Mark Davis has racked his first career maximum
Davis, 44, made the perfect break in the final frame of his match with Neil Robertson in the Group 3 stages of the non-ranking event played at the new venue the Ricoh Arena, which hosts also the top elite event the Champion of Champions.
Davis's 147 is the ninth maxi of this season, and the first of 2017, and the 127th of snooker's history, as Steve Davis made the first official one in 1982. It comes as the world's top 16 players battle it out for the prestigious Masters title, which begins this weekend, Sunday 15th January at the Alexandra Palace in London.
147, the potted history
Nicknamed Dark Mavis, and the battler from Hastings, becomes the 45th person to have made a single maximum - with the likes of Ronnie O'Sullivan having made the most with 13 career 147s. In 2016, nine maximums were made, if you include Ding Junhui's maximum at the Welsh Open and Fergal O'Brien's maximum from the previous season in last season's Championship League. Ironically, 5 of the 8 147s made last year came from players who had never made one.
Well done on Mark Davis on his 1st max! Knocked in a 1/100,000 long red for him to get it started so every credit😆 #smiler
— Neil Robertson (@nr147) January 10, 2017
Although Davis has been World Seniors Champion, he has not yet won a ranking tournament - and is still looking into his forties for his first World ranking title.
Mark King, at the age of 42 last year won his first Ranking title in Northern Ireland as he picked up the Alex Higgins trophy. The very first ranking event of 2017 comes after the Masters in January, with the German Masters final stages at the Tempodrom where Martin Gould won his first World Ranking title last season. The Championship League was last season won by Judd Trump and was played first in 2008.
Trump has won the event three times. The Masters, which begins on Sunday, sees Ronnie O'Sullivan set to defend his title, which was his sixth, and looking to win a seventh.
Just reffed a great maximum break by Mark Davis in the Championship League, the 1st of his pro career.
— Brendan Moore (@brendanmoore147) January 10, 2017
Trump and O'Sullivan met in the Championship League final last season.
There are just 8 World Ranking events left this season now, and a total of 10 left in total in terms of both non-ranking and ranking events. In the 2011/12 season, 11 maximums were made, one of the highest so with another 10 events to go, the chances of that being beaten are very high at this stage. With more tournaments, inevitably will come more maxis? Ironically, there have only been 3 maxis made at the Masters all by overseas players - Neil Robertson, Marco Fu and Ding Junhui.
