Welsh snooker player Daniel Wells hit a break better than a maximum at the Ding Junhui Snooker Academy, scoring 151 against Tyler Rees.
Wells was preparing for his appearance at World Snooker Tour’s Q School event as he bids to win a tour card to compete on the professional circuit alongside the likes of Mark Selby, Judd Trump, and Ronnie O’Sullivan. The Welshman, who had been ranked inside the top 64 in the world as recently as 2017, is bidding to return to the tour after losing his tour card in 2021 and the signs are that he is in fine fettle.
The Neath resident is a regular at the Ding Junhui Snooker Academy in Sheffield and was playing against Welsh compatriot Rees, also competing at Q School, in a practice match when he achieved the amazing feat. Wells is yet to post a maximum break in professional competition, with his current highest being 141.
How is a 151 Possible?
Officially, 147 is snooker’s maximum break but it is possible to score higher. A 147 break is based on potting all 15 reds with 15 blacks followed by all six coloured balls – not accounting for any potential fouls and free balls that could be left.
A free ball resulting from a foul before a ball has been potted can leave a potential maximum break of 155, as a player can nominate any coloured ball to play as though it was a red (worth one point) and follow up by potting the black. Should this happen, the player already has a break of eight points with all 15 reds and 147 points remaining on the table. This feat was achieved by Jamie Cope in 2005 in a witnessed practice frame and again by Thepchaiya Un-Nooh in 2021, with the frame captured on CCTV.
In tournament play, Jamie Burnett is the only player to have achieved a break above 147 when he scored 148 against Leo Fernandez in a UK Championship qualifier in 2004. Burnett nominated the brown as the free ball and followed up by potting the re-spotted brown before taking 14 reds and blacks, a pink off the final red and all the colours.
Ding Junhui Snooker Academy
Wells is not the first to achieve a break above 147 at the Ding Junhui Snooker Academy with Marco Fu scoring 149 in a practice match against Noppon Saengkham in March 2022. With two players managing breaks more than the official maximum in such a short space of time at the academy, you might expect more players hoping for a rub of some of the magic at the popular venue.
Opened in 2020, the snooker academy was set up by former world number one Ding Junhui with the hope of providing a base for Chinese players in the UK. Several of his compatriots make use of the facility, along with many other professional and amateur players, based five minutes from the Crucible Theatre, home to the World Snooker Championship.
The facility features 18 snooker tables and regularly hosts World Snooker Federation (WSF) competitions, with over 300 players playing across the WSF Open and Junior Championships in February 2022.
(Image credit: Ding Junhui Snooker Academy)
