Snooker Best Escapes Ever Recreated

Well, he's coming off. Side cushion, top cushion, lots of right hand side. This is risky. What a shot this is! These are the greatest snooker escapes I've ever seen. At least where somebody was actually playing a shot they attempted to play. Remember that because it's going to be crucial when it comes up later. But which of these is the best snooker escape of all time? To find out, I'm going to be recreating all of them as accurately as possible But we begin way back in the 2007 World Championships when Stephen Hendry was still playing. He potted a red but snookered himself on a colour. He nominated the brown and took a completely different route to what the commentators were expecting. Stephen had just made it all the way back from 5-1 down to 7-all in this match and went on to win the final three frames to win the match 10-7. I followed Stephen's line on my first attempt and with the reds being in the way you couldn't really do any different. The only thing I could do is add more left hand side which helped me hit it on my second. Right then, our next shot comes from Ronnie O'Sullivan in the 2016 World Championships where he escapes from this snooker around four cushions against the young Dave Gilbert. This helps Ronnie win the frame and eventually the match 10-7, getting him through the first round. As you can see from my first attempt, hitting this is going to be pretty difficult and I had to seriously alter my line for the second. On top of this, I also need to get it safe and the only way I'm going to be able to do this is probably cover it in some way behind the black which isn't guaranteed just by hitting the red. But I seem to have dropped on top of it so I'll take it. Skipping forward a year now to the 2017 World Championships with Sean Murphy who isn't really snookered here but decides to play this shot off three cushions with right hand side anyway so he can pop the red over the middle pocket. Despite this, he still lost this frame to Ronnie and eventually the match. I'm fairly sure it was 13-7 in the end but I thought I'd get this on my first attempt as I didn't, I had to put more side spin on the cue ball and I got it on my second and the white went pretty much in the perfect position. Barry Hawkins has got Judd Trump snookered in the 2023 Masters but not only does Judd manage to escape from this snooker he also manages to pot the blue at the same time securing the frame and eventually narrowly going on to win the match 6-5. As you can see, it's pretty difficult to judge where the white will go but I've corrected it for my second, I just didn't pot the blue. Somehow though, I've got it wrong again on my third and I'll need to do better on my fourth. That's more like it. At the 2023 World Championships, Mark Selby was in a really tough spot. He found a way to escape from this snooker and narrowly hit the red on the top cushion. This one looks tough and nearly impossible to hit and his opponent, Matthew Selt, said he thought it was a shot at the championships. The problem I've got here is you need to use quite a lot of left hand side to get the cue ball further down the cushion but if the cue ball's coming towards the reds at too much of an angle you won't get past the pink so I've somehow got to find a way to get as far as possible down this right hand side cushion but get the cue ball to come off fairly square and that's something I'm struggling a little bit to do here. I'm hitting about as close to the brown as I possibly can and I'm slowly learning this angle and if I can just get past the pink here, I've got it. Ding Zhengwei escapes from a snooker at the Six Reds World Championships that he was left in by, once again, Ronnie O'Sullivan. Ding manages to screw the cue ball off the cushion potting the red over the corner pocket. This is a great shot and helped Ding to go on and win the match and eventually the tournament. This is difficult to judge because the backspin helps the cue ball straighten up off the cushion so I don't really care that I've potted it top cushion first and I wasn't really supposed to. This two cushion escape from Luca Brossell at the 2019 Masters was played to perfection as he narrowly misses the black and clips the red thin enough to go back down the table. This saw him narrowly defeating Mark Allen and he eventually went on to make it through to the quarterfinals. Predictably, I'm having a struggle getting past the black with this one. It's almost perfectly on the line of the shot and you've got to use sidespin to avoid it. I've just about got it right on my third attempt, although the cue ball has come out of bulk again. We go to an excellent snooker escape from the World Senior Championships next as Fergal O'Brien manages to play this around four cushions, hitting the red perfectly. However, this is just a good example of escaping from a snooker not necessarily helping you win the frame as he ends up losing this one and the match after this shot. Considering the angle, this is a really tough shot and this actually happens less than you'd think on my table but I don't think my cushions slide wide enough for me to be able to get this. You need to hit this top side of the blue and then I need the cue ball to slide down far more than it normally would so I'm going to have to play this with a ton of right-hand side and get incredibly close to the yellow for this even to have a chance and that's really not easy. I need to get this one swinging down the table at a huge angle off the last cushion if I want to go top side of the blue and anywhere near the red and that actually caused me to hit the yellow then. I've so narrowly missed the blue here, this is the best I could possibly do and I'm relieved to have actually got it. This next shot's from the first round of the 2016 World Championships as Sean Murphy desperately needs to hit the green here otherwise Anthony McGill can win the frame. He makes a great hit and does eventually win the frame however ends up losing the match 10-8 to Anthony. After my first attempt I realise I've got to get the white as close to the middle pocket as possible. I've managed it on my second and that's allowed me just about to hit the green. How Marco Foo is able to hit the yellow here I just don't know and I'm going to have to find out it looks like but he manages to play it with check side off the first cushion and running side around the next three to hit the yellow. This was in the 2016 World Championships semi-final against Mark Selby. Now this shot did let Mark Selby in at a chance to make the clearance but he ended up missing it and Marco won the frame. However Mark Selby still went on to win the match 17-15 and eventually won the world title that year. I was expecting this one to be a little bit difficult to find the right angle but I wasn't expecting it to be this bad as I just can't seem to get the cue ball anywhere near where I need it to go and because of the side every shot I play seems to go in a completely different direction. I'm really struggling as well to get the running side off the three cushions after checking it off the first and it's not really happening until this shot where I seem to have got it Might be more luck than judgement there. The spider is needed for Tepchar Anu as he looks to escape to safety down the bulk end of the table and he plays it perfectly keeping Ding out. This allows him to go on and win the frame taking a 3-1 lead in the 2016 World Grand Prix. However Ding mounts a comeback and eventually wins the match 4 frames to 3. I was a bit frustrated with my first attempt because I got the line perfect but digging down with the spider I didn't hit it hard enough however I've got it with my second. It's almost impossible for Gary Wilson to get this next shot safe but he manages it by dropping dead weight on the red here. I can't be sure he played it like this but it's certainly going to be a difficult shot to recreate. However Gary still lost this frame but would end up winning this first round match at the World Championships 10 frames to 9 against Luca Brussel with the decider being the longest frame in Crucible history. Coincidentally the fact that I have to drop on this red absolutely dead weight could make it one of the longest shot recreations I've ever done because it's difficult to get the angle right and the touch isn't easy as well. I nearly potted it then but in fact just dropped it over the pocket so I've got to try it again and see if I can get any closer. That's not perfect but it's not pottable so it's pretty good. Not the most ridiculous snooker escape that Mark Williams has ever made at the World Championships against Jimmy Robertson at least he was looking at this one but as we're not counting flukes this is going to have to do. Mark ended up winning the frame and then eventually went on to win the match 10-5. So with this one I just need a glancing blow and definitely to miss the blue that was way out on my first attempt. This is a lot better and I've hit it, possibly left it on but it's alright I suppose. Sean Murphy. Again. Maybe he's better at escaping from snookers than we give him credit for. Either way he was 4-0 down in this match before making it back to 4-3 and escaping from the snooker here meant he got back to 4-all and eventually won the match 10-7. Thus winning the 2023 Tour Championships. Again I was way off on my first attempt so could my correction go better? Yes it could. On to Luca Brussel who's using the spider to escape from the snooker at the Shanghai Masters against Ronnie. However even though he makes a good hit on the yellow it doesn't help him out too much as he ends up losing the frame and the match without potting another ball. I think the timer should say frame time not match time because 31 minutes is actually pretty good going for 19 frames even for Luca or Ronnie. I've just about nicked this one on my second attempt. Now what a snooker escape this is from Anthony McGill. To start off with he has to see this angle and work out that it's actually possible to get to that red near the top cushion and that's even before he attempts to hit it. I'm not sure I'm going to even be able to do this. However the match didn't end up going too well for Anthony as he ended up losing this frame and going 5-0 down to Luca Brussel before making one frame back but then losing the match 6 frames to 5. Again this is another one I'm not sure I can hit and I've just got to put as much side spin as I possibly can on the ball and luckily I found the right red. Ding has been angled now at the 2020 World Championships which means he can't see the reds past the jaw of the pocket so he has to escape off two cushions but he manages to do this perfectly. The frame's in the balance here but I can't find out who won it because the records are missing for some reason but what I can tell you is Ronnie won the match 13-10. My first attempt was close I just went a little bit too high. My second attempt's a bit hard but it's pretty much what I was trying to do. On to one of the classic semifinals from the 2020 World Championships as Mark Selby's taken a two frame lead against Ronnie O'Sullivan but Ronnie's pegged that back by playing some of the best snooker of his life to 16 frames all. He's got a lead in the frame and has got Mark snookered but not only does Mark manage to escape from this snooker he also snookers Ronnie back. I know in the end that Ronnie eventually goes on to win this frame with a great snooker escape of his own but where the white ended up on this one was slightly more fortunate and that's the reason I'm putting the Mark Selby one in. Now that's explained I just need to hit it right which is a lot more challenging than it looks because I got close on a number of occasions like that but the whites just drifted out of a snookering position. However I finally got it in behind the black and got the snooker. Before the next one let's just quickly find Tommy who's from Hull in the United Kingdom which is there. A similar shot from Mark Williams now as he uses a swerve shot to escape from a Hossein Vafai snooker and snooker him back behind the black. Mark would eventually go on to lose this frame however but would win this semi-final match 6 frames to 3 and then eventually win the final becoming the second oldest player in history behind Ray Reardon to win a tournament. And it looks like I finally got one on my first attempt. Now I feel almost obligated to put this Welsh Open shot from Sean Murphy in as he manages to play off the jaws and spin the cue ball back into the red. This was a great snooker escape although it didn't really help him out in the context of the match as he lost the frame. He would however go on to win that match 6 frames to 3. Having tried this shot before I could remember roughly in the pocket where you need to hit it but this only gets you close it doesn't guarantee you're going to make contact with the red and it can be a bit variable depending on how exactly you see the jaws. So I was a bit unlucky I think not to get this a little bit sooner but it's finally gone in. So to the results I'm giving 3rd place to that Sean Murphy shot. It looks spectacular but it didn't really help him out at all so I can't really put it any higher than that. 2nd place goes to Anthony McGill. The vision this even took to see this shot was ridiculous let alone hitting it in the first place. Again however it didn't really help him out in the context of the match. But 1st place definitely goes to Marco Foo. I'm not sure I'd even think of this shot let alone be able to play it and it was just so difficult to get right the side made it jump way off on the cushion on some shots so I was happy to even get this one in the end. That's the best snooker escape I've ever seen at least scouring the internet at 1 o'clock in the morning anyway. But if you want to see more shot recreations from previous tournaments have a look at these two videos and remember don't just watch play and make the commitment to becoming a better player by subscribing to the channel and visit the website. See you later.