ALI Carter admitted he was "shaking like a leaf" after creating snooker history by firing a 147 break at the 888.com World Championship – the first time two maximums have been scored in the same tournament.
Just a day after Ronnie O'Sullivan recorded the seventh maximum in Crucible history, Carter made it No8 in the 15th frame of his quarter-final with Peter Ebdon.
And, even more amazingly, it came in the frame immediately after Ebdon had missed his
own chance for a 147, missing the 15th black. Carter will earn half of the £147,000 bonus for a maximum and the £10,000 for the highest break of the tournament, perhaps scuppering O'Sullivan's plans to buy a Bentley convertible. The 28-year-old from Essex, who ended the session 9-7 ahead of 2002 champion Ebdon, joked: "I'm going to buy a Ford Focus convertible, I've been dying to get one!"
Carter jumped around the table in delight after potting a tricky final black despite the white being close to the side cushion, and was congratulated by Stephen Hendry and Ryan Day, who had stopped play on the other side of the screen to watch the closing stages.
Hendry had threatened to thrash Day with a session to spare when he raced into an 8-1 lead, missing yet another chance for a 147 in the fourth frame when he missed the 15th red.
But Welshman Day, making his quarter-final debut at the Crucible, split the evening session 4-4 to trail 11-5 overall.
All four quarter-finals were under way with O'Sullivan level with Liang Wenbo of China at 4-4 and Stephen Maguire and Joe Perry also tied 4-4.
Maguire had to recover from 4-0 down against qualifier Perry, the Scot almost getting a taste of his own medicine after leading Anthony Hamilton 8-0 and Neil Robertson 9-0 in the opening two rounds. The 27-year-old from Glasgow regained his composure, however, and breaks of 54 and 91 helped him level the scores.
The full article contains 352 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
