A 147 requires planning and faultless execution. The margins for error are minute, and at times, a dollop of fortune is needed too.
Regardless of a person’s view on snooker at the Olympic Games, the significance of a 147 shouldn’t be downplayed. Away from tournament victories and rankings ascension, a 147 is a career landmark.
Snooker’s place in the world of sport is questioned at times. Along with darts and a handful of others, the limited physical exertion can see it derided. Snooker walks the line between being a game and a sport.
For its fans, many of which are greatly committed, it is as highly skilled as any sport in the world.
A maximum break isn’t something to worry about when it comes to snooker betting. The circumstances are so specific, the play has to be so precise, that it is a sideshow to the match itself.
A 147 is still worth a solitary frame, it doesn’t guarantee a victory - apart from the 21 times it’s been a match-clinching break.
Completing a 147 is cause for celebration, yet it is oddly irrelevant in a wider context beyond earning that player a piece of history.
Similar Achievements
There are ‘feats’ in every sport, achievements that while not necessarily warranting a medal or trophy, that write that contestants name in the history books forever.
A world record in an ironman will do that, as will a Le Mans victory or a perfect game in MLB.
World records are broken, even those that seem superhuman. Someone will be quicker than Usain Bolt. Someone will pass Kevin Mayer’s decathlon world record.
Team efforts like Le Mans aren’t ideal comparisons with snooker. Pitting Le Mans against a 147 is a far from ideal fit.
A 147 can happen at any time, each maximum is equal to the last and the next. The same cannot be said of a Le Mans or Monaco win.
This is the challenge with the 147. Each sport has its landmarks, but many don’t have a definitive achievement like a 147. A perfect game, which is far rarer, in Major League Baseball is that same fixed, defined feat.
Pitching a perfecto wins your team a game, gets scribbled down on Wikipedia and warrants celebration, but it doesn’t collect a World Series trophy.
Football and basketball don’t have direct comparable feats. A hat-trick can always be bettered, as can a 40-point triple-double. The next game could see someone score a 50-point triple-double or a hat-trick with more flair and importance.
An unbeaten league season, while historic in its own right, is a team feat rather than individual. That feels like it belongs in a different conversation.
A gargantuan effort like Ben Stokes’ 135 not out against Australia in the 2019 Ashes seems like it should have some place in this discourse.
Again, though, Stokes’ knock was a one-off, and while that is what makes it so remarkable, it is hard to define it as a sporting feat.
Scoring 135 to keep the Ashes alive while Jack Leach cleans his glasses isn’t equal to the last and the next. It might never be matched.
Perhaps a 10-wicket-innings is cricket’s best entry. The reliance on teammates is problematic, but that’s the same with a perfect game.
A player could get all 10 wickets for 12 runs, and they could get all 10 wickets for 350 runs. The absence of a clear definition for this ‘feat’ is an issue.
A nine-darter would be darts’ best rival to the 147. And as an individual sport, it probably slots into this better than most.
The criticism, though, is that they perhaps happen too often, but that is a growing issue with 147s, too.
Frequency
As of March 2020, there have been just 156 maximum breaks in the history of snooker since Steve Davis registered the first in 1982.
Ronnie O’Sullivan, who tops the best snooker players list, has the most ever with 15 to his name.
Every Le Mans has a winner. Athletics world records are broken frequently. Maximums have become more common – there has been 22 147s since the start of 2018 – and that could impact its case in this debate.
Has the 147 been devalued by over exposure to the public?
There were just eight 147 breaks in the 1980s. There were 16 between 1990 and 1998, but a further 10 in 1999 alone.
Financial incentivisation has encouraged players to go for them, and it’s been self-fulfilling, as the more players completing a 147, the more achievable it seems. There were 14 tournaments in the 2010s with multiple 147s.
Verdict
The result of years, sometimes a lifetime, of work, a 147 has few contemporaries. It is a demonstration of mastery of the sport.
It will not fare well in all comparisons, however. Snooker’s lack of physical demand will see it downplayed on occasion, and that perhaps undermines its case as sport’s greatest achievement.
A 147 is about applying skill, it’s a victory for the mind as much as the body. For that reason, it isn’t a straight forward comparison with a world record ironman or Le Mans.
The 147 is right up there on skill alone. It’s rare enough to be significant, but not so uncommon to be a freak event.
Unlike a wonderous round of golf or epic triple-double, it is defined, it’s a fixed, inarguable achievement.
Whether it’s the greatest feat or not, the 147 deserves a place on the shortlist. The case to anoint it the ‘greatest’ is strong.
*Credit for the main photo belongs to Aijaz Rahi / AP Photo*
