STEPHEN MAGUIRE ADDRESSES 20-YEAR SHAUN MURPHY FEUD AHEAD OF CRUCIBLE CLASH: "HE KNOWS HE DID IT"

Stephen Maguire claims that his infamous chalk-gate incident with Shaun Murphy will "never be resolved" because his long-time snooker rival won't admit it.

Maguire and Murphy have been playing against each other since their junior days and will meet again on Thursday in the last 16 of the World Championship at the Crucible. It's been 20 years since Scottish ace Maguire was docked a frame at the Grand Prix for forgetting his chalk which caused their 2004 match to be delayed.

Ever since, some have held the belief that future world champion Murphy controversially asked the match referee, the late Johan Oomen, to dock his opponent a frame. "We can't resolve it because he always says he never said to the referee," Maguire, 43, explained.

"The poor referee isn't with us any longer, but [Murphy] did… he knows he did. But I'm over it. We don't spend time together. I don't hate him or anything like that. If you asked me 20 years ago I might have said something different, but I can't be bothered now.

"We've all grown up, he's got kids, I've got kids. We don't go for meals. But we walk by each other and talk about snooker and everything's okay."

'Magician' Murphy hasn't beaten Maguire since 2017 and there's an opening for both stars in Sheffield, as reigning champion Luca Brecel and four-time winner Mark Selby are already out. "I've known him longer than my wife!" Maguire, who's a vastly different personality to Englishman Murphy, added.

"It's crazy when you think about it that we've played each other since we were 11 or 12 years old. It's mad because there are a few of us. Ryan Day, Ricky Walden, we've all grown up together and we're still competing against each other.

"Shaun is a showman, he loves it. It's always been like that. I think we're polar opposites in every walk of life. But he's a great snooker player, I've never said he's not been. He's great to watch and he's good to play against because he goes for everything."

Two-time semi-finalist Maguire has enjoyed a good start to the Championship, beating ninth seed Ali Carter in the opening round. Reflecting the impressive win over Carter, the 43-year-old said: "His safety was better than mine but I felt I had to take on balls that I didn't want to and if I get involved in safety matches he would be too good for me.

"I'm not just going to go out there and just give it to him. There was a time on Saturday where I felt flat and he was getting on top. I smashed the table, I did it on purpose and I felt better - I would rather go out fighting."

2024-04-25T12:08:24Z dg43tfdfdgfd