Shaun Murphy interview: Former world snooker champion reveals his new lease of life

A sport he has been involved in for 32 years – he turned professional as a 15-year-old – but one which tests your mental strength, as much as your physical ability, to the extreme.

He arrives in Hull for Monday’s launch of the Duelbits Tour Championship – an invitational event for the top eight players on snooker’s one-year prize list – but only after ending a three-year spell without a ranking title success last month.

Finishing runner-up at the Welsh Open, before obliterating the field in winning the Players Championship in Wolverhampton, was just reward for hard graft on the table, plus life-changing surgery off it.

Murphy had a gastric sleeve operation last summer – surgery to reduce the size of your stomach, limiting the amount of food you can consume.

The results, physically, were obvious, even if it took a little while for results on the table followed suit.

“It’s very difficult when you make a change (in your game),” Murphy told The Yorkshire Post. “When you are a on a big cruise ship like P&O’s Iona, and the captain of the ship says ‘let’s turn around’. The turn isn’t immediate. When the cruise liner needs to change direction, it takes some time for it to happen.

“My game is like that. I started trying to fix my problems probably best part of a year ago, and it’s taken a good ten or 11 months for it to show signs of it working.

“There’s been a lot of moments of self-evaluation, really asking if I am on the right path. Do I have a career in snooker any more? Is it worth pursuing because you spend a lot of time away from your wife and children. Is it worth it?

“Probably at the UK Championship (Last November, in York) I saw some green shoots of improvement, and that was enough for me, to show I was on the right path.

“The form that I showed at the Players Championship in Wolverhampton, if you could bottle that we would all be a lot happier.”

Murphy lost in the first round at last year’s World Championship in April – a 10-8 defeat to Stephen Maguire – and admits he knew he had to do something drastic to lose weight.

He said: “I had the gastric sleeve in May last year, and it’s irreversible. There’s a lot of gastric surgery you can have and this is probably the most extreme. I wish I had done it years ago.

“I have battled with my weight all my life, and at the back end of last year’s World Championship my weight had ballooned to the heaviest I had ever been.

“It was definitely affecting my game, definitely affecting my health - and mental health - and I just thought ‘you know what, I have to do something about it’.

“I already had the surgery booked in, but saw an interview with Steve Davis at the Crucible. He was actually talking about another player, not about me, who was struggling with his weight.

“Steve made the comment a lot of players pay the price on the table, but they are not paying the price off the table.

“They are not in great shape, they are not physically fit, they are not healthy. They can’t reach over the table, they are not slim.

“These things aren’t as important in snooker as they are in gymnastics, but they are important.

“Steve made the point, if you look at players over the history of the game - the ones who have been successful - they all have that thing in common.

“I already had the surgery booked at that time, but remember thinking I have definitely done the right thing. It has completely changed my life.

“Don’t get me wrong I still like a Crunchie. But because of the surgery, instead of eating a bar of chocolate I can only manage a couple of pieces.”

Murphy was at his mercurial best to beat Ali Carter 10-4 in last month’s Player Championship final in Wolverhampton, ending his three-year title drought.

And he arrives in Hull as one of the favourites to pick up more silverware, and enjoying his new lease of life.

“I think that’s my own perspective as a man,” he explained. “I turned 40 last year, a father of two, and your perspective on things change as you get older.

“You start enjoying it more. I am an entertainer and do enjoy putting on a show for people. I do enjoy that element of the game. I think you play better with a smile on your face. Certainly for me, it helps me play better.

“I am very lucky to be a snooker player, very grateful for the opportunities presented to me, and just want to put a show on. Plus if you play like I did in Wolverhampton, and can’t enjoy that, then you are definitely in the wrong sport.

“I have played the odd exhibition in and around Hull, like Beverley.

“I haven’t played in the Tour Championship for a couple of years, things have been so bad.

“But I am delighted to be in it. I have seen the Bonus Arena, they have had the World Seniors there a couple of times, it looks a fabulous arena to play snooker in. I am looking forward to it.”

Murphy shocked the sporting world when he won the World Championship back in 2005.

Living in Rotherham at the time, Murphy was quickly adopted as an honorary Yorkshireman. And despite leaving the county - he now lives in Ireland - Murphy still has a lot of affection for the White Rose.

“It’s a funny one,” he said. “I am thrilled with the support, and thankful for it. Those two or three years I lived in Yorkshire in the mid-naughties have really stuck with me.

“I am not from Yorkshire, I wasn’t born or raised there, I lived there from 2004-08, but the county has adopted me, there’s no two ways about that.

“But I am very thankful for it, it’s a county which I love and the people have always been very generous towards me. Long may it continue.

“We were chatting about this recently, a little group of players, about where would be the best place to live now if you were starting your career again.

“Where would the optimum place to live as a snooker player? Yorkshire has to be up there on that list. It has such a great heritage, and history with snooker. It’s the home of snooker in history in Sheffield.

“The people are great, Yorkshire folk are down to earth, nothing phases them, and they always turn out to support our events really well.

“The UK Championship is loved in York, the World Championship is obviously very special.”

And it’s the Crucible where Murphy will return next month looking to bridge the 18-year gap since his world title success.

Murphy has been to three subsequent finals since 2005 (in 2009, 2015 and 2021), but a strange quirk of results are clear to see in the last eight years.

He has reached two finals, but in the other six visits has has fallen at the first or second round in the opening first week.

“It’s incredible,” he said. “I was talking to Stephen Henry, and he made the point, if you get beyond round one you always have a good run.

“But getting past round one is getting harder as the years go by. I have had some tough games, matches were I have tried my best and just lost.

“There’s been no embarrassment in it. I can assure you, there’s nobody who tries harder and comes more prepared for the World Championship than I do.

“Unlike maybe 20 years ago, the seeded player definitely had an easier run in the first round. They guys who come from qualifiers, I lost to Stephen Maguire in he first round last year.

“Imagine playing Maguire as a qualifier, how hard is that? The guy is one of the best players the game has seen, and you draw him in the first round.

“It’s been difficult, but the Crucible is one of those places where I feel if I can get in, I can get stuck into the event.

“Obviously it’s a long time since I won the tournament, but I haven’t forgotten how to win those longer matches. I have been to four finals - the most recent just a couple of years ago - so I do know my way around the longer format.

“If I can take the form I had in Wolverhampton with me to Sheffield, I might spend less time in the commentary box and more time on the table.”

Tickets for the Duelbits Tour Championship are still available – for details see www.wst.tv/tickets