them down. For seconds he strutted around the table, the spectators in Crucible Theatre got up and hooted loudly. Robertson put on a grin that hand-measured should have stretched from Sheffield home to Melbourne and back again.
Robertson, 40, had previously put on a rare spectacle at the table: a maximum break, the supreme art in snooker, which consists of potting the 21 balls in a prescribed order to earn the maximum possible number of points (excluding foul points): The red ball 15 times, always black in between, and finally the six colors – makes 147 points. Even rarer, by the way, when a player succeeds in doing so at the World Cup: Robertson is only the eighth player since 1977 at the World Cup in Crucible a maximum has been achieved.
Understandably, Robertson later spoke of a “magical moment”. It is the goal in life of every snooker professional to play to the maximum in the venerable arena that is often referred to as the cathedral of snooker. “It tops everything,” said Robertson, his whole season, which had already been outstanding with victories at the Masters and the Players Championship. A curious side fact: Since opponent Jack Lisowski had fabricated four foul points immediately before Robertson’s maximum, the Australian even had 151 points at the end of his break. However, only the 147 that Robertson followed were significant for the point count at the maximum.
“He never seemed to doubt,” says Steve Davis of Robertson
Steve Davis, the six-time world champion and current commentator, was also particularly impressed by Robertson’s mental strength. “He never seemed to have any doubts,” Davis said on the BBC. “He played the ball so confidently and was always in perfect position.” The stupid thing about Robertson’s heroic act was that while it gave him a memorable moment and a nice extra cash prize, under the circumstances he might have gladly passed it up.
Because the Australian, who was seeded in third place, was eliminated in the round of 16 at the World Cup. Opponent Jack Lisowski had to remain in his chair for an excruciatingly long twelve minutes at the maximum – this is called the “torture of the chair” in snooker because it is so hard to bear. But Lisowski recovered surprisingly quickly. The Brit congratulated after the maximum and then won 13:12. “I beat the current best player in the world,” said Lisowski, “who also played great snooker.” Robertson has his maximum, but Lisowski is in the quarterfinals.