‘I was getting funny looks on the Luas with my cue’
Former world champion Shaun Murphy intends to make the most of his down time after relocating to Ireland 18 months ago
‘I AM DEFINITELY MORE IRISH THAN ENGLISH – DESPITE MY ACCENT’
SHAUN Murphy was in a hotel room in the Welsh town of Llandudno when he realised that our way of life was about to change. ‘I had decided to get the ferry over to Holyhead and drive to the venue, because it was only an hour up the road. As I was getting ready for the match, news came through from the tournament director that the event had been postponed.
‘That was nearly three weeks ago and I haven’t played a frame of snooker since. It has been very strange. I was just talking to my wife about it this morning. When does this new normal just become the normal for us?’ asks the 2005 world snooker champion.
‘This is just becoming the way now. It is going to feel very odd when we are able to go to the pub again.’
Murphy is sitting in a supermarket car park on the southside of Dublin, having just completed the family shop for another few days.
When I initially reached out about an interview to see how he’s finding life in Dublin since moving to his wife Elaine’s native Ballinteer more than 18 months ago, it was supposed to be ahead of the World Championships. But snooker, like every other sport, has been shut down.
While he hasn’t been near a table for a few weeks, Murphy feels that the suspension of the snooker season will be particularly hard on players further down the rankings.
‘There has never been as much money in the game but when there are no tournaments to play, then there’s no money to earn. It’s going to be very tough for an awful lot of players on the circuit.
‘Most snooker players are selfemployed and when you move down the rankings, a lot of them are living hand-to-mouth and from tournament to tournament, and now there are none to play,’ Murphy points out, although he says that the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) were swift to offer financial support.
‘The WPBSA were pretty quick off the mark and acted at the start of the crisis. They issued all of its membership, 130-strong, with a non-refundable grant of £1,000, because they knew that some would be struggling. They have to be commended for that.
‘If this goes on into April and May, there’s talk of further grants of £3,000 and £5,000.’
And while the governing body insists all eyes will be on the Crucible at some stage this summer, Murphy predicts testing times for those players floating inside and just outside the top 64, such as his close friend Fergal O’Brien, as there are relegation issues and full playing rights to address for next season.
‘It is hard to know when the tour will start again or when the World Championship will be played. I think a lot of sports will take their lead from what the Premier League do.
‘In snooker, we have promotion and relegation issues to sort out too – there are players trying to stay in the top 64 and have full playing rights on the tour, Fergal is one of those.
‘Of course, the Crucible (venue for the World Championship) is our flagship event. It is what everyone watches, but in terms of our sport, the relegation issues are much more important and they have to be sorted out, so it is not a case of simply cancelling the season.’
When Murphy first arrived in Ireland, it was O’Brien who helped him out, bringing him to Celbridge snooker club where he practised.
‘When I came over here first, I didn’t know much about the scene but Fergal was great, just being able to pick his brain and that sort of thing.’
Murphy has since moved to a snooker club on St Stephen’s Green in the city centre to hone his craft. For his first couple of months at the club, he was an oddity to early-morning commuters on the Luas, who must have wondered where he was going with a cue. And even more of an oddity to those commuters who recognised him as one of the world’s best snooker players.
‘I had been coming in on the Luas every day with my cue. Was doing that for a while, but I was getting some funny looks, especially from those who recognised me.
‘People were wondering where I was going, so I have been driving in over the last while.’
Murphy met Elaine in Manchester and, when they got together, she made it clear she wanted to return home at some stage. He didn’t need much convincing.
‘When we got pregnant with our second child, we decided that was our chance to move over here because we wanted the baby to be born in Dublin,’ he says.
Even though he grew up in Northamptonshire, Murphy was always aware of his Irish heritage.
‘Three of my four grandparents were Irish.
‘My mother’s side of the family came from Donabate while my father’s side came from Kilcock in Kildare.
‘So, I was always well aware of my Irishness. It was only a mix-up when my birth was registered in the hospital that saw my name spelt the English way, rather than the Irish way. But I am definitely more Irish than English, despite my accent,’ he says with a chuckle.
‘Obviously, I would have travelled over here for family events when I was younger and then when I became a professional, I came over for tournaments and exhibitions. Even before I met Elaine, I always thought about maybe moving over.
‘I love the way of life over here. There are obviously a lot of similarities with England, but there are a few differences too and, having moved back to the area of Dublin where Elaine grew up, I have noticed that in just seeing the way she has reconnected with her old friends and the people she grew up with.’
Murphy burst on the scene when winning the World Championship as a 22-year-old in 2005 – he had been a 150-1 outsider at the start of the tournament. Nicknamed ‘The Magician’ for his potting ability, he had been enjoying a fine 2019-20 season – recently winning the Welsh Open – before everything came to a sudden stop.
Based in Ireland for the past 18 months, he is impressed by the quality of the amateur scene here and feels that there are a couple of special home-grown talents on the verge of breaking through in the professional ranks. ‘From what I have seen, the standard is pretty good here in the amateur game – the likes of Rodney Goggins and Michael Judge, who both spent time on the tour.
‘And there are some very promising young players coming up the ranks, Aaron Hill, who won the European championship, and Ross Bulman. They both look very good. I have practised with Ross a couple of times and he is very impressive.
‘And then up North, there is Robbie McGuigan, Mark Allen’s stepson. So I think the future of snooker is looking pretty bright.’
The disappearance of snooker clubs is believed to be a contributory factor in fewer professional players emerging from these shores, but Murphy believes there’s another reason behind the death of
clubs on both sides of the Irish Sea.
‘Obviously a lot of snooker clubs have been sold for development in Ireland and the UK, but nobody would have thought at the time of the effect the smoking ban would have on cue table sports. But it did have an effect on snooker clubs.
‘In the past, snooker clubs were the sort of places where parents didn’t want their kids hanging out, because there might have been a few unsavoury characters there, gangsters and the like, around the club. But that perception is definitely changing now. If you look at the UK, there are academies opening up, the Chinese government has backed one in Sheffield. I think that might be the way forward.’
For now, Murphy is adjusting to his first prolonged period away from the green baize since he was a precociously talented eight-year-old in Northamptonshire. And he’s enjoying it. He is spending plenty of time with his children, Harry and Molly, as his wife works from home.
‘My wife is a professor in UCD and she has been working remotely, setting exam papers and lectures, so I have been spending quality time with the kids, which has been good because it is not something that I can always do when I am on the circuit, travelling to different tournaments. So I am trying to see the positives.
‘And I have decided to take up running to lose a bit of weight. I always said beforehand that I couldn’t do it because between practising and playing I never had enough time to start running. But I have nothing but time now.’