Shaun Murphy makes 147 clearance to beat Neath’s Daniel Wells at Welsh Open

Shaun Murphy produced a magical 147 clearance as he ended the run of amateur Daniel Wells to reach the quarter-finals of the Betvictor Welsh Open in Llandudno.

Earlier in the afternoon session, Welshman Wells – who dropped out of the professional ranks in 2021 and went to work for his mum’s cleaning business – had pulled off a shock 4-2 victory over world number five Judd Trump.

Murphy, though, was in no mood to become another scalp as ‘The Magician’ followed a clearance of 145 in the second frame with a maximum in the next, the seventh of his career.

Although Wells regrouped to get a frame on the board, another 78 break from Murphy, who earlier had taken his personal century tally past 600, secured an impressive 4-1 win and a place in the last eight.

Elsewhere in Thursday’s evening session at Venue Cymru, world number 12 Jack Lisowski suffered an unexpected 4-1 defeat to China’s Yuan Sijun.

Joe O’Connor, though, is safely through to the quarter-finals after he coasted past Robbie Williams without dropping a frame.