Luca Brecel defeats Mark Selby to win World Snooker Championship 2023 final – as it happened (original) (raw)

Key events

• 1 May 2023Luca Brecel beats Mark Selby 18-15 to win the World Snooker Championship 2023!
• 1 May 2023Brecel hits four centuries to close on first title
• 1 May 2023Brecel leads Selby 15-10
• 1 May 2023Preamble

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Here is Aaron Bower’s report.

Righto, that’s us done then. Thanks all for your company and comments, sorry I couldn’t use them all, and hope you enjoyed tonight and the last fortnight as much I did. For a while, it looked like Luca Brecel would sleep with the fishes, but Don Mark let him live and now there’s a new name on the silver lady.

Check back here or on site for our match report, but in the meantime, peace out. I’m afraid I’ve not a clue what we do tomorrow.

Mark will be back, we know that for sure; the challenge for Luca is using this as a stick not a carrot. He should enjoy his win, but he needs to come back and go for it again and again and again. When it comes to natural talent, he’s up there with pretty much everyone who’s ever played the game and he’s proved these last two weeks that he can beat the best – Mark J Williams, Ronald Antonio O’Sullivan, Si Jiahui balling out of his skull and Dat Guy Selbz – over the stretch. Even if he never wins another tournament, he’s been etched into the annals of humanity for evermore, but the world is his – if he wants it.

Luca has moved up the world rankings from 10 to 2 but tonight is anything but a 10 to 2er, and has taught us all a lesson: don’t take anything, yourself included, too seriously; take attacking options; back yourself.

Luca Brecel poses with the trophy. Photograph: Zac Goodwin/PA

Mark accepts his runners-up medal from Barry, then Luca does likewise and raises the silver lady – one handed. His mum, dad and girlfriend join him, and what a moment that is. All that effort, schlepping him about, supporting him, encouraging him, scolding him. What joy, what love!

A proud looking Luca Brecel celebrates his win with his dad Carlo (left), girlfriend Laura Vanoverberghe, (second right) and mother Mirella. Photograph: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images

Luca, remember, spent the build-up to the Cruce drinking with his mates; imagine the celebration they’re having tonight this merry month of May. “It shouldn’t be legal” chuckles Luca, and you can tell he’s great value on a night.

“All your life you’ve waited for someone to say Luca Brecel, you are world champion,” says Hazel. Luca says he can’t see anymore, he’s not sure why, and there’s no one worse to play in a final than Mark. At 16-15 he didn’t fancy himself, but he made a good break to win it, he doesn’t know how he did it. Nothing changed this time, he says, it’s just that snooker is a difficult sport and he could’ve lost first round to Ricky Walden who he beat 10-9, it’s fine margins. But no more tears yet so Hazel goes for low-hanging fruit asking him about his team; he say he has the best friends, parents and girlfriend in the world before adding “I’ve heard some news and I don’t know if i should stay it, so stay strong Vicky.” Another gent, hopefully she’s OK.

“My goodness it’s good to see you back Mark Selby,” says Hazel, and I’m gone. In the other corner, Luca is gone too, flannel over eyes. “You deserve it mate, you played fantastic,” Mark tells him, then asked about his maxi says he’d always wanted one at the Cruce, never thought he’d do it in a final, and the racket at the end will stay with him for a long time. “But it’s not about me,” he says congratulating Luca again who he says kept hitting shots to nothing and played great over two days. “Twelve months ago it was good to just come back and play,” he says, and even now he knows there are things more important than snooker – Vicky, his wife, knows it too, and health is the most important thing. What a gent.

Luca Brecel beats Mark Selby 18-15 to win the World Snooker Championship 2023!

He’s the first winner from mainland Europe and he’s done it his way, in swashbuckling, inspiring, affirming style! An incredible performance, and what a smile! He embraces Mark, shakes his head, takes a second to absorb just a fraction of what he’s just done, then shares a long, tearful hug with his dad that merits an essay.

Mark Selby (left) offers his congratulations to Luca Brecel. Photograph: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images

The Belgian takes in his victory. Photograph: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images

Then savours it. Photograph: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images

Selby 15-17 Brecel (0-76) Mark will regret that missed black for long, long time, but he knows what he’s done, he knows he’ll be back and he knows he’s won more important battles these last few months. He’s a great of the game, a hero, and Luca sinks frame-ball red! The pink follows, e stays down on the shot enjoying the moment, AND L;UCA BRECEL IS CHAMPION OF THE WORLD! LUCA BRECEL IS CHAMPION OF THE WORLD! He pots a red, spreads his arms, and milks the greatest moments of his life. What a run, what a player, what a sport!

Luca Brecel celebrates his victory. Photograph: George Wood/Getty Images

Selby 15-17 Brecel (0-39) A lovely cut with the rest, and Luca has done what he does! Taken on a succession of taxing pots to create some easy ones, and the silver lady is beckoning him over! He’ll have lived this moment a million times in his dreams and daydreams, balls where he wants them to be and world title within his grasp. He’s barely in his body now, watching himself playing himself playing his game, and he’s five minutes away from Hazel making him and all of us cry.

Selby 15-17 Brecel (0-16) A nice little cannon in the process sending black to left corner opens another red, and Luca is flying now. We see his family, and how on earth must they be feeling? The way their boy is going about this, it’s all under control.

Selby 15-17 Brecel (0-7) Luca might feel he’s over the worst; he’d back himself to win one of three frames against anyone. If Mark had got level, you’d have feared for him, but he now knows he can play with title on the line and that his opponent is feeling it too, aware that one error can mean curtains. These fine-motor sports are so difficult to play when you’re under it because the margin for error is so slight, and have a look! Mark catches a red on the side on his route back to baulk, leaving the white up the business end! So Luca gets away to left-centre, develops the pink, and can he do now what he’s been doing all week, conjuring a chance via the application of pure potting genius?

Selby 15-17 Brecel Mark tries a snick to left corner, misses, leaves it, and Luca Brecel is a frame away from becoming world champion! He takes a moment outside of the arena to compose himself while Mark knows that he got himself into position then, right as he looked poised to strike, he missed a ball he had to pot. It’s a lot out there.

Selby 15-16 Brecel (2-58) This game. But this game in particular. Mark nudges a red, and it only runs along the rail and into right corner! BUT OH MY DAYS! He misses the brown, Luca just about prods in a starter with the rest, then blue to right-centre means when he plays safe, Mark requires two snookers.

Selby 15-16 Brecel (1-52) A poor safety from Mark leaves Luca a shot at one to right corner; he punches it down so firmly it almost wedges in the jaws, then knocks the green safe. He’s 51 in front with 67 left…

Selby 15-16 Brecel (1-51) Pretty straight on the black, Luca debates which red to play for and how; a couple of hours ago, he’d have been through the shot by now. In the event he makes sure of the pot, screwing back to bring a ball off the rail, then plays a containing safety and sits down disappointed not to have made more – there’s a sad shake of the head – but a good deal better then when Mark was addressing that black. This next exchange is colossal.

Selby 15-16 Brecel (1-40) Luca looks dead behind the eyes as he pokes to right corner with the rest, playing off memory as he tries not to think. A black allows him to bump a few reds into play, and this is the thing: Mark was so far behind so close to the end that he didn’t really have the scope to make the kind of mistake he just did.

Selby 15-16 Brecel (1-15) Oh Luca; oh mate. I almost wonder if Mark’s as well to leave tempters now, so far is Luca from potting them, and he misses a long one that allows the Jester in once more. BUT WHAT’S THIS?! Somehow, Mark misses a black off its spot – in fairness, he was closer to the side rail than ideal – leaving Luca a simple starter. This is exactly what he needed, a proper chance rather than the kind of long pot you see off when everything’s going for you, and he quickly breaks the pack visibly growing in front of our eyes. Go on Luca!

Selby 15-16 Brecel Mark Selby is an unbelievable competitor, but to deliver your skills at moments of high pressure, you’ve got to have them to begin with, and just as we often forget Judd Trump has phenomenal mental strength because of his flair, we can also ignore how good Mark Selby is because of how tough he is. That’s five in a row for him, and Luca needs to take some deep breaths. Naturally, Mark leaves the arena so he’s alone with his thoughts and, make no mistake, there’s no one in the world more alone than Luca Brecel is now.

Selby 14-16 Brecel (58-0) Chale! Luca tries ending one long to the yellow, misses by aeons, and Mark now has a chance to close the gap to one. Everything is going his way, and the fear for Luca now is that his game has deserted him; his coupon and body language certainly suggest he’s of that opinion.

Selby 14-16 Brecel (43-0) He couldn’t have left it any later, but this final now looks like what lots of people – me included – assumed it would, Luca taking frames in streaks with breaks, but Mark taking more of them in every way that exists. As I type that, though, he digs into the pack off the blue and winds up on nowt, so it’s a safety and onto black cush to ensure Luca has no long red available.

Selby 14-16 Brecel (22-0) What’s that coming over the hill, is it a monster? I’m afraid it is, Luca old mate, and Mark fluking a starter highlights the momentum shift of these last few frames. He’s soon into the pack, liberating a few reds and with black available to both corners. This game; this game.

“Sorry but hands-down the best sound in sport is the click of screw-in studs on concrete before they hit the turf,” reckons Neil Stockwell. Followed closely by the purr of bike, chain and rubber on tarmac. And lest we forget that not everything need to be subtle, perhaps the screech of trial bike engines across open countryside.”

I’ll definitely allow the studs, though that’s also about anticipation of a match rather than the sound itself. Here’s another too: the fizz of a cricket ball as it left Shane Warne’s hand.

Selby 14-16 Brecel Luca can feel the chance of a lifetime slipping away from him; the interval was always going to be important and he’s not potted a ball since losing the three frames the preceded it. Mark, on the other hand, is in his element. He knows he knows what to do.

Selby 13-16 Brecel (61-0) In comms, Stephen, praising Mark’s bottle notes that you’ve either got it or you’ve not, and I wonder if that’s true. There are loads of sportsfolk who knew instinctively how to handle the big moments but there are also loads who learnt. Anyroad up, Mark slides off a red to right corner and dare he attempt a cut on the black to right corner? I doubt it, and he uses the rest to find baulk, but not the baulk rail. Will Luca go at a long one, or just give Stephen the opportunity to say “fraught with danger”? Whenever he does I imagine wild animals, deep pits and hunter’s traps, but there’s nothing in Luca’s way – he just can’t even find the jaws at the moment, missing by a fortnight, and this is a chance for Mark to close to within two!

Selby 13-16 Brecel (23-0) Mark inadvertently dangles a tempter, again Luca takes it on, and this time he catches it too thick(ly). The clink wasn’t right there, but it dings the treble when Mark oozes a starter to right corner, then after leaving the white short on the black, coaxes a cut down left that has him back in prime position. He will, though, soon need to dig into the pack; if that goes well, he’ll have a shot at taking the frame here and now…

Selby 13-16 Brecel Mark will like this start to frame 30, playing in and out of the cluster as Luca looks to open them and get things moving. Quickly, they agree a re-rack, and the tensionometer amps up a few more degrees. Ordinarily, Luca might’ve tried something, but with the world title close, he’s not about to risk a frame unless there’s very goods reason so to do.

“Listened to Billy Bragg while walking the dogs this morning,” says Gregory Phillips, “and it occurred to me that a line from ‘A Lover Sings’ could apply to snooker as much as football: “There is no real substitute for a ball struck squarely and firmly.”

Striking a ball squarely is an interesting image, which I guess works with laces but less so with a rounded cue-tip.

Right people, snuggle in. HERE WE GO.

“The one thing commentators should stop saying,” reckons Roger Kirkby, “is … ‘he should be tight on the balk cushion’. That saying has put me into therapy more times than I can remember.”

If it’s true it’s true!

“I was just thinking,” emails Ewan McDonald, “the clink of the snooker balls is up there with leather on willow as the greatest sound in sport. Are you with me?”

Absolutely. leather on willow has its strengths, but ball on ball is more melodic – and I should say that leather on bone also has something about it.

“Selby may be the Jester from Leicester,” says Andrew Goudie, “but Willie Thorne will always be the Uncle Fester from Leicester to me.”

The best player in practice, legend has it, and a top, top bloke, everyone who knew him has it.

And also there for youse:

Our players will be back with us in 15 minutes. Here’s a little bit with something on Jimmy white to accompany your interval:

Selby 13-16 Brecel Mark thrashes in a blue and removes the penultimate red, plays a lovely delicate shove across the table to bin the last, and one of the greatest competitors in all sport is doing what he does. He leaves the arena with a 122, the pink driven along the side rail with the rest and black clobbered home. I am in awe of and love Mark Selby; I am in awe of and love Luca Brecel. Do we got ourselves a ball-game?!

Selby getting busy on the baize. Photograph: Zac Goodwin/PA

Selby 12-16 Brecel (57-0) “He’ll have targeted a 3-1 mini-session”, because it’s only snooker world champions who understand the vagaries of counting. Well Mark’s almost there, and we’re set for the conclusion that we and this tournament richly deserve. Luca’s not made more than a 30 since the first frame of the evening, and he’ll be wondering.

Selby 12-16 Brecel (37-0) Mark Selby! He splats the pack sending claret all over, playing himself into form as we speak. “He knows how to cope with those emotions,” says Shaun Murphy, suggesting Luca’s people write their interval pep talk now. Their man doesn’t look happy, but he’ll have known that no man, however inspired, is rinsing a world title off this man with a mini-sesh still to play.

Selby 12-16 Brecel (15-0) Expletive now then! Mark absolutely smokes a long red to right corner, returns to the business end off the green, and though he overruns slightly, is soon in prime position, black available to both corners. Over his shoulder as he gets down on the shot, Luca looks pensive.

Selby 12-16 Brecel Yes Mark Selby! He has phenomenal stones, Scylla and Charybdis in the trouser, and I’m in awe of him.

Selby 11-16 Brecel (44-36) Mark gets a decent angle to send blue to middle and get back down for the blue … he needs an angle, and runs just past straight. He slides the blue into the green, now pink to left corner for the frame…

A focused Mark Selby lines up a shot on the pink. Photograph: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images

Selby 11-16 Brecel (32-36) Mark leaves one to right corner and of course Luca takes it on. But he misses and suddenly this should be 12-16. It’s not an easy clear-up though, so Mark has work to do, getting to yellow off pink, but with blue ands green close together low in baulk. Brown to blue to pink will be the key shots…

Selby 11-16 Brecel (20-36) Eeesh, Mark misses a cut, leaving it in the jaws, but Luca can’t parlay the opportunity into a run and with two reds left, the chase is on for the next ball – which might well decide who wins the frame and whether we have a match to enjoy tonight. Come on Mark, but also, come on Luca.

“Played my first frames on a full-size table since the smoking ban yesterday!” says Patrick O’Brien. “There aren’t many sports where it’s more fun to watch than play, boxing maybe… Can’t remember which tournament it was last year but I saw two very odd things that happened on the first day, the white actually went in after John Virgo did his ‘where’s the cue ball going?’ and there was a 147 in the opening frame (might’ve been Selby as it happens)!”

I spent hours inRon Gross’ Neasden snooker club from 1995-98. It was the early days of mobiles and none of us had, so our parents couldn’t get hold of us, it was open 24/7 so we could say we were there even if we weren’t, they sold Kit Kays from the fridge and, and as you say, they allowed smoking. Glorious.

Selby 11-16 Brecel (16-29) Yes Mark! He spanks in a long starter … but ends up stuck to the blue, so has to play safe; the run of the balls and/or the snooker gods are favouring Luca at the moment. Luca misses his red of choice twice, gets everything safe … and then Mark flukes the double! Have the gods changed allegiance? Er not quite: Mark’s on nothing, and curiously opts to liberate brown and black rather than lay a snooker behind the green, when he doesn’t need everything that’s left. No matter: he takes on a clip to left corner knowing that if he misses he’s hitting something that’ll keep the white down the business end … and he drains it beautifully!

There they are, the lads. Jimmy White and Roy Keane at the Crucible last evening. Photograph: The internet

Selby 11-16 Brecel (3-29) Throughout this tournament and particularly in his last three matches, Luca has conjured frame-winning opportunities out of uninviting tables, but he runs out of position this time and has to play safe, allowing Mark a cut to left corner. But the white skips sideways off the jaw, almost landing in right corner, meaning a safety off the yellow and end of break. This is exactly the kind of frame I expected him to win enough of to win this match, but Luca has done brilliantly to stop them happening and also to stop that happening when they’ve happened. If he takes this one, it’s almost curtains.

“Brecel comes from Belgium,” says Max Harrison, “a country with a cue-sport tradition that’s steeped in pocketless carom tables, but carom’s loss is snooker’s gain. And as Stephen Hendry said, three-cushion carom is far too difficult anyway (my best run is four).”

Selby 11-16 Brecel (2-21) And this time he does, steering a starter to right corner and holding for the black. But, well, I don’t even know how to tell you this, but he hits it harder than he needs to, into the near jaw of left corner, and at that pace it’s never dropping – though the bags have been pretty receptive this championship. Can Luca punish?

Selby 11-16 Brecel (1-16) Go on Mark! He pastes it into right corner and finishes up nuzzling in behind the blue, which is to say even if he’d missed that, great shot. So he feathers the blue and there are no easy reds to hit; no matter, Luca plays off both sides, hits his target ball, and leaves the white on black cush. That is a brilliant escape, and reminds us that though he often relies on his eye and power, he’s also got a ridiculous brain and touch. I’m certain how well both are working will be disconcerting Mark, who’ll have planned to win this match in the safety exchanges.

Selby 11-16 Brecel (0-16) But now he’s made an error; he hits the blue off the break; yes, you read that right, Mark Selby hits the blue off the break! At the moment the four-time champ looks more nervous than the man with just three ranking titles who, three weeks ago, had never won a match at this venue, and Luca is quickly into the pack. But he soon runs out of position, playing safe, and can Mark take the long starter he’s been offered? In normal circumstances, you’d back him…

Selby looking like a man who’s hit the wrong coloured ball. Photograph: Colin Poultney/ProSports/Shutterstock

Selby 11-16 Brecel “You always feel if your opponent needs two, you’ve a chance” has already been said about 73 times since Luca won the last frame – as the knowledgeable audience that you are, feel free to send in your favourite snooker cliches – and Luca still needs two. He won’t be nervous yet, Mark needs another couple for that – at least – but he’s made a start.

Selby 10-16 Brecel (45-15) Mark pots a nice brown and slides up the table with the black now available. He’ll still have to break the cluster of four to clinch the frame at this visit … and there it goes, to decent effect. This’ll be one back.

“Hi from Naples,” says Colum Fordham, “where snooker is not the priority sportswise, particularly at the moment. After a long break (sorry) from snooker (memories of Jimmy White and Alex Higgins), I have finally been enticed back to watching it again, as of yesterday evening. And Selby and Brecel are putting on quite a show. It would be great for the sport if Luca Brecel won. A really exciting player to watch. Not that Mark Selby is a slouch. A stunning maximum yesterday. Will be glued to the set to see the outcome.”

There is perhaps nothing in life as reliably glorious as the World Snooker Championships. I strongly recommend sticking with it, because there are so many moments of drama, good lads, great characters and ludicrous skill.

Selby 10-16 Brecel (20-15) Luca gets in again, this time via delicate cut-back – he’s not just a ball-striker, combining the power of a strongman with the touch of a kama sutra master – but misses the blue, almost fluking it into the middle. Mark’s gizzard must’ve been down the back of his throat there, but he quickly rights himself, gets away, breaks the pack, and he’s one one. However, reds have blocked off both pink and black, so this will be a deeply stressful visit.

Selby 10-16 Brecel (0-14) Shut up! Shut! Up! Luca has only played a cross-double – as a shot to nothing – that he sinks – that gets him on the black! From there, he can’t get to the next red, but the statement is a bald one: he’s still buzzing, and he’s still loving it.

“Another curiosity yielded by this particular blend of finalists,” returns Gregory Phillips. “We could be done in half an hour, or it could take all night.”

Yup, although that can be tricky against someone like Luca, who attacks relentlessly rather than against someone like Mark Allen, who doesn’t mind getting involved in protracted tactical stuff.

Loopy snooker moves by Brecel. Photograph: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images

Selby 10-16 Brecel (0-6) Luca Brecel, you are an absolute joke! Left on the knuckle of right corner, he has a look then caresses a starter to middle just like that. But after a blue, the first sign of nerves? He decelerates through the next ball, jawsing it, before Mark tries sending one long to the green and missing by a way. He won’t mind, though, as he’s not on the pink for which he played so we’ve what feels like a rarity today: a safety exchange.

Selby 10-16 Brecel Luca is two away, and I can taste his confidence through my screen. He may not, of course, but he knows for absolute certain he’s going to win and real talk, so does Mark, he’s just pretending he doesn’t.

Selby 10-15 Brecel (8-67) Here we go then. A black to left corner, a friendly cannon, and it’s 16-10. Down goes the black … and he’s on one to left-middle. Gently, he cuts it into the bag, and though he only gets a slight flick on the cluster off the green, when he plays safe, Mark returns to the table 67 behind with 59 left. He won’t be giving this up, sending a lush starter into left corner and nuzzling in behind the black to send a second screamer along the rail and into the same hole, but he also knows what’s what and that he’s playing a superstar who thinks he’s eaten a golden star.

Selby 10-15 Brecel (0-47) Luca isn’t one of those players like, say, Mark Allen, who I’ve always been certain would win one of these at some point. I just wasn’t sure he had the game – could he take frames when not on a buzz, hang in the tactical battles, stay focused – over the stretch, especially against players who pot as well as he does? But here we are, him taking red-blues because pink and black are tired up before circumstance forces a broon to the yellow. He spends a while sizing it up, loosely cuts it home, and brings the white off the side and up the table! Another beautiful shot, and soon the black goes to both corners! There’s work still to do – he can’t win the frame with just the loose reds – but there’s no reason at all to think he won’t do whatever needs doing.

Selby 10-15 Brecel (0-13) The atmosphere in the Cruce is crackling as Luca plays an attacking safety, opening the cluster, before creaming a cut right into the heart of left corner. I hate to say this, but you get the feeling he knows he’s got this; with everything that’s happened to him these last two weeks – taking a final frame decider against Ricky Walden, hanging on against Mark J Williams, screeching back against Ronnie O’Sullivan and Si Jiiahui – he does’t think he can be beaten. He might be right.