Rocket Ronnie on fire in his hellhole

Two days after Ronnie O’Sullivan described the venue as a hellhole, the five-time world champion treated the crowd at the K2 Leisure Centre in Crawley to the 15th maximum break of his career.

The 147 sealed O’Sullivan’s 4-0 victory over Allan Taylor in the second round of the English Open yesterday.

Earlier in the week O’Sullivan complained that he could smell urine in the player interview area and criticised event organisers for not separating the tournament from other sports being played at the leisure centre.

But the TV table at least seemed to be playing perfectly as the 42-year-old potted blacks with each of the 15 reds before clearing the colours, despite claiming to be “twitching” on shots.

“I did think about it from the first red because I thought I’ve got to try and do something in this match to get myself excited,” O’Sullivan said.

“From about 40-odd I was in bits, I was twitching all over the gaff. My back arm was like a bit of fish, flapping all over the place. Then they’ve (his fellow players) all gone quiet to watch the max and I thought ‘That’s the worst thing you can do, just carry on playing, make some noise, do something’.”

O’Sullivan, who also made a break of 135 in the second frame, added: “I felt sorry for Allan out there because you could see he was struggling, he’s a lot better than that.

“I got a bit fortunate earlier on. I missed quite a few balls. We both did and my bad was a bit better than his bad.”

O’Sullivan will play either Jimmy White or Matthew Stevens in the third round.

“My back arm was like a bit of fish, twitching all over”