Shaun Murphy’s 2005 World Championship triumph: 20 Years On | Part One

In the early spring of 2005, Shaun Murphy was seriously contemplating a career away from snooker.

Big things had been expected of Murphy when he turned professional at the age of just 15 in 1998, but they had yet to materialise.

There had been the odd highlight here and there. He won the 2000 Benson & Hedges Championship to qualify for the following year’s Masters, while he also won five matches to qualify for the World Championship in 2002 and 2003.

Both those appearances yielded first-round defeats against seven-time champion Stephen Hendry and 1997 winner Ken Doherty respectively – losing 10-9 to the latter on the final black.

Murphy did reach his first ranking semi-final during the 2004-05 season at the Grand Prix, but was brought crashing down to earth by a humbling 6-0 whitewash at the hands of John Higgins.

The then 22-year-old had been working hard behind the scenes with coach Steve Prest, though their efforts were seemingly going to waste.

“To that point, my career wasn’t the meteoric rise that many had predicted,” Murphy tells Live Snooker. “I’d been earmarked for success from been a kid, and it just hadn’t happened.

“It had been a tough season [in 2004/05] and there hadn’t been much to shout about. It had been a real tough season of bad losses.

“Steve and I toured the country playing in these pro matches, and making very little progress.

“On the practise table, I was producing some very high-level stuff. To be honest, though, I was running on fumes.

“My self-belief was on the ground. I just couldn’t keep going playing snooker – this game that I was in love with – and keep getting kicked when I was down.”

Another bitter blow for Murphy came in the final qualifying round for that season’s Irish Masters.

Holding a healthy lead in the deciding frame of his clash with Robert Milkins, he saw his opponent fluke a red while escaping a snooker and subsequently clear to snatch victory on the black.

That proved the tip of the iceberg for Murphy, who also lost to Gerard Greene in the final qualifying round for the China Open a couple of weeks later. With the World Championship on the horizon, he would go on to seek an alternative career.

“I decided to walk away from snooker after that [Milkins] match,” he said.

“I went and sourced a job selling cars in the local Mercedes dealership in Sheffield. I went in and spoke to the manager, and sold myself as someone who’d left school with no education and nothing to fall back on.

“I think he took pity on me really. He was very gracious and told me the job was waiting for me after the qualifiers.”

By this point, Murphy had already entered the qualifying rounds at Pontin’s, Prestatyn, but was tempted to withdraw completely.

However, a combination of an epiphany and a timely pep talk resulted in a change of heart.

“The potential embarrassment that I felt my family would experience of having to go back to where I grew up and face the people who’d always said I’d never amount to anything – I just couldn’t bring myself to do that and admit my journey was a waste of time,” he said.

“The entry fee was £750. My mother told me I’d already paid that entry fee, it was a lot of money and not to be so wasteful. I didn’t have £750 to throw away.

“Off the back of that conversation, I found myself in the qualifiers and played really well.”

He certainly did. Ranked 48th in the world and requiring only two victories to secure a third Crucible appearance, Murphy swept Marcus Campbell aside 10-3, before battling past two-time semi-finalist Joe Swail for a hard-earned 10-8 victory.

Then based in Sheffield, he took a strong entourage to Prestatyn for the decisive qualifier, though he believes his supporters had an ulterior motive for being in attendance.

“I think I’m right in saying they all came along because Michaela Tabb was the referee!” he laughed. “That’s my overriding memory of the match.”

With his return to the Crucible secured – and a job in place if things did not go to plan – Murphy felt he almost had a free hit heading into his third World Championship.

Murphy, who is now a leading mental health keynote speaker, recalls: “Having that backup career lined up ready to go took the pressure off. It was a bit of a release valve.

“For the first time in my life up to that point, snooker matches weren’t the absolute be all and end all.

“It wasn’t going to define me any more because if it hadn’t have worked out, I’d have been on my merry way.”

Ultimately, he would return to that car dealership after the tournament, albeit for a very different reason.

“It was a Pretty Woman moment, I think!” Murphy jokes. “That’s as close as I get to Julia Roberts.”